Let's Rank The Best Silent Moments From A Silent Movie-Inspired Jane The Virgin

The cold open flashback to Little Jane in "Chapter Forty-One" tells us all about how frugal she was, and as a woman who grew up in a family without a lot of financial security, Big Jane is still very cautious about spending money on luxuries, so it's especially tough on her when Michael comes home with bad news.

(Oh yeah: Rogelio's new Tiago storyline has his character going back to the silent-movie era to help keep FDR's marriage on track, so a bunch of the episode's pivotal moments get the silent-film treatment.)

Anyway: it turns out that the photographer shooting Michael at the end of the last episode was actually a journalist prepping a front-page newspaper story about how Michael bungled the Mutter case, so Michael has to tell Jane he's suspended without pay for six weeks. (Which: he is? I feel like all those hotheads at SVU are always getting suspended with pay, and usually that's after one of them broke a perp's jaw or something.)

This leads Jane into a scramble to make up the budgetary shortfall -- picking up more waitressing shifts at the restaurant, on the condition that she train her new colleague Anezka to be less spectacularly terrible in the job, and also signing on to help some rich honky teenager with the supplemental materials he's supposed to supply to get him off a college waiting list, though it turns out both he and his mother expect Jane just to write the essay herself. She doesn't, in the end, because it would be a violation of both her school's honour code and her own, but taking on new professional obligations at a time when Mateo's separation anxiety is starting to kick in has her feeling guilty about her priorities, so it's a good thing Michael gets himself a temp job to do during his suspension: being Rogelio's head of security at Telemasivo. Kudos are due the show for both treating seriously Jane's anguish about not spending enough time with Mateo, and for surrounding her with other characters to assure her that he's fine and who support her need to work; between the resolution of Jane's storyline this week; the episode earlier this season in which she decided to wean Mateo off breastfeeding; and its nonjudgmental treatment of Petra's complicated attitude toward parenting, Jane The Virgin may be offering viewers more positive portrayals of motherhood -- all the complex choices contemporary mothers have to make, and the reasons they have to make them -- than any other show on television.

Speaking of Petra: her silent movie moment comes when, already feeling insecure about the differences between Mateo's trust (which Jane controls) and the twins' (which would be managed by a third party, not Petra), she comes upon Jane and Rafael settling their latest custody crisis with a completely innocent hug.

Having temporarily turned against Jane...again, Petra takes this bad mood back to Anezka -- now Jane's #1 fan after Jane's so patiently trained her at the restaurant and even helped her earn her first legitimate tip -- and vents about Jane. Petra's uncharitable moment inspires Anezka to try to avenge her sister by painstakingly framing Jane for an honour code violation by sending an inquiry to Jane's university's paper about advertising her new essay writing business, which is a pretty sophisticated scheme for someone who is so unfamiliar with the idea of ethics that she stole three wallets from hotel guests last week -- but sure, why not.

Amid the '20s-styled silent-movie segments, the episode also features some pretty great non-period mute moments. Let's count them down from "quietly amusing" to "LO very L"! (You don't have to accompany your reading of this post with urgent organ music. But it wouldn't hurt.)

1. Jane Preps Xo To Play A Silent Movie Star

   Xiomara has learned that there's a role coming up on Tiago for a silent movie star -- who, tragically, has a beautiful singing voice that no one will ever hear -- and Xo wants to audition to play her. Jane:

   

   At first, Xo can't tell if Jane's pre-talkie mugging represents a yes or a no, but Jane points out that Xo and Rogelio have been getting along well lately and that he's been in a particularly good mood lately, and by the end of the scene...

   

   ...Xo is more than ready to nail an audition.

2. The Narrator Lets Petra's Past Speak For Her

   Petra eventually works up the courage to ask Rafael about the one big difference between Anna and Elsa's trust and Mateo's, and that it has made her feel like Rafael trusts Jane more than he trusts Petra. Rafael pretty readily admits that she's right, adding, "I mean, you've done some things."

   

   To her credit, Petra has the sense not to try to deny it -- though she does go on to suggest she's come further in her attempts at honesty than Rafael does, which leads Rafael to [stuff about his dumb brother no one cares about redacted].

3. Xo Remembers The Sex Sniff

   Xo visits the Tiago set to find Rogelio in a remarkably good mood, just like Jane had observed earlier; in fact, he's so chipper that he gives Xo the role on the spot, no audition required! Then Xo gets an inkling as to why.

   

   As Xo explains to Jane later, Rogelio has a signature move: the sex sniff.

   

   "Seriously, I didn't need to know that," Jane squicks. But Xo apparently doesn't have any other friends to confide in about her strong suspicion that Rogelio and Dina the writer are Doing Sex.

4. Rogelio Confronts The Limitations Of Visual Effects

   In part because she gets in her own head about Rogelio and Dina -- and, perhaps in larger part, because she has no experience acting, on camera, in Spanish, which is why it might have been a good idea for her to AUDITION -- Xo is a disaster in her role, finally requiring that Rogelio wear her line taped onto his chest for her to read. Dina tells him afterward that Xo's performance is unusable, but Rogelio saw Jurassic World, and thus he's pretty sure the wonders that are possible with visual effects technology are unlimited: "Are there really dinosaurs? No." Dina gamely tries to fix Xo's film, and brings Rogelio to look at the results.

   

   Confirmed: Xo is a far worse performer than a velociraptor. Rogelio tells Xo he has to recast her role, and she's very understanding -- and says it's just as well, since she didn't love being around Rogelio and Dina. Rogelio scoffs that what he and Dina have is "very casual," but Xo disagrees, and after she leaves, Rogelio realizes that despite what he'd told Xo -- "Dina's a writer! She wears hoodies! And jeans! She's not nearly charismatic or glamorous or TMZ-able enough for me to be with!" -- he does like her for real. So he's especially crestfallen when he tells Dina that Xo figured out they had feelings for each other, and Dina has to tell him that they can't get any more involved with one another than they already are...

5. Rogelio Gives Us All An Important Home Decor Inspiration

   ...but let's not think about the bad times. Instead, let's focus on the joy Rogelio got fooling around with Dina on THIS RUG.

   

   Why was Jane ever deciding between stripes or a giraffe for a rug in Mateo's new room when SHE COULD HAVE JUST GOTTEN ANOTHER ONE OF THESE?!