Does Any Show Portray The Minefields Of Motherhood Better Than Jane The Virgin?

Is there literally anything Rogelio won't brag about?

The making of the EPK for an upcoming crossover of Tiago and Fernando e Isabel suggests...

...that there is not.

What will it mean for Jane's academic career if Donaldson actually starts supporting her?

When the calls start rolling in from would-be cheaters looking to engage Jane's essay-writing services -- and one from Donaldson, her advisor -- Jane (obviously) gets an urgent call to meet with both Donaldson and Blake, the Dean. Though Jane is frantic at the damage this inexplicable incident has caused her reputation, she isn't so far gone that she can't try to make the professors see reason: "I mean, even if I did write papers for money -- which, again, I don't -- would I ever advertise in the school paper?" "She's right, Richard," Donaldson comments. "Why would she do this? She's not stupid." Jane:

This is one of the kindest things Donaldson has ever said about Jane, and changes the terms of the meeting instantly.

Though it doesn't, on its own, save Jane from Blake's disdain. Even though Jane pledges to solve the mystery of how the fraudulent ad got into the paper, Blake tells her he's not sure he wants her back as a TA next year: "Drama just seems to follow you." It's not that it isn't true -- even I, who am far more charitable than he, have criticized Jane on what a distracted student she actually is, and duh, there's also the thing where if it weren't true, we wouldn't be watching the show, because it wouldn't exist. But surely nothing in Jane's record or performance to date suggests that she's a bad TA or that she doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt on this charge. And while Jane may not get a lot of backup from the unmarried and childless Donaldson with regard to her obligations with the wedding or Mateo, one would think that a feminist professor might potentially take exception to Blake's use of the very gendered term "drama" to describe the misunderstandings and calamities Jane has had to deal with this year. Would Blake complain about the "drama" a male student brought to the department? Probably not.

Anyway, how this week's events affect Jane's relationship with Donaldson in the long term remain to be seen. For now, we know Donaldson thinks Jane is "not stupid." It might be something to build on.

Can we agree The CW needs to consider working more codpieces into its programming?

Reign was a good start. This latest Jane is really picking up the...uh...mantle?

But I want to see at least 400% codpiece content in Season 2 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Oh no, is Rafael really going to let Derek blackmail him into selling Derek the Fairwick for $1???

Jk, don't care.

If I'm really starting to buy Michael and Jane as a couple, that means he's for sure getting killed in the season finale, right?

These two are so cute.

I don't know any spoilers, but the cuter they get, the more I assume he's doomed.

We all agree that Nerdy Rogelio is the foxiest Rogelio, right?

Sure, he's only wearing the glasses to make the character convincing.

But that plus the slightly-less-perfect-than-usual hair...it's really working for me.

Does any show portray the minefields of motherhood better than this one?

The episode builds to a brunch Petra has decided to throw for what is both her and Jane's first Mother's Day -- so that, she says, they can make it easier on Rafael so that he doesn't have to split his time between his two sets of children and their respective mothers. Petra doesn't know the Villanuevas have their own Mother's Day tradition dating back to Jane's first, when she was a baby: they put on their pyjamas, watch a novela marathon, and eat ice cream all day. But one imagines that even if the Villanuevas didn't already have plans, Xo and Alba would respond this way...

...to Petra's invitation to a snooty brunch where they will almost certainly be expected to wear bras. And Jane clearly doesn't particularly want to go either, but she is a good person, her relationship with Petra is fragile, and she can appreciate that friendly gestures are not generally Petra's strong suit: if Jane can meet Petra where she is, the chances that they will be able to develop a real friendship, over time (...probably a lot of time) will be greater.

But there are a lot of challenges for both Jane and Petra as Mother's Day approaches, starting with Jane having to tell Petra, as gently as she can, that she thinks Anezka is the culprit who placed the essay-writing ad. And before she can even get to that, there is casual small talk that gets hostile very fast. Jane stops by just as Petra's received the proposed four-course brunch menu from her caterer. "I'm assuming each course lasts three minutes and has lots of Cheerios or Mateo's not going to make it," jokes Jane. "I didn't realize I had to prepare something special for Mateo," says Petra coldly, immediately making a note. Jane says she's just kidding -- all she meant was that he won't sit through four course. "Well, my nannies will be there if he gets fussy," says Petra, unconcerned. "I mean, well, it is Mother's Day, so I do want to be with him," says Jane lightly. "I wasn't suggesting you don't want to be with him," snaps Petra.

