Why the Jane the Virgin Finale Twist Went Too Far

One of the things that's endearing about Jane the Virgin is its telenovela roots and its ability to push the envelope of campiness while balancing a genuinely emotional tone. This week's season finale is a reflection of that, only this time, the scales were tipped way too far in the telenovela direction. If you haven't watched the finale yet, spoilers are ahead.

The entire episode is dedicated to what the season has been building to: the birth of Jane (Gina Rodriguez) and Rafael's (Justin Baldoni) baby. As is required in TV, there are the requisite complications to add tension: Jane goes into false labor, then real labor; her parents are both in Las Vegas doing a show; her two exes both want to be with her. There is plenty of conflict already — no, there is enough conflict. However, that's not the biggest twist of the episode. Even with all Jane has to deal with, there's one final twist that is unnecessary and cruel. Moments after we see Jane welcome her baby, as she and her family are shedding tears of joy, Jane's baby is kidnapped by none other than villain Sin Rostro.

Normally, there'd be an exclamation point at the end of that sentence, the way the show's own narrator would say it, but I can't think of it in that melodramatic way. It's too sad. It's callous. To have spent a season getting invested in these characters and their emotions makes the family's new child getting kidnapped an atrocity. Not that we shouldn't expect dramatic highs and lows from a TV show — Sons of Anarchy had a similar plotline once, but Sons of Anarchy and Jane the Virgin are two very different shows. While Jane the Virgin has a telenovela foundation, these aren't telenovela characters. When Rogelio's character, Santos, dies on his soap, we laugh, but if the real Rogelio died? We'd never recover.

Blame the excellent acting on this show. I like to think that Gina Rodriguez won her Golden Globe for all the very real emotions she puts into Jane, and that's part of the reason I can't get excited about this kind of plot twist. When season two returns, we have to see Jane react to hearing that her day-old infant, Mateo, has been taken from her. Can you imagine the narrator even trying to recap that? This newly single mother who just had a profoundly emotional experience after a very trying pregnancy will have to now deal with the worst news a mother a can hear. She has literally lost her baby. No, Mateo hasn't died, but part of Jane will. Is there a chance this is all a telenovela-esque dream? Let's hope so.