How Are Everyone's Big Career Moves Affecting All Of Jane The Virgin's Relationships?

After the thrilling news last week that Jane had a bite on her novel about her and Michael's love story, there are real-world consequences to be dealt with, starting with how quickly she can extricate herself from her employment with Chloe. Meanwhile, Rogelio has to contain the fallout from the delivery of some behind-the-scenes footage from his reality show; Petra has to contain the bad press from the discovery of Scott's corpse on the beach; and a colleague of Michael's who's been promoted since his old friend's passing gets slapped...a bunch. How are everyone's relationships withstanding all the plot battering? Let's count them down from first to worst.

1. Rogelio & Alba

   What happens is: Xo is sent a DVD with behind-the-scenes footage from the making of The De La Vega Factor Factor -- specifically, from the day Xo spilled coffee on herself and flipped out, providing the show's producers with the (manipulable) video evidence for her Evil Ex characterization. Xo plays the footage for Rogelio, Alba, and Jane so that they can see producer Tripp talk Rogelio into letting him use the footage to make Xo look bad, despite his having claimed he knew nothing about it. Xo kicks Ro out of the house, but of course that's not the end of the story for him: he puts together Ropology Baskets, each specifically tailored for the Villanueva woman he's trying to win back over. He doesn't quite nail it when it comes to Alba's...

   

   ...but she forgives him pretty readily, and gives him some loving but candid advice: his tenure on Darci's reality show has turned him into an unbearable phony, and he needs to think about getting back to who he really is.

   

   Best of all, this conversation between two native Spanish speakers takes place entirely in Spanish, just as it would if they were real people!

2. Jane & Rafael

   Speaking of tough love: Rafael convinces Jane to take over the management of the Marbella lounge while she works on her novel rather than eat shit for Chloe, promising not to let her get stuck there. In return, Jane does Rafael the friendly favour of telling him that he's let himself become Petra's bitch, and that if he resumes his former role actually making decisions, he won't turn back into "greedy, shady, amoral Rafael" just because he cares about the business. Rafael agrees that she's right, and Petra is relieved to have him back -- and, best of all, makes him shave off his prison beard as he leaves prison Rafael behind. Good: two episodes of that mess was two too many.

3. Rogelio & Xiomara

   None of the Villanueva women has more right to be extremely pissed at Rogelio than Xiomara, the one who's been getting strangers' drinks dumped on her since his show's been on the air.

   

   But Xo does eventually let Rogelio apologize to her for his selfishness, seeming particularly moved when he tells her that his decision to go along with Tripp's scheme coincided with her moving in with Bruce. GET BACK TOGETHER YOU TWO OMG YOU ARE KILLING ME.

4. Jane & Dennis

   Our cold open flashback tells us the story of what Jane was going through one month after Michael's death: constant panic attacks. She sought therapy, and learned the coping mechanism, abbreviated "HALT," to try to help her figure out what cause might be triggering her at any given moment: that she might be "Hungry, Angry, Lonely," or "Tired." Three years later, Jane's panic attacks are behind her, until she runs into Michael's old police colleague Dennis at the Marbella, in the middle of investigating Scott's death.

   

   Over the course of the episode, Jane allows herself to remember the details underlying her anger toward Dennis: he pledged to check in on her periodically, which she enjoyed, since he could tell her stories about Michael that she didn't know. Then she caught him taking photos of his private journals, and kicked him out before he could explain that he was trying to clear Michael's name and prove that he hadn't been in league with Mutter, and that the reason he hadn't let her in on this mission from the start was that she was having panic attacks on a daily basis. Given how often people in Mutter's orbit change their faces, it's hard not to think this means Michael actually is going to be back eventually, but anyway: Jane and Dennis make peace, which probably means Dennis is going to be in the mix from now on whenever anyone else gets murdered in the vicinity.

5. Rafael & Abbey

   Abbey is still supportive and sweet, and both Rafael's exes approve of her.

   

   And the narrator still keeps forgetting she's around.

6. Petra & Chuck

   Dennis tells Petra, Rafael, and Chuck that Scott's body was found on the Fairwick side of the property line, to Petra's relief. Her first solution -- a tight lid on media -- doesn't keep the story from getting out, given that there are lots of disgruntled employees to leak about it. She then pivots to honouring Scott with a fountain and scholarship fund dedicated to his memory...but also goes above and beyond to track down footage The De La Vega Factor Factor shot at the Marbella. One cute scene in which Rogelio and Petra can't decipher each other's accents is later, Petra brings Chuck footage of a very drunk Scott telling a Marbella co-worker that he's going to go swimming, and his death is ruled an accident.

   

   But Petra's determination not to hurt Chuck's business convinces Chuck that she likes him likes him, and he invites her on a proper date, which she accepts. So why are they ranked so far down the list?

   

   WELL, it turns out there's more to the story of Scott's body that Petra hasn't told Chuck.

7. Jane & Chloe

   I'll keep this brief, because it is stupid: Jane is very excited to get an offer of $50,000 on her book, and since that's equivalent to a year's salary working for Chloe, she resigns. (Unsurprisingly, Chloe is a bitch about it.) Then Jane gets the paperwork from her publisher and learns that she doesn't get the whole payout up front: it's $5000 now, $5000 after she delivers her first draft, and the rest at publication. So we're supposed to believe not only that Type A Jane, Preparation Queen, wouldn't get all the details of her deal before quitting her job, but that a woman who's been working in book publishing for three years wouldn't know that this is how her deal would work?

   

   Whatever: Jane decides she needs to grovel to Chloe to get her job back, because even though she hated it, it looks better for her résumé to stay in the publishing field. But as we saw above, Rafael finally convinces her to take the lounge manager job, in the belief that she won't need a day job after her book comes out because then she'll be able to write full-time. Maaaaaaybe? I mean, lots of real authors also have day jobs, but Rafael's vote of confidence is nice.

   Oh yeah: the reason the Marbella needs a new lounge manager is that while Rafael has finally come around to Petra's view that Elvis is incompetent running the lounge, Rafael wants to keep him employed in maintenance -- away from kids, and cash -- because Rafael met him in prison. And also because Elvis knows something about Scott's death.

   

   "It would've been bad for us if they'd ruled it a murder," Elvis tells Rafael. "I know," says Rafael. Can't keep Shady Rafael down for long.

8. Rogelio & Darci

   Though Darci initially denies having sent Xo the show footage, when Rogelio pretends he's okay with it and ready to play along with whatever narrative she wants on The De La Factor Factor...

   

   ...she admits that she did -- and that the moment things went so badly wrong between them was, duh, when he reneged on having a baby with her. Rogelio calmly quits the show...

   

   ...and much less calmly learns, later the same day, that he's facing a $10 million breach of contract suit. It's a tough way for Rogelio to learn that it's more important to be with the right person than to find the right defrosted ovum, but it's probably not a lesson he's going to forget, either.