JANE THE VIRGIN: CHAPTER ONE {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)

Summary

The pilot of this comedy/drama series, based on the Venezuelan telenovela "Juana la Virgen," about a young Latina woman who becomes pregnant after being accidentally artificially inseminated.

As a young girl, Jane is continually warned by her grandmother Alba that losing her virginity is a form of ruination. Thirteen years later, Jane is quite religious and still a virgin, and prevents her boyfriend Michael Cordero, a police detective, from having sex with her, still taking her grandmother’s advice to heart and concerned about her virginity. Meanwhile, hotel owner Rafael Solano is experiencing financial difficulties, distressing both himself and his wife Petra. Jane is studying to become a teacher but in the meantime works as a waitress in Rafael’s hotel, and one night is forced to wear a cumbersome mermaid costume. Rafael’s sister, Dr. Luisa Alver, a gynecologist, advises him to divorce Petra, as he is unhappy with her, but he feels that he cannot. Jane realizes Rafael is nearby and flees; she recognized him from years before and used to have a crush on him, although she denies this. Luisa returns home to find that her lesbian wife is cheating on her.

The next day, Jane visits Luisa’s office, although Luisa is distraught over the discovery of the affair and is busy filling in for another doctor. In the confusion she mistakenly believes that Jane has come in to be artificially inseminated; Jane keeps nodding off to sleep and thus does not get the opportunity to correct her misinformation. Jane is inseminated, but Luisa quickly realizes her mistake when she finds out that Petra has come to be inseminated; the sperm used for Jane was from Rafael. In a panic Luisa calls her ex-girlfriend Rose, a former lawyer, to try to help cover her tracks, revealing that she “inseminated” Petra with saline so as not to make her suspicious. Petra surprises Rafael and tells him about the insemination, although he does not view it as being as “romantic” as she had imagined.

About two weeks later, Jane feels nauseous and passes out while on a bus with her mother Xiomara. The doctors conclude that she is pregnant, although she and her mother do not believe them, as she is still a virgin. At their insistence the hospital performs another pregnancy test and it comes up positive. She tries to call Luisa’s office, still insisting that she is not pregnant. When Petra’s pregnancy tests turn up negative, Luisa admits to her and Rafael that she inseminated the wrong woman and brings in Jane to tell her the truth as well. Jane reacts to this news oddly and has a hallucination of a telenovela character offering her reassurance. She becomes distressed and runs out of the office when Luisa tells her that the father of her child is aware of the situation, although Jane does not discover that it is Rafael. Jane goes to see Michael for a romantic date they had planned, and is shocked when he prepares to propose marriage to her. He offers a heartfelt speech about how he wants to spend his life with her, but she interrupts him to tell him that she’s pregnant. He is upset about this turn of events, more so when their families arrive to hear about the results of the proposal.

Rafael is also upset over this turn of events but wants to have the child anyway; he is a cancer survivor and is unable to have children in a conventional manner, and it has sparked his great desire to be a father. Michael and Jane pretend that she accepted his proposal and conceal her pregnancy in order not to panic their families. Michael is surprised to find that his estranged brother has come as well, making him uncomfortable. Narration reveals that Jane has never met her father, and that Xiomara has not seen him since she told him she was pregnant until sixteen months ago, when she happened to see him but fled without saying anything to him. Xiomara tries to talk to Jane about her pregnancy, but Jane resents her mother for getting pregnant as a teenager; she had hoped to become a responsible adult in order to avoid the same fate. Xiomara offers her pills to abort the child in case Jane decides to do so.

Luisa tells Rafael and Petra that Jane is carrying his child and they realize that she works at the hotel. Rafael calls a private meeting with Jane and reveals that he is the father of her child. He recounts that they met once years ago when Jane worked at a yacht club he belonged to; she served him in the club’s restaurant despite it being closed, and they shared a long conversation and a kiss. He apologizes for never calling her, and offers to take the baby off her hands when it is born. However, while Jane says she is not prepared to be a mother, she also is uncomfortable with the idea of the child growing up in someone else’s home. She notes that her accidental birth “derailed” her mother’s life despite the fact that she loves her, and she doesn’t want her child to go through the same situation. Petra is upset that Rafael didn’t mention to Jane that this is his only chance to have a biological child, and is worried that Jane will abort the child. Unbeknownst to Rafael, Petra is cheating on him with Roman, one of the hotel management staff, and hopes to divorce Rafael to claim millions of dollars from a settlement.

Jane has a difficult time explaining to Alba what happened to her, as Alba believes that Jane secretly had sex. Alba reveals to Jane that when Xiomara was pregnant with Jane, she ordered her to abort the child, but Xiomara refused, much to Jane’s surprise. She calls Jane “the best part of [her] life” and says that her child will assume similar importance in her own life. Michael visits Jane and tells her that while he wants to start a life with her, he feels uncomfortable with her having another man’s child, and tells her not to have it. The exact identity of Jane’s father is unknown, as Xiomara told Alba that it was “some army guy.” Jane talks to Xiomara, who believes that she should have a choice about what to do with the child, but that she would support her either way. Jane is conflicted; Michael doesn’t want the child, but Luisa told her about Rafael’s cancer and that this is his only chance at having a child. Meanwhile, Rafael tells Petra that he wants to divorce her, much to her shock. Michael and his fellow detectives are spying on Roman, believing that he is some sort of criminal contact, and begin to unravel the details of his affair with Petra.

Xiomara is visited by Rogelio, her high school boyfriend who grew up to become a famous telenovela star. It turns out that he is Jane’s father as well. She saw him on television sixteen months ago and wrote him a letter about Jane, but he has only just recently responded. Jane goes to visit Michael at the police station and proposes marriage to him, but insists on giving birth to the child and giving it over to Petra and Rafael. Petra finds out about this and tells Rafael, and they are unsure of what to do about it. Michael accepts Jane’s proposal after she gives a passionate speech about the reasons why she loves him. They kiss, although the narration indicates that their happiness will soon be tested. Commercials deleted.

Details

• NETWORK: CW, The
• DATE: 9:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 0:40:10
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: 116266
• GENRE: Comedy; Drama
• SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Drama; LGBT Collection; Women's Collection - Comedy; Women's Collection - Drama
• SERIES RUN: The CW - TV series, 2014-2019
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Gary Pearl … Executive Producer
• Jorge Granier … Executive Producer
• Ben Silverman … Executive Producer
• Brad Silberling … Executive Producer, Director
• Jennie Snyder Urman … Executive Producer, Developed by, Writer
• Lewis Abel … Co-Executive Producer
• Gina Lamar … Co-Producer
• Gina Rodriguez … Cast, Jane Villanueva
• Andrea Navedo … Cast, Xiomara Villanueva
• Yael Grobglas … Cast, Petra Solano
• Justin Baldoni … Cast, Rafael Solano
• Ivonne Coll … Cast, Alba Villanueva
• Brett Dier … Cast, Michael Cordero
• Jaime Camil … Cast, Rogelio
• Yara Martinez … Cast, Dr. Luisa Alver
• Bridget Regan … Cast, Rose
• Diane Guererro … Cast, Lina
• Alano Miller … Cast, Roman Zazo
• Priscilla Barnes … Cast, Magda
• Daniel Kash … Cast, Dr. Spinoza
• Ryan Devlin … Cast, Billy Cordero