Jane The Virgin's Motherhood Tests A Lifelong Friendship

Given how much of the latest Jane The Virgin revolved around progress in the Sin Rostro case I don't care about (though I will briefly suspend my un-caring to ask why Michael isn't more suspicious that his new partner Susanna might be Rose with a new face) and Jane's ongoing stress over choosing between her two relatively unworthy suitors (I mean, they're fine, but she's better), this episode might have been a real slog. Fortunately for me and my specific interests, the episode's A-plot delivers in a big way by exploring something real, and really emotional: Jane's friendship with Lina, and the ways Jane's new motherhood is already starting to test it. This is a comedy, so our girls pull through, but for a second that baby was about to be in some real trouble from me.

As a recurring character as opposed to a full-timer, Lina has sometimes felt, to me, a little underwritten, which is a real pity given what we've seen Diane Guerrero do on Orange Is The New Black. But she gets a big showcase this week starting with the scene-setting flashback that opens the episode, as little Jane and little Lina head into a school talent show song and dance performance with a shocking twist.

...although at least one adult audience member is into it.

Jane ruins her perfect behaviour record at school, but (as the narrator tells us) gains "a lifelong bestie." In terms of the show, a friend like Lina is a good tonic for Jane's moral rectitude -- not to say that Lina is a degenerate, but given the premise of the show, it feels important that someone other than Xiomara is carrying a sex-positive banner. For instance, here's Lina winning an exchange with the leader of Jane's moms' fitness class.

But the trouble begins when Mateo's typical infant puling keeps rudely interrupting Lina's attempts to tell Jane about her new crush, and continues as Lina brings up the fabulous party she'd promised at her baby shower she would throw for Lina's twenty-fifth birthday, and which Mateo's relentless demands have completely driven from Jane's mind. I've only ever been on one side of this relationship: can you tell? Of course I'm kidding about Mateo, and about Jane, but as a classic Type A, Jane can neither forgive herself for having given precedence to the slightly more urgent biological needs of the human she has to keep alive, nor admit to Lina that said human and his needs caused her to forget. Hastily thrown-together party it is!

It's a credit to how good this show is that I would have both accepted it and been perfectly satisfied if Jane's emergency party planning skills had turned out to be more than equal to the task, and the upshot of this storyline was both a happy birthday girl and proof that Jane is good at just about everything she tries. But letting Jane let Lina down is good too, from a story perspective, in that it lets even this frequently absurdly heightened show portray their clash in a way that feels authentic and relatable.

In the episode's flashback to the shower where Jane promised to reciprocate with Lina's birthday party, Flashback Lina waves her off: "Please, the baby will be little. My sisters have kids; I know the drill! You're going to kind of disappear on me." But Flashback Jane insists: "I am not going to disappear on you!" And Flashback Jane, still merely pregnant as opposed to a mother, surely believes that's true, because she doesn't know better. But present-day Mom Jane has, unwittingly, had to let some things fall by the wayside; being a good, attentive friend to Lina is one of them.

When no one can come to Lina's party at the last minute and a papier-maché Matterhorn gets moved into what was supposed to have been the location for Lina's party at the Marbella (#SinRostroCaseIDontCareAbout), Jane has to confess the whole situation, and Lina is hurt -- far more hurt than she would have been if Jane had listened to her at the shower and let Lina let her off the hook. But Jane holds herself to an impossibly high standard, and part of her experience of motherhood so far -- as with her attempt to enroll Mateo in grad school with her in the last episode -- has been re-learning the lesson that her own personal version of perfection is going to have to change. Can Mother Jane throw Lina the perfect Great Gatsby-themed surprise birthday party of her dreams at all, never mind on three days' notice? She sure can't. But she can find Lina at the club where her make-up birthday party has been assembled ad hoc, make her a sincere apology, start throwing back shots because she's brought all the equipment she needs to pump and dump...

...and reprise her old "Hot In Herre" routine in the middle of a dance circle, even if it makes her pee a little. In an episode packed with giant plot advancements -- the payoff of last week's Rogelio cliffhanger (he was a Scientologist!!!) and resolution of Luciana's extortion attempt via Xiomara-assisted bunnynapping; Luisa's release by her abductors and hookup with Rose's ex Heidi; Michael confessing his complicity in Nadine's escape and Jane's Best. Kiss. Ever. with Michael deciding the love triangle for her, one or probably both of which Rafael overheard on Chekhov's baby monitor -- the one that moved me the most is Jane and Lina's affirmation that when it comes to their friendship, for once a baby hasn't ruined everything.