ChristinaL80

The ending was so perfect with the kiss. Loved all the J/R flashbacks from Rafael's POV.

I hope we see some of Jane's POV soon.

innocent_chick

all details welcome so lots of flashbacks?

alvers

I LOVED the episode. My heart was beating so fast those last few minutes and the kiss was so much better than I expected!

My favorite LLN comment, in reference to her writing career: "her best is yet to come" of course that would be Jane and Rafael's love story!

wanderer78

Oh wow. I haven't watched this yet but I can't wait. Hopefully, it'll be on the CW app tomorrow night.

Lethally Floral

Well I'll try to recap. I don't spoiler because---well it aired! And by the time I hit post, I know someone else will have recapped.

The show opens with our narrator telling us that there were three times that Jane needed a push to write and Raf provided that push. The first was the first time they met where Raf encouraged her to be brave. (This was the one flashback we'd actually seen before.)

Flash forward to today and we see Jane getting read to go on a road trip. Raf is telling her it's big and they touch foreheads where he tells her something. We don't hear.

The tour is to two locations. She was going to go on the trip with Adam but since he went to LA and Xo is mad at Ro, Xio decided to go with Jane. Ro gave Jane the convertible to use and as Jane and Xio were about to take off, we see Alba run up, get in and say she's going with them. And she makes them put down the top.

Mateo isn't feeling well. Raf is going to work but tells Ro that if Mateo gets worse, he should call him.

He goes to work and sees a coffin in the middle of the hotel. They're throwing a funeral for Anezka even though she was cremated because it'd look bad if they didn't look sad.

Jane gets a call from her publisher on the way to the first stop and learns that Iyanla Vanzant is also going to be there which means there will be a lot of people due to her closeness with Oprah. Iyanla gets a question about whether or not they can still hope to be swept away, as in Jane's book. Iynla says of course you can want it. Jane then gets asked about the cover of her book and that's when she starts crying about how Adam broke her heart. #Snotfalling trended as a result. Xio tried to make her feel better and said it will all depend on reviews. She shouldn't worry about the one moment.

Mateo's fever hits 102. Ro texts Xio to see what they should do and if they should tell Jane. Jane then gets a bad review for her book at that time so ultimately, Xio calls Raf. Raf then calls Ro and says that he knows he doesn't especially like him much (aside: I hate how they were getting along and now it's back to Ro not liking him after Michael died? ) But that Ro need to respect that he's Mateo's father and that he's coming home to take Mateo to the doctor. (He doesn't know that Ro has stood up for him in the past).

Xio suggests that they all go out and party. They go to the bar and that's where Alba confesses that Jorge proposed to her which is why she joined the trip at the last minute. She didn't know what to say. He doesn't make her feel like her husband made her feel. Xio says that what he offers must be pretty good for her stage in life which insults Alba. Alba is about to leave but Jane convinces her to stay. They all start dancing.

Xio learns that Mateo's fever broke so they're glad they didn't tell Jane. At home, Raf apologizes to Ro for yelling at him. Ro apologizes for not calling him. Then Raf tells RO that he doesn't look good. Ro, insulted, says "I did apologize." Raf clarifies that Ro looked sick and sticks a thermometer in his mouth. Later, when Raf is tucking Ro into bed, Ro says he has wondered why they aren't as close as they should be. (Freeze frame, Raf is tucking him in so they're very close). Ro says that when they met, Raf was a ladies man (he wasn't) and broke Jane's heart (not right away). Ro also says he thinks it's because of how close Raf and Jane are. Raf tells him that they're not together. Ro says that he sometimes feels like it's inevitable. That had Raf thinking.

As they're dancing at the bar, Jane grabs Xio's phone to take a pic and notices the text exchange about Mateo's fever. She gets mad that they didn't tell her. Xio says that she has a tendency to get too worked up when Mateo gets sick. Jane then goes to call Raf and yell at him. She says that Mateo's her son and she should be told when he's sick. Raf then points out that she has a tendency to overreact to illness because of what happened to Michael. (Xio had told her the same thing). Jane says that he shouldn't protect her. Raf responds that he was protecting Mateo, not her.

This all ties into the flashbacks which I'll put here since I don't remember how they exactly fall in the show.

We flashback to after Raf got back out of prison. We see Jane leaving Mateo so she can go to her mother-in-law's place to ask for her permission to write about Michael. Raf says that she doesn't need to but she says she does. She goes. Mateo gets sick and so Raf drives him to where Jane is staying and sees some pages in the trash. Raf asks her if the meeting didn't go well. Jane says that Michael's mother blamed her for not sending Michael to the doctor when he didn't feel well and didn't want to hear about the book. Raf takes the pages and goes to Michael's mother's house and gets her to read them. Jane's MIL shows up at her hotel and says that Michael would have liked the pages. She can write the book but she (the MIL) doesn't want to think about her or the book.