Jane quickly says that the menu is great and changes the subject to the ad, and the fact that Jane's very polite and very reluctant accusation of Anezka's professional sabotage is a less dangerous topic for Petra and Jane to discuss says so much about what a sensitive and potentially painful subject motherhood is -- and one this show has handled so well all along, starting with its complex portrait of Jane and Xo's relationship; going through Jane's decision to carry her accidental pregnancy to term and raise the resulting baby; on through Jane's guilt and self-recrimination over her decision to wean Mateo from nursing in his first year and to Petra's struggle with postpartum depression. But now that Jane and Petra are, more than ever, peers in their motherhood -- both raising babies who all have the same father -- they can't have a conversation about the contrast between their respective parenting choices and styles without each feeling the other is judging her.

However, though Petra sometimes seems as though she's comparing herself unfavourably to Jane -- calling her "perfect" is not necessarily a compliment -- Jane is careful to say that Petra's choices are different, not wrong. Though Anezka hears Jane on the phone with Alba and, when Petra confronts her about the ad, reports that Jane said Petra's a bad mother, that's not what Jane said: Jane described Petra as "not a hands-on mom" -- something Petra would probably cheerfully own if anyone else said it, given how easily she rejected Rafael's suggestion, in a recent episode, that she change a diaper. Petra's postpartum therapy has helped her accept herself as a mother who's not really that maternal, and one imagines she could handle anyone else saying the same about her -- anyone, that is, other than her daughters' half-brother's mom.

Petra's touchiness is not aided at the brunch when Rogelio calls everyone to the TV to share his surprise: he's put together a video tribute to Jane as a mom in which everyone present -- other than Petra and Anezka, of course -- showers Jane with praise for her intelligence, her supportiveness, her courage, and her love. By the end, everyone is a puddle...

...except Petra. "It's her Mother's Day too," the narrator comments, and since not even Rafael's not going to jump into the silence and speak up for her (which is kind of shitty of him, by the way), Anezka proposes a toast.

Anezka has a different perspective on what it means to head a family because she didn't have one -- and, having met Magda, even just once, Anezka could easily imagine that Petra's early life outside the orphanage wasn't necessarily much happier. Depending on your circumstances, "love" might not be an abstract concept like the one described in Rogelio's video; Anezka can respect that Petra is loving Elsa and Anna in her way by trying to keep them from ever knowing the deprivation their aunt and mother did. The arrival of a secret twin is, of course, a soap opera staple and this show has already milked it for its "mistaken identity" plot potential (with more to come, now that we know by the end of this week's episode that Anezka has learned to copy Petra's speaking voice), but this is some real stuff, and I admire that even as it doesn't hesitate to let Petra's prickliness cause friction with other characters, particularly Jane, the show also respects Petra's choices and takes into account the experiences that have shaped her. It would be so easy to turn her into a fairy tale witch now that she is the mother to two fairy tale-named daughters. But she really does love Anna and Elsa; that just looks different on her than it does on Jane, and I love the show for letting both the new moms be right in their own different ways.

What was the original question? Oh, right: Call The Midwife offers a more panoptical take on the variety of ways maternity is pure hell. But for a contemporary take, there isn't a show that can touch Jane on this score. So when Petra staunchly defends Anezka against Jane's accusations about the ad right up to the point where a guilt-ridden Anezka, wheeled out to Petra and Jane after her stress-induced epileptic seizure, confesses, this viewer can't help being heartbroken for Petra that she's brought Jane's disapprobation upon herself again. I wish I thought Jane and Petra could get over their fight as fast as Jane and Xo did theirs, but I'm not optimistic.

Is there anything better than a special occasion where you're not expected to do anything at all?

No. This past December, we stayed right here, six time zones away from the rest of our families, for what was known all over my social media feeds as #LazyChristmas. Between naps, we stayed in bed watching movies and eating snacks. I guess I showered, but I don't have a clear recollection about that. It was the best. The traditional Villanueva Mother's Day might only last a day as opposed to the whole week over Christmas and New Year's that we got...

...but it still looks like heaven. Never mind Petra's bald-faced lies about Anezka's ad: she also has a lot of work to do to get Jane to forgive her for delaying by hours this extremely important TV and pyjama festival.