Jane the Virgin Review: "Chapter Forty Four" and Some Thoughts on Season 2

"When I came here, I had dreams. But I could never have dreamed this moment." ~ Alba

There's a reason I never write reviews for Jane the Virgin, despite having ranked it as the best show of 2015. I could never do all of the show's complex plots, hilarious jokes, and amazing characters justice. Tonight's episode, and all of season two in general, was so great, that I felt the need to at least give it a shot. So, as the show's narrator would say, "Let's begin..."

Jane the Virgin, is a telenovela (as well as a satire of telenovelas), and telenovelas are built on twists. Boy did "Chapter Forty Four" have plenty of big ones. Some of the twists weren't hard to see coming. The show had spent many episodes foreshadowing that Anezka would swap places with Petra, for example, but making Petra live in what is essentially a waking coma is the cruelest thing a character has done on the show so far. Leave it to the writers to take the episode's most horrible situation and mine it for a great joke like, "#Petrafied." Similarly, it wasn't hard to see that something bad was going to happen to Michael, given how perfectly things had been going for him and Jane lately. The idea that Michael might die, had been floating around the internet lately, but I'm glad the show settled for just having him get shot. Sure, there's a chance that he could die early in season 3, but I think that would be too dark for a comedy like Jane the Virgin.

That Michael was shot by his partner, Susanna, wasn't much of a surprise either. Her sudden appearance and consistently suspicious behavior this season, made it pretty clear that she wasn't who she was pretending to be. Early on in the season, I suspected that Susanna might be Rose (due to the plastic surgery plot, Rose could have looked like anything), but after "Rose" was killed following an altercation with "Susanna", I had completely been duped into believing Rose was dead. The writers deserve a lot of credit for playing that twist just right.

These characters are very real people with very real feelings, longings, and beliefs. That's why the show never becomes overwhelmed by the insane situations the characters constantly find themselves in. The twists are a fun part of the show, but Jane the Virgin is at its best in the quiet moments. Alba's words to Jane (which I quoted above) when she was helping Jane get ready for her wedding were the perfect emotional touch to summarize everything the Villanueva women have been through to reach this point in their lives. As nice as the wedding ended up being , especially Michael learning to say his vows in Spanish for Jane, the scene where Michael and Jane went over their pre-wedding list, was a much better example of their love for each other. Jane the Virgin shows how life is really about the small moments that are happening around the big events of our lives. These characters are built by the small moments and choices that make up their lives, be it the Villanueva women sharing one last laugh before Jane gets married, or Rafael choosing to stay silent about his feelings for Jane, because he loves her too much to ruin her wedding. 

That Jane the Virgin can capture so many fantastic small moments, while still throwing in the big twists that are a staple of its genre, is impressive. This season has been further proof that Jennie Urman has created some of televisions most affecting characters, and of just how much fun she has putting them in all kinds of crazy situations. This is the best show on television, and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next season. 

Other thoughts on "Chapter Forty Four" and Season 2 in general:

• It's nice to see that the show is not backing away from the fact that Rafael loves Jane, or that Xiomara and Rogelio love each other, despite the fact that none of those relationships can realistically happen at this point in the show. 
• Speaking of Xiomara, her pregnancy worries me more than any other cliffhanger from the finale. If she really is pregnant with Esteban's child, that's a weird and dangerous direction to take the show in. My guess is it's somehow Rogelio's child. 
• The finale didn't use the narrator as much or as well as I would have liked, but on the whole, the second season did an excellent job of making the narrator one o f the most fun parts of the show. 
• Jane's new idea for her thesis was a really great way to set up the education/career part of Jane's life for season 3. 
• With a cast this big, it's hard to find moments for every character, but this episode managed to have something for each character to do. Mateo even got a couple of scenes to shine in. 
• My review didn't talk much about Rogelio, but throughout the course of the second season, he became the driving comedic force on the show (besides the narrator of course), and a great source for unexpected emotional moments. 
• Season two did a great job of transitioning Jane into motherhood. The best parts of the season were focused around how parenthood made characters grow and change. Jane's struggles to be a great mother and follow her dreams became the series best source of conflict and motivation. 
• Another season has passed and the writers have found yet another way to keep Jane a virgin. Michael is either dead or very seriously injured, so Jane probably won't be having sex with her husband for a little while. I can't image Jane making it all the way through season three with her virginity still in tact though. 