Later at the hotel, Mateo is feeling better and Mateo says they need to ask mommy. Raf says "but how do you feel?" Mateo says good but that they need to ask mommy in case he gets sick like Michael and dies. Raf reassures him that he's strong like a lion.

Jane is grateful Raf sent the pages. She says she was so lucky with accident artificial insemination donors. Raf says he's the lucky one. They're standing at the door, we see Raf's heart glow and then Jane says it's time for him to leave.

Present day: Jane and Raf exchange texts about how lucky they are to have one another. She asks Alba why Adam is bad for her again. Alba says maybe he wasn't. She hates that he broke her heart but she doesn't think they would have danced like they had if it hadn't been for Adam reminding her she's young.

Present Day: We see Jane at her second promotional stop. She charms the crowd. Mateo, Ro and Raf are watching proudly on live stream. Then we later see there are only eight people. However, when she's signing books, her ex-MIL comes up to her and says that she loved the book. She says she knows it's not her fault that Michael died--he was a grown man. It's just that you can't get mad at the person whose dead. Jane understood and signed her book. That was the only review she needed.

They come home. Alba had decided to say to love--yes to Jorge. She goes and tells him she only needed time but if he wanted to ask her again---so he does. And she says "no." (Ugh, hated this.) Xio asks Ro to go to marriage counseling after Ro decided to stop apologizing because she did run away instead of dealing with their issue. She eventually agreed which is why she suggested this. He says no at first until he realizes that she's serious.

Jane's reading Mateo to sleep. Raf is looking on lovingly. Then we see them washing dishes. Jane thanks Raf for not calling her. She tells him about the review and starts having doubts about being a writer. Raf tells her that she needs to keep writing. She is a writer. He asks her if she needs him to say it and she says yes.

Raf: Be brave. (This is also what he said to her before she left that we didn't hear.)

Then the kitchen windows open, the music swells, flower petals start floating in and his heart glows. He knew he had to be brave too and kisses her. She wraps her arms around his head. Then pull apart and stare at one another. Her heart didn't glow, though.

Meanwhile--back to Petra. They are doing the funeral. Petra tells Raf she needs to look sad. She tells the kids they need to look sad. They accidentally spray perfume in her eyes so she's teary. They go to the funeral and Petra says she needs to step out to rinse her eyes. She spots someone in the bushes. It's Anezka! She had faked her death to see who really loved her. She saw that Petra was crying (the perfume) so clearly Petra does love her. Petra tells her that their mother isn't even sad.

So Anezka pretends to be Petra to see if their mother is sad. She isn't. Anezka realizes Petra was telling the truth and she wants Petra to teach her about running the hotel. Petra doesn't want to spend time with her but she does want to control Anezka who controls the hotel.

Later she goes to Anezka and says that future meetings will be held in her office, not Anezka's room. Anezka, who had watched Game of Thrones and realizes Sansa is now powerful, tells her that won't happen. She knows Petra had been lying. When she was in Petra garb, she asked the twins if they missed their aunt. The twins said "we hate her, don't we?"

Petra tells Anezka that she will tell Luisa what happened. Anezka says she already told Luisa that it was Petra and Raf who were gaslighting her and Luisa is mad. Petra moves to her and Anezka goes out to the balcony. Next thing we see is Anezka falling over the balcony onto a car. The narrator did say that Anezka hadn't killed herself last episode but now she is definitely dead.

Aurora Cormier

x

THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL

wanderer78

Thanks for the recaps and the gifs.

I'm looking forward to the ep. I didn't really dig the Ro twist of him maybe thinking Xo had the baby.

all2him1

The gifs...

I re-watched it, and got the chance to analyze, and I think the point of some of the flashbacks was to show - beyond that Raf was always encouraging her to push forward with her writing - that he was still in love with her. Was that it or did I misinterpret? Weren't we just assuming they were just best friends in those in-between years? Anyway, that was my takeaway. I had always felt like he never stopped loving her anyway.

Aurora Cormier

Same

innocent_chick

i haven't watched it all just yet..
but i would say he's had moments where he felt for her romantically again - but that probably subsided and they just became best friends.


Thank you for the recap!

perfangel5655

I just finished watching it. Jane and Rafael are so amazing. I am not using spoiler tag so avoid if you need to pretty please

And ^&** Rafael is in love. He has been in love with her all this time. That look on his face as he watching her was of a man who was so in love. I didn't want this. I want Jane to notice first.

