As our beloved and ???? ????? ????????recently unveiled narrator tells us at the top of Jane the Virgin's final episode, everything ends. Stories end, friendships end, relationships end, and we must come to terms with it.
Yet so often in real life – outside of telenovelas and the CW shows that honor them – things don'tend. Chapters of our own lives draw to a close, but then things go on. You learn to live without the thing that ended, or with the new change. The endings we experience in letting go of television are unique because rarely in life do we have to let go of so many beloved people and places at once, never to hear from them again.
"The wedding isn't the end. Our story is just beginning."
That's the shockingly real tone of Jane the Virgin's series finale, which fixates less on the end of Jane's story than on the fact that it will continue (just without us). It is not the best episode of Jane the Virgin. It is not an exceptional or legendary TV finale, but it's the right one, which feels far more appropriate.
Our finale finds Jane and Rafael anticipating their nuptials, with numerous callbacks to Season 2's wedding finale. In contrast with Jane and Michael's disastrous rehearsal dinner, Jane and Rafael's is perfect. A public bus saves the day after things go awry, once more with a callback to Rogelio's famous "Inhale, exhale" from the pilot.
Instead of heartfelt vows that reduce the audience to a puddle, this time we tear up at the looks Jane and Raf give each other, at their own inability to speak with composure as they are moved beyond words by their happiness. There's no lavish reception, no Bruno Mars and Rogelification of a family event, but there's Jane and her love alone outside, savoring this moment as the first of the rest of their lives.
This juxtaposition isn't meant to suggest the superiority of either relationship, but rather how love manifests differently between relationships and at different points in time. The beauty of Jane's central love triangle was that even the most diehard Michael or Rafael fan could see the merit in their champion's opponent and wish Jane the best even when she wasn't with the guy we wanted.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable "Chapter One Hundred" did wrap things up neatly for now. Xo and Ro are set to move to New York, Lina managed to get pregnant, Petra and J.R. reunited, and Jane and Rafael have finally tied the knot. None of these things are ends, but new beginnings. I'm not saying we need a reboot in five or 10 years or ever, but the Janewriters are astute to suspect that in 2019, even a true ending is hardly an ending at all.
It's not the romantic, monumental ending we expected, but it's the one we deserve. Every life, from Jane to Petra to Lina to you, the viewer, is full of telenovela moments – dramatic peaks and valleys and all the necessary monotony in between. Life will go on for Jane and for us, and we'll always have these years together to look back on.
Until next time, friends.
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