Photo Source: The CW
If we know anything about Jane Villanueva, we know she tends to be a worrier…so how could she NOT worry while she waits for a diagnosis on her Mom, Xiomara?
While the family waits for the results of her biopsy, Xo tells the family to just go about their normal lives. This means Rogelio is to go about chasing River Fields and Jane needs to start her new writer’s group. None of them can fully focus on personal tasks though, with such a scary diagnosis looming. Jane goes to her writers group, anyway, and right away she gets a great suggestion from the group: tell your personal story again, just from a different perspective. And luckily, she finds Rafael going through things from Luisa’s storage unit, which leads her to Luisa’s deposition…and the story of the insemination from HER perspective. This gives Jane inspiration, new admiration for Luisa, and an even deeper admiration for her mom. It also helps lead Rafael to where Luisa is is “hiding”—Longborne, Florida. She’s given away ALL of the Solano money in exchange for the simple life, and she’s finally happy. What made this scene even better is that we got confirmation of Rafael’s character development. He’s kind of been taking one step forward and two steps back throughout this entire series, but finally, we have confirmation that money is not his motivator anymore; family is. While he was visibly shocked about the money being gone, he wasn’t upset; he was happy for Luisa. And later, when he visited Rose to get the identity of his parents, he respected Luisa’s privacy and kept her location a secret—even though it wouldn’t get him what he wanted. While I’ve ALWAYS been team Rafael, his greed always kept him from being a perfect match for Jane, but now, he’s finally completely right for her.
Back to Jane, throughout the episode, she reflects more on the bravery of her Xiomara and everything she’s gone through. This leads her to want to write about her mom. We don’t know what capacity yet, but this could be the story that the narrator has alluded to being her great success.
Meanwhile, Rogelio is still fighting for River Fields to be his co-lead on “The Passions of Steve”. She’s not too keen on him…you know, because he cost her a toe…but she’s willing to consider the role of Brenda, with a few key changes. A more in-depth female character…not just a telenovela side chick. Rogelio eventually learns she’s gunning for a lead on HBO’s “Confederate” (WHY?), but when she doesn’t get the part she wants, she agrees to work with Rogelio…on one condition…the show will now be “The Passions of Steve & Brenda: The first co-presidents of America”. I’m sorry but this show officially sounds terrible…unless it’s a comedy.
May the end of the episode, we learn Xiomara kept her diagnosis from Rogelio so he could secure River Fields. She has breast cancer. The family gets on their knees and prays together in a heartbreaking scene.
Could we actually lose Xiomara? I hope not. That family has been through enough.