That kiss, rose petals are back It was so great. Petals were back, window by the sink was back. I just wish the kiss was longer.

Rafael's heart glowed. Twice. Kind of happy, kind of sad, kind of scared.

Rafael and Jane are so physically affectionate, that even Rogelio realized it is only a matter of time. That forehead thing was so precious that it rivals the kiss for me. I love little things like that because it just says so much about two people. They are precious to each other.

She said the how did I get so lucky with my artificial inseminator thing twice, three years apart. She is so grateful to have him.

Best line of the night was that Jane needed a push really bad three times in her life to become a writer. And all three came from Rafael. All three were shown.

BE BRAVE is Jane's mantra. She needs to hear it from Rafael

I cried in the Jane/Michael's mom scene. It was beautiful.

With this I am hoping this Michael chapter is finally closed. She wrote the book. She patched up with the mother. Her guilt for his death is gone. She realized she can love again. Everything is done. Now I want that chapter closed. It's kind of interesting that Jane's first book got a bad review. The reviewer said the story felt flat, whether it was the build up or the distance, there is a sense here of promise unfulfilled (Funny! All the criticism we had against Jane/Michael writing).

It is not a big deal to me but I hope she writes about Rafael someday. I wonder if she will. In her actual book it is said it is not the end, Rake still needs his happily ever after. Then Rafael also mentions to Jane that she needed to finish the book because he wants to know what happens to Rake. Then after Jane reads the bad review, LLN says he really liked the book, but to be fair her best was yet to come and the next scene is Rafael walking through a door.

Muffy_Simba

Aneska fell on her own casket not a car. She faked her death then fell to her actual death and landed on her own casket. Irony? Deep down Rafael still loves Jane but had to bury those feelings and move on. I think the friendship still holds up. They were just friends doing that time. Nothing happened between them. This was the most J/R flashbacks from the missing years we have ever seen. Jane said Adam broke heart 9 years ago. She kissed Rafael 10 years ago. She still was 18 when she kissed him that one Summer day. So we're back to Ro not liking Raf, even though he got over that five years ago. Raf wasn't a ladies man when he seen Jane again. He was one when he first kissed Jane and Ro wasn't in her life. J/Ro didn't even know the other existed. In S1 Rogelio didn't like Rafael because Rogelio viewed Raf as a Playboy but he wasn't at that time. He was a faithful husband. He slept with a lot of women in S2, but Jane was all in with Michael again. They were over. His life as a Playboy never involved Jane. Only when she kissed him as a teen but that was another lifetime ago. He did break her heart but he never played her doing that time. It was real. Alba was on cloud nine, then she turned him down? She has that right but damn that has to hurt. Wait, did Alba ever say she's madly in love with Jorge? I don't remember. Overall it's a beautiful episode. One of my favorites. Every J/R scene.

innocent_chick

I can't wait to watch now.
Sounds beautiful.

We had Jane's heart glowing last season..and now Rafael's.
Whether the timing works or not - i don't know yet. It definitely won't be smooth sailing but it's in the right direction!

Found some clips on Youtube. i really love the second 'be brave' moment when he put her forehead to his - that's such an intimate, sweet gesture

all2him1

This is all true. Season 1 Rafael was not a playboy. In fact, he was pretty reflective on his poor life decisions. To me, it never seemed like Ro and Raf were on bad terms, but I guess.

A couple other things...
Some people think Petra died and not Anezka. I would hate for that to be true.
I am excited for Jane’s next book based off “the best is yet to come” line. I wonder if that will be part of the story when the show returns.

As far as the Ep 8 trailer...


Honestly, my ideal would be for R/J to decide soon what they’re going to do from here. I know it’ll hardly be smooth sailing, but with time jump, it’s been years (feels like 84 years). Hope it’s not a dragged out ordeal. And if next season is the last (speculating here), they should be happy together at least a few episodes..

perfangel5655

Remember how in season 2 they had kind of forgotten about this? Good thing they remember now.

This journey is really reminding us who Rafael is in Jane’s life, and how he’s been the person who’s always inspired her to go after her dreams and to dream big and to take a chance and be a writer. That feeling of somebody who believes in her throughout her journey has been a part of their romantic connection all the way through, and this story was about that, in a lot of ways, and about her leaning on him in that way when she was feeling like she wasn’t such a success. Somebody being your champion and believing in you and your talent and your dream, and believing that you have it in you is one of the most romantic feelings that one can have. So it felt right that it came out of that moment and a reminder of who Rafael [is to Jane], not only as the father of Mateo, but also somebody who has really always championed her as a writer, which is so meaningful and moving for Jane.- Jennie Urman