Jane The Virgin Season 3, Episode 20 Recap: "Chapter Sixty-Four"

On Jane the Virgin (or this week, Jane the Maid of Honor), fantasy is always compared to reality. Our expectations are never what we expect them to be. For instance, I never expected Rafael and Petra to be a thing again, but here we are. And although I should probably be paid in real money for how much I root for #TeamRafael, I never thought the romance between Rafael and Jane would resurface any time soon, particularly in the same season as Michael’s passing.

Jane goes through a lot this week. She uses someone, for what is probably the first time in her entire life. And she ends her first fling. And she goes on a literal wild goose chase. And she openly admits to Fabian (and a crowd of extras) that as the second person she’s slept with since her dead husband, he actually means a lot to her.

Jane has changed a lot throughout the course of the episodes since Michael’s death. One of the big changes being taking a step back from other people’s lives. But Jane’s somewhat accidental meddling into Petra and Rafael’s rekindling romance led her to realizing that she might have something for Rafael. Why did Jane try to hard to get them back together as she was realizing this? Probably a lot of the reasons, the biggest one being she’s afraid of experiencing the same loss she felt when she lost Michael again. On a brighter note, Jane’s dress game was on fire this week. And Gina Rodriguez’s drunk acting was both comedic genius and heartbreaking. Also not forgotten, Andrea Navedo’s drunk acting assist.

For some reason, Luisa expects a happy ending with Rose. Why? How? What even? These two are just by or in or under a sea somewhere too much, and I think it affects their ability to think clearly. Although Rafael’s move to cry cancer to get Luisa back to Miami was brilliant (and manipulative), it was actually one of the most predictable things the show has ever done.

Seeing the reminder of Rafael’s cancer at the beginning of the episode instantly made me think that he would do this to get Luisa back -- but what I didn’t expect was Rose’s very immediate arrest. Hopefully next week we’ll get some insight about why Rose killed Scott. Did they ever even talk in previous seasons?

Petra’s hesitation to get back together with Rafael says a lot, and is definitely (at least to my fellow Rafael teammates) an indication that this whole thing is probably not going to work out. But hey, we need some time before the real magic happen. Let it Rane, please! (Jane + Rafael = Rane). Petra and Rafael might be different people than when they were married, but some of the things that caused major issues with their relationship before have resurfaced: Rose is alive, Luisa is back, and Jane has feelings for Rafael.

And we all know Jane has a hard time keeping her emotions to herself. We’ll just have to see how long she can hold them in to protect Petra and Rafael. I really wanted it to be Rafael knocking on Jane’s door, but seeing Rogelio is never a bad thing. Rogelio’s decision to leave his set for Xo is a another big leap - like Jane, he’s changed a lot throughout the past handful of episodes in the best way, all while staying somewhat exactly the same.

There’s a lot to wrap up in the finale next week, and I’m guessing we’ll have to wait until season four returns for #TeamRafael to be completely satisfied. Or will we wait forever? If anything, this means I can have Rafael to myself in my dreams.