Jane the Virgin: 2x03 "Chapter Twenty-Five" Recap

So this was a pretty satisfying episode all in all. Let me explain why this episode is beautiful in all its conflict.

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After the normal recap from our narrator we go to a flashback of young Alba (Abuela) with Mateo (not the baby, the husband). Alba is just about to have the baptism of Xiomara but is saddened over the fact that they don't have anything from Venezuela to use. Mateo says they will make new traditions. We cut to now Abuela with teenage Xiomara who isn't sure about the whole baptism thing with Jane. Abuela shows her a speech she read at her baptism and says she should read it at Jane's. Now back to the present, Xiomara and Abuela are presenting the baptism clothing both Xo and Jane were baptized in, so Mateo can be baptized in them as well. It's all very emotional and sweet.

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We move on to the discussion of godparents. Lina is going to be the godmother, but that leaves the question of the godfather. Apparently when Rafael hugged Michael a few episodes ago he asked him to be the godfather (moments of emotion do not provide great moments of clarity). Jane calls Rafael asking if that's still a thing, but Rafael is in a meeting with his doctor trying to find out for himself that Petra is 100% pregnant. She is. Cue me:

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Preoccupied with the meeting, Rafael agrees to making Michael the godfather. We cut to a baby class with Jane and Mateo. The teacher talks about how babies blinking back at you help with language, or something. Jane of course needs Mateo to blink, which he isn't.

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We go to Xo, Ro, and Abuela back at the house where Rogelio is talking about "Make Love Week," the shark week of the telenovela world (which isn't a thing but would be funny if it was). Unfortunately, the show has a casting problem with the leading lady, and he must be on his way. On the way out, he meets Michael (stop visiting!). Rogelio decides to give Michael advice about winning Jane back by being a manly-man. Jane stops by, and instead of telling Jane why he's really there, he updates her about the Sin Rostro Switzerland mountain stuff because that's manly. 

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Inside, Jane gets a letter saying she got into grad school. She of course is very excited. In the parking lot of the church, Jane excitedly relays her plans to Rafael, but he's distracted because of Petra. Upon discovering Michael is at the rehearsal of the baptism, he gets upset, and Jane asks what's going on. He tells her about Petra. Cue Jane:

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Jane is upset during the rehearsal, which is obvious to Michael. He's about to ask what's wrong, but he remembers the manly-man bravado Rogelio told him to put on and doesn't. At the house Jane tells everyone about the Petra situation, but then gets a call from the graduate program saying she is missing one prerequisite, World Lit. They offer the class, but she would have to be separated from Mateo.

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We cut to Rogelio talking to the show's head writer about who they are going to recast. He suggests different stars, going so far as the younger ones (Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez are a bit young, don't you think Rogelio?) But the show knows someone who has great chemistry with him, Luciana, his ex wife. When he tells Xiomara about this, she says maybe it's time for him to confront his problems and get over her. Rogelio says he should clean out the storage unit of her stuff. Because he literally has a storage unit filled with her crap.

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Jane goes to Professor Blake (guy at the grad program) to ask if she could take Mateo to the World Lit class. After some persuading, he allows it. But then we cut to Luisa, who if you recall, has been kidnapped. Her kidnappers speak German, which she knows a little of and is able to decipher the fact that they're debating killing her. Cue Luisa:

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Back to Jane, she is attending her first class in World Lit, and of course Mateo gets fussy. It's a bit disturbing, but what's even more disturbing is when Jane accidentally knocks over the stroller and it goes rolling down the stairs, barely missing the professor. (Being the second oldest out of six I am well acquainted with the babies screaming in public thing, so I got a kick out this entire bit.) Unfortunately, Professor Blake tells Jane that taking Mateo to class will no longer work. So now Jane has a choice.

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Back in Luciana's storage unit, Rogelio finds a diary he wrote about his feelings for Luciana. There are some very flawed metaphors in his writing, but Rogelio thinks it's genius. After some talking, Rogelio decides to do the screen test with Luciana and Xo tells him he should burn the diary, bad writing and all.

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At the hotel, Jane runs into Michael and he tells her about his investigation with the Sin Rostro Switzerland mountains. Jane tells him about the grad school incident, but his manly-man stuff gets in the way, confusing Jane. We then go to a meeting between Rafael, Jane, and Petra. Petra lays out their options. Abortion, Petra finding a handsome Russian man and leaving, or co-parenting. Petra leaves it up to them to decide because she did steal the sperm. You know, after everything Petra's done, at least she's not fighting them on the fact that she made a mistake.

