Episode Grade: A

With so much going on in every episode of JtV, it can be hard to determine a central theme of an episode. This week that was not the case as the clear theme of the chapter was familial roles. With so many complicated relationships in one very extended family, it can be hard to know who fits where and how to make it work for everyone.

The episode starts off with Jane and Adam figuring out how they can fool around without Mateo finding out, as well as how they can introduce Adam to Mateo in the least traumatic way possible. Needless to say, but both plans fail miserably in no time when little Matelio comes running in early from the park and finding Adam giving his mom a kiss (thank goodness not a special baby making hug). Now that Adam and Mateo have met informally, its time to get him a proper introduction. But first he has to pass Rafael’s screening. Too bad Jane and Raf’s relationship is skating on thin ice, because Raf seems determined to make sure Mateo doesn’t take kind to his mom’s new boyfriend. Mateo overhears Raf going off about Adam’s irresponsibility and says that his daddy hates Adam then so does he. The show fastforwards 2 weeks to reveal that things are still going so badly that the trio of guys is off to watch a baseball game. At least, Raf finally came around on the Adam front a cheesy but cute scene about superheros, so much so that he suggests that Adam lend them a hand when they need a sitter. Adam and Mateo have the most adorable bonding session making up their own dance routine to The Time Warp and the Adam is really looking at home in this family.

Adam’s role in Jane’s life has definitely started to solidify. Not only is his becoming active in Mateo’s life, he’s taken in interested in Jane’s other love: her writing. While laying in bed, Jane, distraught over the sexy art her publishers want to put on her book cover, is talked into sharing her novel with Adam. At first, she thinks that he’s not really into it, but it turns out that not only did he love the book, he wanted to help give Jane the cover it deserved. It’s one of those magical tv scenes when a characters insecurities are put to rest by a grand gesture from which they had misinterpreted the clues.
If the show was trying to get me completely on Team Adam, they did a splendid job. Yep, so splendid, my heart hurt for Jane when it was revealed at the end that Adam is beginning to get his relationship panic.

Another person wanting to know where they fit in is Catherine, Raf’s new business partner/lover. The problem is, well the problem is Raf’s being quite the asshole, but specifically he’s using Catherine strictly for her financial resources while she’s all in it for a committed relationship. In a panic, Raf tells her that Jane and her rage issues are standing in her way of meeting her son. Catherine is obviously not a woman who lets things stand in the way of what she wants and confronts Jane. I’m not exactly sure how this Catherine scheme is going to blow up in Raf’s face, but it’s definitely coming, and I expect his entire family to suffer from the fallout.

While we’re on topics of schemes, Madga and Anezka are still around and giving Petra a chance to buy off their silence so they don’t inform Luisa about the plan to win back the hotel from her. Since the whole theme of the night is where everyone belongs, Petra decides that for those ladies its as far away from her children and her hotel as possible. She agrees to give them 10% of the hotel but in the form of monthly payments to ensure they leave the US and never come back to bother her or her girls again.

Rogelio is struggling at both work and home to keep his place, being thwarted on both accounts by his nemesis Esteban. Not only does Esteban unnerve him with his loud love making with a very pregnant Darci, he’s now doing script rewrites so that his character is making love to a woman with a tiny version of Rogelio inside of her. Sometimes the show is just so clever and I’m won over all over again by the writers with these minute but hilarious jokes. At home, Esteban has interfered with Ro’s plan of having Darci give birth in the Ricky Martin Celebrity Birthing Suite by convincing her to instead go with an at home water birth. On principle alone, Ro is absolutely opposed to it, but even more so after deciding to research what he was so against….which only made him enraged and more determined to get his way. He started plotting how to get Esteban to chance his mind (therefore swinging Darci’s desires) but Ro’s babies’ mamas were having none of this. They inform him that woman should have control over their bodies, up to and including how they want to bring a new life into this world. I think it was a topic the show deftly handled by being both educational and entertaining without ever feeling preachy.

The truth is Rogelio’s determination to have the birth happen the Ricky Martin way was that he already fears that he’s going to be on the sideline in his new baby’s life. He’s just be reluctant to tell Xo because he doesn’t want her to feel guilty for his absence in Jane’s childhood. She promises him that she’ll make sure to push him so that he doesn’t miss out this time and gets an early chance to do just that during the delivery. Ro jumps in the kiddie pool birthing tub and talks Darci through the final stages of labor. This show is a roller coaster of emotions, but seeing Rogelio with his new little girl was definitely one of the highest peaks of this ride.

I gave this episode such a high grade cause its the first time in a while the show felt like it was firing on all cylinders. Even though I can’t be bothered to care about the Luisa plot, they minimized her time while still moving the story forward in what I trust this series will give a drama finish. Honestly, I’m hoping beyond hope that of our 6 characters whose lives are in jeopardy, Luisa is the one finally set free from this story. Other than that minor scene that didn’t do anything for me, I was fully engaged in every other part of this chapter. I think this installment also did what the show did best and put some real heart back into is between the Adam and Rogelio stories. I just have to brace myself for some impending heartache.