Pirate Vs. Pedagogy

Since its premiere, Jane The Virgin has set A/B choices for its titular heroine. The choice between Mike (who is safe) and Rafael (who is what she actually wants) is definitely the more boring one -- particularly after last week's episode ended on the narrator telling us that Mike believed he and Jane were meant to be together "for as long as Michael lived, until he drew his very last breath," suggesting pretty clearly that his last breath is imminent. Much more compelling is the choice between becoming a teacher (which is safe), or becoming a writer (which is what she actually wants). And though an unconnected neophyte with limited self-confidence like Jane might have a hard time breaking into the latter field, Jane hasn't really been unconnected for a few months: now she has a fairy godfather.

In a move that I can't believe I didn't see coming, this week's episode finds Rogelio handing Jane a job as the writers' intern on his show, The Passions Of Santos. Jane hardly dares to be excited, since she's been suppressing her wishes of becoming a professional writer for so long, but also because she's just accepted a job at the school where she's been student-teaching, where she's been promised a permanent position after her maternity leave. (OH WORD, THEY'RE GOING TO HOLD HER JOB FOR TWO AND A HALF WHOLE MONTHS?! HOLY SHIT.) (Sorry. I'm from Canada, a country that actually supports new parents of both sexes, and I still can't get over how chintzy the U.S. is.) But since our establishing flashback this week is about how Jane has tried her whole life to avoid conflict between Alba and Xo, in the present we see her try to avoid conflict between her would-be employers by declaring that, while she's trying to figure out her future, she'll just do both jobs! (Most entry-level employees in the entertainment industry watching this: "...Yeah? Of course she has two jobs.")

As she's determining which path is right for her, Jane goes back and forth. Pitching a story idea the show's head writer, Dina, loves? Good! Coming to set the day they're shooting it only to see that Santos is disguising himself not as a beggar, as she'd suggested, but as a pirate? Bad. Writing a scene for Rogelio to read so he can evaluate her talent, and watching him read it with apparent relish? Good! Having him finish and tell her he doesn't like it? Bad. Somehow convincing herself that Rogelio is a reliable judge of good writing? Maybe the worst. I mean, I love him, but...come on.

Jane's on her way to let Rogelio know she's decided to stick with teaching when she runs into Dina on the lot: Dina read Jane's sample scene and loved it. And while we will soon learn that Jane is getting this approval because she's an unwitting pawn in a scheme cooked up by Dina and her secret lovah, Gregory -- Rogelio's assistant and an aspiring actor himself -- for now, she takes it as the sign that she should dare to pursue her riskier dream. Rogelio, however, is pretty sure he knows what she's going to say, and is dismissive of the less glamorous job in a gorgeously Rogelian way.

As my esteemed colleague Sarah D. Bunting would say: it's the shrug that makes it art.