Continue reading the main
Season 2, Episode 1, “Chapter Twenty-Three”
During the first season of “Jane the Virgin,” one of the show’s biggest strengths was its deftness in combining a warm, heartfelt tone with the occasionally silly melodrama of a telenovela.
Any fears that the writers would mess with a winning formula were put to rest within the first seconds of Season 2 on Monday, in which our endearing narrator (Anthony Mendez) catches us up, in rapid-fire fashion, on everything that happened last season. The insemination, the breakups and rekindled romances, the plastic surgery ring and finally, the birth of Jane’s son — who immediately gets kidnapped.
Taken in all at once, it’s almost overwhelming, and things got even more convoluted in the first half of the season premiere on Monday. But what made “Chapter Twenty-Three” successful is that, true to form, it used over-the-top theatricality and twists to explore more relatable emotional terrain: namely, the anxieties that come with being a new mother.
Such sensitivity is the key to “Jane the Virgin”: Plots that could be fantastical train wrecks in the hands of lesser writers are actually strong, sensible and thoroughly entertaining here.
Well “sensible” is perhaps not exactly accurate — there’s plenty of ridiculousness propelling the series. But it’s a charming, self-aware ridiculousness that also serves the broader narrative.
Fortunately — and intelligently — the writers quickly deal with Mateo’s kidnapping instead of stretching it out over multiple episodes. It turns out he was kidnapped by Rose (Sin Rostro!) in a convoluted scheme to retrieve a special brooch that she thinks has been locked up in a police department evidence room.
Of course it isn’t really in the evidence room, a revelation that inspired plenty of funny theatrics from Jane and friends. Rather, Luisa still has it — at least she does until Jordan, her “new squeeze,” throws it out the window toward the pool. A mad dash ensues, and Jane finally finds the brooch. Through Nadine (Michael’s ex-partner/lover and a current associate of Sin Rostro), Rose gets her pin back while Jane gets her son back.
With the speedy resolution of the kidnapping, the writers avoided the overdone drama of a child-snatching subplot, instead using it to launch the next phase of the story. The brooch, we learn, is not a simple fashion accessory. It contains a drive that includes images of all the faces, new and old, of every criminal that Sin Rostro altered. For Michael, it represents a test of sorts — will he keep the brooch and use it to catch Sin Rostro, serving both his career prospects and his personal lust for revenge?
The larger point of the kidnapping caper, however, was to set up a simpler, more sympathetic plot: Jane’s struggle to adjust to motherhood.
Having your child kidnapped the day he’s born isn’t a common occurrence, of course, but what follows in the episode is. Jane is having a hard time getting Mateo to breast-feed, even with the help of everyone’s advice and a lactation class. She gets increasingly frustrated — the fact that Mateo lost weight doesn’t help — because she worries that his failure to latch means she might not be a good mother. Jane thinks her problem could be traumatic stress — you know, like the kind that comes from having your newborn kidnapped by a supervillain — and that her son will never be able to bond with her.
We’re not worried — Jane, one of the sweetest characters on television, is going to be a terrific mother. But the breast-feeding issue leads her to fret more broadly about her maternal instincts: Does she have them? Can she somehow get them? In a great surprise, it’s Rafael who figures out the problem, and, in turn, figures out how to feel a bit more at home within the close-knit family.
This being “Jane the Virgin,” the quieter story of domestic angst unfolded, in classic telenovela fashion, alongside a more garish one. “Chapter Twenty-Three” also saw the greater public, including the nuns who once fired her, finally discover Jane’s virgin birth, which leads them to put her on a holy pedestal. Jane is suddenly famous and thrust into the spotlight — spurring guilt in Rogelio, though he tries to use his expertise to help her — with people believing that she’s the second coming of the Virgin Mary. One woman claims Jane’s hug is the reason she herself was able to conceive eventually. (This was all bound to happen at some point, and I’m glad that the series is getting it out of the way now.)
The religious spectacle and maternal woes were reconciled in a perfect “Jane the Virgin” fashion, with Jane confronting the nun and promptly beginning to lactate in front of everyone. It is a moment of triumph, rather than embarrassment. In a season premiere full of melodramatic twists, the most memorable moment came from a mother’s humble victory. (Well, either that or the fact that Petra used a turkey baster to try and impregnate herself with Rafael’s semen.)
