Jane The Virgin Enlists Three Generations Of Villanueva Women To Make You Cry At Mateo's Christening

Jane The Virgin is a show that earns both halves of its "dramedy" portmanteau with every episode, but now that Mateo has actually been born...man, even a staunch non-parent like me would have to be a real monster not to be touched by the way new parenthood is affecting Jane -- and the pride that both Xiomara and Alba are experiencing on her behalf. We spent the whole first season getting on board with the idea that Jane was the greatest achievement they shared together, and that Jane really was the remarkable person Alba and Xiomara knew her to be -- a real special person, not what TV sometimes wants us to think is special and instead presents as a saintly drip. Now that Jane is a mother herself, she has new things in common with the women who raised her, and they have new chances to share their own wisdom with her. At the same time, Jane is also getting opportunities of the kind that neither Xiomara nor Alba had access to, and those must be reconciled with parenthood too.

To wit: early in the episode, Jane learns that she is one step closer to achieving her career goal: she's been accepted into a graduate writing program. Cue the celebratory boogie!

"Mommy got into grad school! Get it, get it! Work, work!"

Of course, there is a snag: Jane is missing a prerequisite, and the next time the course is being offered is immediately. Unwilling to leave Mateo at home for the few hours a week she's in class, Jane receives a special dispensation to bring him with her, which naturally ends in disaster/an homage to Eisenstein's Odessa steps scene.

Jane brings up the setback at the next meeting of her moms' group, breaking down crying as she does so, and as the leader assures all the moms present that everyone is different and that it's okay for some to want to stay home full-time with their kids and for others to want to work outside the home, Mateo reaches a new milestone: he blinks, and makes his mother very happy that he's on pace to become as big an achiever as she has been all her life.

But everyone can't take too long rejoicing at Mateo's physical development because it's time to work on his spiritual growth at his christening. When Xiomara was born, a young Alba, newly arrived in the U.S. from Venezuela and far from her family, was upset that her daughter would grow up without those traditions, so Alba's husband Mateo suggested that they start their own new traditions, the first of which was that Villanueva mothers would read a letter at their children's baptisms. Fortunately for Xiomara and Jane, Alba's letter is so perfect that they wouldn't have to write their own, and we get to see all three of them take turns reading it, in English and Spanish, at each of Xiomara's, and Jane's, and Mateo's christenings. Get your Kleenex ready.

Me:

Afterward, when Xiomara and Alba tell her again how proud they are of her for pursuing her dreams -- you know, like the letter exhorted her to do when she was a brand-new baby -- and that Alba, who obviously has talent as a writer herself, is particularly proud of Jane for taking advantage of opportunities that Alba didn't have, Jane confesses that she's withdrawn from the program, because Mateo blinked for the first time, and if she'd been in class she would have missed it. But Xiomara tells Jane he actually blinked a few days ago and Xiomara just didn't tell Jane because she knew she'd be upset. Jane's going to miss all kinds of firsts since she is going to have to live her own life: Xiomara missed Jane's first steps, but Alba saw them -- which was good since she had missed Xiomara's! It's valuable and important that Xiomara and Alba both reiterate what the mothers' group leader did: that becoming a mother doesn't mean you stop being a person with other accomplishments to pursue. And it's a testament to this show's perfect balance that a joke about Emma Stone in Aloha (when Rogelio mentions her as a possible stuntcast love interest for him on The Passions Of Santos: "I hear she can play any race!") can occur just a few scenes before Mateo's christening both squeezes the viewer's heart and affirms the importance of mothers' personal fulfillment. If Corinne Brinkerhoff has children, I'm sure she'll be very proud one day to tell them about having written this episode and given the world the gift of referring butt cheeks that have been skipped during a spray tan as "tail lights."