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Jane wants no part of the decision because she believes she's not part of Petra's life, but if she chooses Rafael, she technically would be. And thus more to weigh in on the whole love triangle. I swear, if this is like the deciding factor for Jane, I'm going to reach through the TV screen and strangle Petra with my own bare hands.

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When Jane tells the family about the decision Petra put into place, they each discuss what should happen. There's a rather funny "future" Thanksgiving scene where Petra, her baby, and her mother are there. And Petra brought along her own turkey baster. Oh, joy.

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There's another "future" scene with an author Jane and a teenage Mateo who has found out about the existence of his half brother and is moving in with him. Back to the present, Jane decides to concentrate on her decision about leaving Mateo for the class. While she does, Michael is busy with the Switzerland-wine-Sin-Rostro-stuff. Apparently there was a woman there named Denise who could have been Rose. I don't know. Investigation, blah-blah. I don't know which is more boring, the hotel stuff or investigation stuff.

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Michael meets up with Rogelio after a text saying he has an emergency. Rogelio is in the midst of getting a spray tan when he tells Michael about the insemination of Petra, which he missed because he was off being manly-man.

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Back at the baby class, Jane bursts into tears and confides in the other mothers about her situation. The grad school situation, not the Petra-inseminated-herself-with-my-potential-significant-other's-sperm situation. It's a great scene, because the mothers really do understand, and they want to help her make her decision. Ultimately though, it's decided that neither option is perfect, and neither option is bad, it's just which choice is best for the mother.

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We cut to Rogelio about to do a screen test with Luciana, and when things get heated, Xiomara storms off. But, Xo is determined to not think about it on the day of Mateo's baptism. Xiomara gives Jane the speech that Abuela read her at her baptism, and that she read at Jane's. There's another beautiful scene where after the baptism, there are flashbacks of all three women reading the speech aloud. Tears. Oh, the tears.

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Jane later confides in both Xo and Abuela that she's decided to withdraw from grad school because she doesn't want to miss anything from Mateo. But after Xo and Abuela each confess in missing different steps in their children's life, they tell her she shouldn't worry about missing things because they will be there to catch her up.

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Rafael is then seen trying to make a call to Luisa, who is still kidnapped. We cut to Luisa who is about to escape, when her kidnappers wake and force her back down, but gently. Because of the way they handle her Luisa suspects Rose is the one who kidnapped her, which she thinks is a bit romantic, but I think is a bit psychotic.

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Back in Miami, Jane calls Professor Blake asking for her slot back, many, many times. Oh, Jane. Meanwhile, an after baptism party is going on back at the house. Xiomara gets angry with Rogelio about the whole Luciana thing and storms off yet again. But then we cut to Michael leaving, but before he does he says he left a present for Jane in her room. Rogelio talks to Jane about Michael and confesses about the manly-man bravado he convinced him to put on. Jane catches Michael on the way out and talks to him about it, but he tells her just to look in her room. The present is then discovered to be a diary he wrote the past few days about his feelings on the various situations and what he thinks she should do. Cool and stuff, and I know the writers are leaning towards Michael, but I will go down with my ship!

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To further prove my ship is sinking, there's a conversation between Rafael and Jane, and they both decide to let Petra stay and raise the baby together. Inside, Rogelio and Xiomara discuss their problems, and Rogelio tells her they kicked Luciana out of the show. We then flash-forward to Rafael allowing Petra to stay. When he leaves, she does a happy dance. Her happiness is my poison.

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We then cut to Michael getting in contact with the Switzerland wine people. He brings up the name Denise and they get very serious. The wife says that Denise brought a lot of trouble upon their village, and the only information she will give him is a name: Heidi VonOcher. Great. Cool. Mysterious.

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We cut to Luisa and the kidnappers, and she's gotten very fussy now that she's discovered Rose kidnapped her. But we have subtitles, and Luisa doesn't. Her limited German does not allow her to understand that they kidnapped her hoping Rose would notice. They then video themselves beating Luisa with a bat, and I guess send it to Rose. Not pleasant.

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While Jane is with Rafael at the hotel, she gets a call back from Professor Blake saying he has reinstated her spot at the grad program. Everything is so happy and great, and then Rafael kisses Jane! So I'm like:

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But Petra takes a picture.

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And I don't think Jane particularly wanted Rafael to kiss her.

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So I'm guessing this has put them back a step.

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Rogelio has problems too, problems I'm not as invested in, but problems nonetheless. He's filming a scene where he's hanging from a cliff, when Luciana shows up and tells him if they don't hire her, she will release a video of him. We aren't shown the contents of the video, but that's what makes a cliffhanger isn't it? And the fact that Rogelio is literally hanging from a cliff.

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What did you think of the show this week? Can you hold on much longer? Because I can't.