New Girl Season Five Mini-Review

Season three was a low-point in the run of New Girl. It started with Schmidt cheating on Cece (effectively ruining the show's best relationship, at least for a while), and by the midway point it had sucked all of the joy and charm out of the Nick and Jess relationship. When the two relationships that make up the main plot of your show come to an end, it's hard to come back from. Personally, I didn't think that New Girl could ever recover from its many missteps, but after last night's Season five finale, I have been won back over by the show.

It feels like New Girl has clawed its way back into the conversation as one of TV's funnier sitcoms. That's because the writers finally understand that the best way to get laughs out of their cast is to just let them loose to be as weird as possible. It's not just the jokes that are better though, the show finally seems like it is ready to tell coherent stories with these characters again. Last season, New Girl was consistently funny, but there was never much of a story to support the jokes. This season, the writers have not only made Schmidt and Cece's relationship a joy to watch, they have show that they know what mistakes they made with Nick and Jess the first time around, and have given Winston (the true star of the show) a great romantic counterpart in the form of Aly (played perfectly by Nasim Pedrad). It feels like New Girl is finally taking the time to craft meaningful stories for all of its characters, and that's the show I want to watch.

Some highlights from last night's two part finale:

• The entire plot about the lengths Schmidt goes to to get Cece's mom to come to the wedding was charming, and highlighted just how genuine that relationship has become.
• Winston finding out that Aly loves him, was a nice win for a character who gets so few. 
• Jess telling Nick to value himself, wasn't just one of the most touching moments of the episode, it was also a clear indication that the show's writers know that treating Nick like a screw-up is what ruined that relationship the first time around.
• While there were lots of hijinks along the way, Schmidt and Cece's wedding was a beautiful moment for the show. 
• Winston's honeymoon prank on Schmidt and Cece, was by far his most effective prank to date. 

The Flash Review: "The Runaway Dinosaur"

Season two of The Flash hasn't been the same great show that it was during its first season. The main story arc of the season is basically a weak carbon copy of last season's main plot, the villain is one of the least interesting characters on the show, and the tone for the second half of the season has been too dark and brooding for a show that thrives off of letting its characters have fun with all of the surreal elements of their world. That's why last night's "The Runaway Dinosaur," directed by acclaimed independent film director and frequent comic book writer Kevin Smith, was such a pleasant surprise.

When The Flash is performing at its best, it does three things very well: creates awe-inspiring visuals, tells fun and inventive stories that balance the dark and light elements inherent to the show, and allows the characters to grow emotionally. Last night's episode was the first time the show has pulled off that hat trick this season. It did so by balancing an often comical storyline about the Star Labs gang fighting an old enemy who has been zombified, with an emotional gut-punch of a story about Barry learning to get over his choice not to save his mom, so that he could continue to be The Flash.

The elements of the episode worked together in a way that the show desperately needed this season. The scene where Iris is reaching out to Barry in The Speed Force, for example, took full advantage of the sow's best visual effects work, pushed forward the Iris/Barry storyline better than any other episode in the show's history, and was the emotional punctuation point that both of the episodes main stories needed. It was one of the show's most iconic moments, and it was a simple way to tie together so many elements that make the show great.

On the Star Labs side of things, Iris was allowed to be a star, and that was a welcome change. The show has often struggled with figuring out how to use Iris and that is in large part due to how long she was kept out of the loop on The Flash's identity. In this episode, she not only got to be a witty "straight man" to Cisco's goofball, but she became the main hero, who constantly put herself in harms way to protect others. Iris a a good character when used like this, and I hope the show takes note of just how much she grounded the non-Barry part of the episode.

Barry's half of the episode too on the much darker themes of Barry having to overcome his mother's death, and his role in not preventing it. A few episodes back Barry gave up his speed to save his adoptive brother, and his need to gain his speed back became a nice visualization for Barry's struggle to accept that his mother is dead. Grant Gustin is one of the best actors on TV at expressing emotion. The season one finale where Barry held his dying mother in his arms, featured Gustin's acting skills on full display, and the moment in last night's episode where Barry read "The Runaway Dinosaur" book with his mother (or The Speed Force's representation of his mother), was almost as heartbreaking. Grand Gustin is at his best as an actor when the material he is given allows him to express his character's emotions, and the difference between last night's emotionally raw Barry compared to the closed off brooding Barry of recent episodes, is astounding. Here's hoping that with Barry's personal epiphany, comes a return to form for the show that was once great, and now often settles for being just okay.