Fine: Rafael Is Swell

When Jane The Virgin premiered, I loved almost everything about it. But Rafael seemed like he might be a problem. Rafael was, even for a soap, an idealized character that was hard to believe: cute, rich, kind, extremely eager to have a baby with a girl he barely knew (but whom he'd made out with years earlier) and to do so under whatever circumstances she saw fit -- and, I mean, partly that's because it was his own sister's idiotic mistake that led to said girl's accidental insemination with his, uh, "work product," but still. On top of all that he's a cancer survivor? Come on, show, leave some perfect for the other dudes! I...also thought that Justin Baldoni, who plays Rafael, couldn't really act, which didn't help. But this week's episode has broken down my defenses. Fine, Rafael: you can stay.

Do I think Baldoni has been sneaking in acting lessons? No. He's still not super-great. But as the season has progressed, I've gotten more sympathetic position to the challenging position he's in...in terms of not really being that challenged in the role. Crazy shit is swirling around Rafael most of the time. His now-estranged wife is the former fiancée of his worst business rival. His mother-in-law at some point got half her face melted off. And, oh yeah, his alcoholic sister inseminated a near-stranger with his last sample of sperm AND thus endangered his business, since he's the one who underwrote her malpractice insurance (when no one else would, because: alcoholic). There's no point trying to make him match that heightened level of insanity: someone has to be the straight man, and it might as well be a straight man.

So since he couldn't be wacky, Rafael went with sincere, and it really worked! He made himself vulnerable to Jane and convinced her that she should take a risk, dumping the safe choice of Michael and giving her a pretty spectacular second first kiss.

He went along with Jane's idea for a casual date of buying a million snacks and talking.

("You had the night!" - Monica Geller.)

And though the latest episode has him learning that Jane's a virgin and not taking it as coolly as he might...

...and then also making the rookie mistake of taking an OBVIOUSLY DRUGGED BEVERAGE from a stranger in a bar...

...so that she can arrange for Jane to find them in a fraudulently compromising position...

...Rafael is fortunate in that Jane is so kind she even forgives the prostitute and ALSO drops the suit against Luisa -- and the fact that Rafael chivalrously holds back the fact that said lawsuit could have ruined him until after Jane decides on her own (with an assist from the apparently undocumented Alba) not to pursue it really does show that he's a more noble person than I would have thought two months ago. And now?

I see the same thing Xo does. But unlike her, I LOVE IT. Congratulations on getting off my meh list, Rafael. Few ever have.