Anything but a plain Jane: Jane The Virgin Farewell

Lost in the storm of publicity of Game of Thrones and Veep coming to the end of their runs in the next few months is the fact that two equally complicated but far more entertaining, human series are ending on the CW. There’s a certain logic to this – both series are finishing among the lowest rated on television – but one shouldn’t deny just how brilliant they’ve been. This Friday, we say goodbye to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and right now, Jane the Virgin is beginning its last season.

Jane the Virgin seems just as determined to go out, guns blazing. As those of us who have followed the series since the begin, one of the most painful moments in television history came when Jane’s husband Michael died from complications from a gunshot wound in the middle of Season 3. So in a series that’s been filled with more twists and turns than Shondaland, it really resonated when in the last moments of Season 4, we learned that Michael was still alive.

We’ve had almost a year to stew on this, and even wonder if this is Michael. (It should be remembered that one of the key plot points of this series was that there is a crime boss who operated a plastic surgery clinic). But apparently, this is Michael, and like almost every horrible event in this series, it was orchestrated by Sin Rostro, who kidnapped him, subjected him to repeated electroshock until his brain was damaged, and left him in Montana. (Only on this series could that actually be plausible).

So Michael’s back. Only he’s Jason now. And he’s kind of a douche. (It is a tribute to Brett Daier and the writers, who made us root for this character the first two years now turn him into a tool.) Which makes things extremely awkward for Jane and Rafael, who were just on the verge of getting married when Sin Rostro dropped this particular bomb. And now it seems that Jane and Michael are still married. Which is bad for Jane, because not only was she trying to finally find love and happiness again with her love/baby daddy Rafael, but now part of her still doesn’t want to give up on Michael. And it’s bad for Rafael, because Jason has apparently decided that he isn’t going to divorce Jane after all.

Jane the Virgin has been one of the most remarkable series on TV, mainly because (unlike Desperate Housewives did in its later seasons) it has never forgotten that it is a satire as well as an homage to the telenovela. The twists and turns of Jane and the entire Vilanueva clan have been as surreal as anything that happens at Wisteria Lane, but its never stopped being funny or grounded, because it doesn’t take itself seriously at all. (They acknowledge it in the opening titles, where they’ve been crossing out the word Virgin ever since Jane finally consummated her marriage). Indeed, right now one of the key storylines involves Jane’s father, Rogelio (the wonderful Jaime Camil) is finally realizing the American version of his own telenovela The Passions of Santos, with his arch-nemesis River Fields (Brooke Shields. Yes, they went there.) And its especially galling that Michael, the man he considered his best friend, now seems more attached to River than him. And, considering all they’ve been through, it did kind of hurt.

But, as good as everybody in the cast is, the star remains that force of nature Gina Rodriguez.  We’ve watched her go through so much in the course of this series, you wouldn’t think it would be possible for her to surprise us anymore. But in the season premiere, she delivered what was essentially a six-minute monologue where she dealt with all of the overwhelming issues that were coming up, all the while trying to convince her mother and grandmother that “she was perfectly fine”. On any other series in any other year, she’d be a shoo-in for an Emmy on that scene alone. Just like Rachel Bloom, she’ll be lucky if they give her a nomination.

Who will Jane finally end up with: Rafael or Michael? What is Sin Rostro really planning to get her lover Luisa back? And will we finally get an answer just who this wonderful narrator really is? They promise to answer these questions, and I trust the writers. Unlike so many other mythology series, they’ve yet to let us down. But more than that, I care about the answers – and whether Xo gets over her cancer, and whether Abuela finally finds happiness – because this is a show about fully dimensional people, even when they’re dealing with their evil twin sisters.

Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend are not like any other series on the CW. They don’t have superheroes or characters held over from the days it was the WB. But its hard to imagine any other network allowing them to exist (they seemed to get renewed almost casually every year along with every other show), much less allow them to come to the end of their run. For that, I am grateful to Greg Berlanti and his increasingly chaotic Arrow-verse, if their existence is what allowed these two extraordinary series to live all this time. Will any other great series like these emerge in their wake? It should be noted that a Jane the Virgin spinoff is in the works.

My score: 5 stars.