Anyone caught up on "Jane the Virgin" (this is your subtle warning that spoilers are ahead) has just watched Petra and JR end their relationship yet again during Chapter Ninety One. Petra and JR are quickly becoming my favorite couple on the show, and when the episode started I was hoping we'd finally get a season five episode in which they were happy the entire time. But as our narrator often reminds us, this is a telenovela after all. So I couldn't be too surprised when Jane ended things with Petra to move to Houston, the same night Petra wanted to propose.
With every passing episode, this couple is becoming the one I'm most intrigued to continue seeing. I'm as interested as the next person in who our main Jane ends up with, but it's safe to say that whether she runs back to Michael or ends up with Rafael, both are very good options. I'm pretty confident in Jane finding happiness at the end of the show. So currently, I'm only worried about my girl Petra.
Petra has had the biggest character arc in the show, having the most dramatic changes from beginning to now. She started as what can only be described as a villain, is one of the primary antagonists to Jane in early episodes. Who can forget her falsely accusing Rafael of domestic violence, or trying to take custody of Mateo before he was born? And of course, my personal favorite Petra scheme, the time she inseminated herself with Rafael's sperm and ended up having Ellie and Anna.
Since her days of devious manipulation, Petra has gone through a world of change. She broke ties with her manipulative mother Magda, even turned in her semi-scary ex-husband Milos rather than make another shady deal with him. After struggling with a difficult pregnancy and postpartum depression, she learned to be a good mother despite having a pretty terrible role model for motherhood (see earlier comment about Magda). She has reconciled with Jane (Villanueva) and they have developed a close and deep friendship unrecognizable from the first few seasons. Petra is finally fully on a path to becoming the kind and selfless person she wants to be.
Her relationship with Jane Ramos marks just how far Petra has come over the years. We have seen Petra in countless relationships throughout the show, but never as in love as she is with JR. Going down the list there has been Milos, Lachlan, Rafael, Roman Zazo, and Chuck. Nope, no great love stories here. At least not until we get to JR. The last two seasons have made clear that Petra's feelings for JR are the most real feelings Petra has had for a romantic partner. Petra says it herself in Chapter Seventy-Eight: she has never been nervous around any other partner, never worried so much about how she acts around a person. Petra's investment in JR only serves to make her more endearing. To quote JR herself, vulnerable Petra is way hotter than ice queen Petra.
JR is the happy ending Petra deserves, just as Petra is the happy ending JR deserves. Over the nine episodes we have left, I'm gonna need JR to bring herself back from Houston and back to Miami. More specifically back to Petra. I really think that JR, given the time, can find it in herself to forgive Petra and they will both be happier for it.
Feminism Redefined
