Episode Grade: B+

Welcome to my 4th and final review that’s playing catchup on this season. Next one I’ll be all caught up on Fridays going forward for those other Janiacs on the site (if that’s not the right term and you hate it, you can blame AWP for calling it that).

The episode starts off with Jane and her baby sister’s first photo shoot. The indignity of having to dress as a newborn at 28 should have been enough, but I felt privileged as the show went to a costume change into a baby chick suit to a bear suit. I couldn’t ask for a better way to start out the hour. It also helped soften the blow of learning that Jane and Adam are taking a 7 day break from each other so they can figure things out (aka Adam deciding if he wants to bail now that things are serious). The 2 spend most of the episode apart and so in the end when Adam decides he wants to keep moving forward with Jane the moment doesn’t really feel earned. At least it led to a cute family dinner scene with Ro referring to Alba as a wise old out and setting up a huge laugh when this pic was revealed.

Staying on the lighter side of things are Rogelio, Xo, and the new baby. Ro and Darci are having a difficult time coming up with a good name for their little one and spend the chapter trying out new names for size. Personally, I would have gone with Delilah out of all the options. I started to cringe at the decision to name her Baby, but when they adding in the name Michaelina in tribute to Jane’s fallen husband and Ro’s gone best friend, I jumped onboard the Baby Michaelina name train.

Speaking of babies and trains, Xo seems to be on a track going a different concerning the little one. She decides to distract herself from the new girl by going in on a very short lived business partnership to save her dance studio. Its a storyline I could have gone without considering if felt like it was aiming for laughs it never achieve, but at least it leads to a name moment where Xo confesses she’s afraid she’ll get caught up in baby obsession and lose sight of her own goals, the whole reason she opted out of having more kids of her own.

Now that I’ve talked about the light stuff, on to the darker parts of the episode. Just when I thought Rafael couldn’t get more insufferable, he starts of this week being indignant after Jane is pissed that he introduced Mateo to his girlfriend the woman he is conning into investing in the hotel under the pretense that he’s in a loving relationship with her. I basically want to punch him in the face any time I see him, which up til now I thought was a good-looking face, but man it is getting more punchable by the chapter. Its sometimes hard to remember there was a time in this show where the fights between Jane and Rafael actually made me struggle on who’s side to take in the argument, but Raf is batting zero here lately. On top of that, he’s really being a shitbird to Catherine, er Kitty, nah, I’m calling her Catherine. Sure, she seems like a massive pain in the ass the way she continues to confront Jane so early on in this relationship, but she still doesn’t deserved to be used for her money. She gave Raf the perfect opportunity to fess up, and instead he dug deeper.

Raf’s plan is also putting Jane and Petra at odds with one another. Petra decides to try to buy Jane’s silence on her opinions of the relationship by agreeing to introduce her to a book critic. Eventually Jane decides its not worth it and races to deliver a letter she has written. Despite the fact that all the kids are watching on, Petra chases down Jane into a ball pit and destroys the letter. I can only imagine that chase sequence and fight were just a whole lot of fun for both women to shoot, and I can say that it was a joy watch. That high is short-lived, when Jane finds Raf and still confesses her objections and fears for the father of her son. Raf snaps at Jane, with an aggression he’s not displayed before on the series, and Jane is noticeably shocked and hurt. Kudos to both Rodriguez and Baldoni for selling the hell out of that fight, it was both uncomfortable and unsettling to watch.

While all this is going on, we see Luisa is engaging in her plan to get the 100 million she needs to help Rose break out of prison. And how is she planning on getting her hands on that kind of cash? Destroy the Marabella and collect on the insurance. With the help of Carl, a man Rose sent to help get the money faster, they infest the hotel with termites to clear out the guests in a plan to burn the place down to the ground. And they would have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids Anezka hadn’t caught Luisa red handed or in this case, with lighter in hand. The only thing that makes this entire story ever worthy of bringing up is that Anezka reveals that there is no Carl. As in he’s a figment of Luisa’s imagination. I’m going to reserve my judgments on this plot twist til I see where they are going with this, but I am intrigued enough to care for once about something with Luisa. Is Rose even really trying to get out of prison or was this all something concocted by Luisa’s sick brain.

The story movies back to Rafael, who after a heart to heart with his workout buddy Alba has finally found a shred of decency and finally calls things off with Catherine romantically. He tries to appeal to her business since to keep the hotel deal going but he wants things to be only professional. Catherine does the sensible thing and gets in her car…..AND BACKS OVER HIM! I hate to say it, but he kinda had that one coming to him.

So that’s this chapter in a nutshell. As much I the Raf transformation has been unpleasant to watch it does have moments where the heightened drama bring something new for the show which can be exciting. I just hope they get him back on track of being a decent human being before the damage is too far done.