Jane The Virgin's Never Talked To Her Fiancé About Caring For Her Child?

No discussion of Michael's role in Mateo's life has taken place before now?

When Jane told off Xo in the last episode, she might have anticipated some of the fallout we're seeing this week: tense silences around the suite; attempts by Michael and Alba to get the combatants to talk. What she evidently did not expect is that Xo would be so hurt by being called a "cautionary tale" that she would punish Jane by withdrawing herself from the pool of available (free) child care providers -- and anyway, would Jane really want someone to look after Mateo who was "so immature and irresponsible"? Fortunately, Michael is present for this battle and volunteers to look after Mateo in Xo's stead, which is how we learn that Michael wasn't already on Jane's somewhat terrifying child care schedule -- on which, of course, Rogelio is lavender.

How is that possible? Jane is eminently organized in every aspect of her life; given the troubles she and Rafael have had in their relationship as it has gone back and forth from romantic to not and back again, she's been especially careful about transparency and fairness in their custodial arrangements. Once Rafael had gotten over the awkwardness around her engagement to Michael, it seems like sitting down with both Rafael and Michael and discussing everyone's hopes and expectations for how things were going to work would be the first thing she'd do -- because, as Michael points out, he's not "babysitting" if he's looking after a child who's about to become his stepson. Basically: this is a long way to go to set up a situation in which Mateo's first word is "daddy," and the person he says it to is Michael instead of Rafael. (Besides which, if Michael has been one-on-one with Mateo few enough times that he's not on the calendar, why would Mateo call him that?)

Did Magda choose her daughters' names before or after she decided which one she was going to keep?

After surprising Petra at the end of the last episode, Petra's twin sister has a lot of exposition to get through: her name is Anezka; she grew up in an orphanage; she didn't know Petra existed until she saw her photo in a magazine; Petra never knew about her, either. The two go together to confront Magda about the matter, and surprise, Magda is unrepentant. She couldn't afford one baby, never mind two, so she decided to keep the prettier one -- who also happened to be the one who wasn't shaking all the time. (Anezka says she has epilepsy.) But did Magda name them before she got a sense of their personalities, or was she just very prescient? Anezka is not just the name of a Bohemian saint; it's also a Czech variant on Agnes, meaning lamb of god -- pure, virginal. Petra means rock -- and indeed, for most of their lives, Petra was Magda's rock as she worked her various schemes and scams. As her time at the Marbella goes on, Anezka takes a lot of uncertain steps: she steals wallets from guests at the pool; when the owner of another hotel chain mistakes her for Petra and goes in for a hug, she claws at her face and jeopardizes a business deal. Despite the way she lashes out in fear, Anezka the little lamb could use the protection of a strong and loving shepherd.

And uh oh, she apparently thinks she's found one.

But...is there more to Anezka's story than she's said?

Since Magda's involved (and...it's a soap opera), it's hard not to assume Anezka may not be telling Petra the whole truth and that her skittish lamb tendencies are just an act. Is it possible the real reason she's suddenly at the Marbella is that Magda summoned her from wherever she'd placed her to be raised and trained by other grifters and dispatched her to Miami to avenge Magda by messing up Petra's life?

Does Donaldson have a point about Jane's novel?

I have such complicated feelings about Professor Donaldson. I've mostly given this bitter, frumpy caricature of a feminist a pass because Jane The Virgin is indubitably a feminist show, but the way she gets all shrieky about Rogelio's condescending assurances that she might still get married someday and her ungracious rejection of Jane's apologies on his behalf are...not great. Let me tell everyone on behalf of my people that it is possible to be a feminist and still be polite and understand where people are coming from. Still, Donaldson's disdain for Jane is not entirely unwarranted.

For one thing, based on what we've seen, Jane's novel seems very slight. It's not that romance isn't a valid and respectable genre of fiction; it's that I'm not sure universities are awarding MFAs to people who write it. Maybe the less-telegenic parts get into some deep stuff, but what we've seen of the story this week is just a gender-swapped Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. On the basis of Jane's work alone, Donaldson seems justified in hesitating before extending her an invitation to stay in the program next year.

But then, that's not the only experience Donaldson's had with Jane, who in this episode has not demonstrated her seriousness as a student. As far as Donaldson can see, Jane has had no problem turning her office into a bridal suite, and thinks it's appropriate to bring her infant to an academic institution. I get that it's for the sake of comedy, but if this were real, wouldn't Jane just explain her child care crisis to Donaldson and request that they meet on the phone? It's great that Jane gets through her block, gives her novel some more depth by refocusing her ending on the mother/daughter relationship, and secures her return to the program for another year; as a viewer of the show who likes her, I'm glad! But I'd also watch the show in which Donaldson gets the chance to go out for drinks with her other professor friends and bitch about all the bullshit her harried students see fit to bring to her doorstep. Do better in Year 2, Jane!

The dress Alba likes is totes better than the one Xo likes, right?

I gather we're not supposed to like Alba's choice (below right) because she seems to be making it on the basis of how much or little of Jane's "boobies" it showcases.

But that left one? With the mermaid butt? No.

Was the resolution of Jane and Xo's fight a little too neat?

The fight that "Chapter Thirty-Nine" built to starting with the cold open was about real shit. Xo has, in some ways, never grown up, because she didn't have to: after having Jane, she continued living at home, and had Alba under the same roof to make up Xo's deficits as a parent. But that dynamic hard-wired Jane to be more controlling than she'd like, and now that she's a parent herself, she has a different perspective on the choices Xo made with her and wants their patterns to change. That argument continues this week when Alba and Rogelio trick Xo and Jane into meeting up again on the soundstage version of their house, and Jane yells at Xo that she wishes Xo hadn't been as much of a friend to her, but had forced her to honour her commitments, as with her salsa dancing classes. But then that conversation goes nowhere -- not that it really has anywhere to go; it's not like Xo can go back to Jane's childhood and do it over -- and Dina, for the purposes of writing the scene Rogelio's requested to justify the building of the Villanueva house set on the Tiago soundstage, says the real clash between Jane and Xo is over something else entirely: Jane is about to move out of the house she and Xo have lived in their whole lives, so they're unconsciously manufacturing conflict to fight about in order to avoid feeling that pain.

Is Dina right, though? If Xo and Jane had started a brand-new fight in this episode, over something petty, maybe I'd buy it. But since this episode finds the characters still in the midst of last week's fight, the pivot to resolve it feels too convenient. It's not like I thought Jane and Xo would continue holding grudges against each other for the rest of the season or anything, but Xo needs to let Jane know she's making firm plans to change her life and be less of a mess; and Jane needs to apologize for that "cautionary tale" line, because it was maybe deserved in the moment, but it was also pretty harsh.

What other special skills is Gina Rodriguez going to let Jane show off this season?

Last week, we saw her spit rhymes. This week, she's tearing up the dance floor with Derek Hough.

Can she also speak foreign languages? Do close-up magic? Crump?! (Please let that last one be true.)

Do we care about Rafael's dirty money?

I don't care if, in the future, he's going to regret using it, because I don't care about it at all. I would say "nothing is more boring than an insider trading storyline" but I don't want any writer to call my bluff and serve us up a storyline on gambling addiction next.

Is Michael going to make it to the season finale?

It's been a long time since the omniscient narrator forebodingly told us that Michael loved Jane "until the day he died," leading many to believe that death will be untimely. To me, nothing's pointed more to the possibility of Michael's fairly imminent death than his Season 2 makeover as the perfect boyfriend and fiancé and Jane's true soulmate...

...nothing, that is, but this episode-closing moment. Eep.