There are three things wars are started over: love, money, and religion. That’s just the way the world has worked for the last 3,000 years. Those testy subjects are also the quickest ways to start an argument with a co-parent, and Jane the Virgin is no exception. Luckily for the midseason finale, we got conflicts on all three subjects, all of which ended 2016 with a Hitchcock-worthy bang. Nothing says midseason finale like Hitchcock suspense motifs inspired by Jane’s literary mind and her telenovela life.
For awhile there it seemed like Jane and Rafael were finally going to be able to get to a good place. They’re finally platonic friends, both doing variably well and supporting each other and their son. Even Rogelio is on board the Rafael train. However, both Jane and Rafael are stubborn, and grew up in different socioeconomic circumstances. When it comes to Mateo, they’ve argued about money, about schooling, and about Michael, and even Petra’s role in Mateo’s life. There’s just one topic they haven’t had a complete conversation about, and that’s religion. Jane’s devotion to Catholicism hasn’t wavered once in her life, not even the few times she considered giving up her virginity before marriage. Rafael on the other hand had the religious exposure of a WASP, without the gin martinis. Technically he is Catholic, but he’s had less exposure than Michael’s C&E (Christmas & Easter) rule. When Alba lays on the guilt about Jane not having gone to church in awhile, she asks Rafael if she can take Mateo to church. He reluctantly tries, but Mateo is so little he won’t sit still. As important as it is to Jane, even Michael thinks that Mateo might be a little too young to go every week. Furthermore, Jane realizes that the reason she hasn’t been going to church is because she was angry with God after Michael was shot. Faith isn’t faith unless it’s tested, and right now Jane needs to focus on her own relationship with the big guy instead of Mateo’s.
Jane loves getting to know her new family member, but Catalina has got to go. She’s been so disruptive that Jane finally asks her to leave, only to find Catalina in Rafael’s place the next day. Jane’s suspicions are raised about the validity of Catalina’s glamorous lifestyle, especially after she finds a bag full of jewels and money in Catalina’s things. Catalina covers that well, but the rich, older gentleman she later kisses proves that Catalina is an experienced liar.
Now that Bruce is “divorced”, he and Xiomara try out their relationship again. However, because Jane would disapprove so vehemently, Xiomara is keeping it a secret. Rogelio has to keep the secret from Jane while easing his pain over Xiomara by finding a ‘love match’ with an agency. Neither one of those works out for very long. Rogelio cannot keep a secret to save his life, and he blows his chances to find his love match. When he explains to Darci the love matchmaker why he wants a baby so badly, Darci volunteers to have a baby with him. Neither one of them are interested in romantic attachments, and this way they can have a child and split the time so they can also have lives. Win-win! Xiomara is in a lose-lose situation. Jane is never going to accept her relationship with Bruce, especially not when Xiomara reveals that she always knew that Bruce was married when they were previously together.
Michael is eager to get back to work so he’s easing into it by helping with the Mutter case off the clock. He and Rafael work together to figure out what Mutter was trying to tell him with the bank account number. It turns out it lead back to monthly payments she was making to a convent in Italy, which has also been mysteriously losing art pieces over the years. When Rafael finds the stolen pieces in his father’s things, he begs Michael not to say anything yet, making Michael compromise his badge. It is completely unfair, but given the emotional flashbacks Rafael has been having of his mother taking him to church when he was a toddler, Rafael probably wouldn’t otherwise ask. It helps that the artwork is only one part of their case. Rafael’s scary childhood flashbacks start increasing with frequency and clarity. The more he remembers, the more they uncover about the case for Michael to use and about Rafael’s past. The church Rafael remembers is actually a convent in Miami. He and Jane go sniffing around the convent to investigate the Mother Superior, and get more than they bargained for. The good news is that Rafael agrees to turn the artwork over to the police immediately. It doesn’t belong to him, and not just because it’s stolen. The reason Rafael was having such jarring flashbacks of the convent is because his mother was paying off the Mother up until her death because of another transaction between them. As it turns out Mutter lost a baby when she was in Italy, but had one by the time she returned to the U.S. Rafael is not a Solano.
Looks like Rafael won’t be having a Merry Christmas with his paternity/maternity secret weighing on him. Hopefully he’ll get some answers in the New Year.
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