‘Jane the Virgin’ recap: The holiday blame game

Ah, Christmas. When the lights are brighter, the colors more vibrant, the music cheerier, and the emotions more repressed.

That much was certainly true on the winter finale of CW’s “Jane the Virgin,” where we learn that Jane has a temper that won’t be contained and that the root of it may come from a surprising source.

Jane, of course, is upset over the revelation from last episode that Rafael paid someone to tell the police about how Michael was working with Nadine in an inappropriate fashion and, more importantly, the six months of lying Rafael did to cover up his betrayal.

As though that weren’t enough, Jane learns that she may be dropped from grad school when she loses a scholarship that was to cover the whole of her tuition. Of course, the scholarship is lost because it was actually funded by Rogelio as a way to contribute to Jane’s education, knowing she’d be too proud to take a handout.

Tensions are high in the universe of “Jane the Virgin” as the holidays approach.

Rafael is upset at the idea that he may truly be losing his family and is determined to retain his relationship with Mateo, even if that means taking Christmas away from Jane. Rogelio is desperate to find a friend to confide in, as the strain in Rafael and Jane’s relationship is triggering unresolved issues in his own mind. And Alba is all consumed with her green card status, waiting to hear whether her application has been accepted.

It gets so bad at one point that Jane snaps at Santa Claus, instructing him to “Stay out of this, Santa.”

But what so many of these stressors come down to is a case of hurt feelings. Jane is hurt that Rafael would be OK lying to her for so long. Rafael is hurt that she couldn’t see that Michael has come to represent Sin Rostro in his eyes, the woman who killed his father. Rogelio is hurt because watching Jane try to shut Rafael out of Mateo’s life reminds him of how Xiomara kept Jane from him for 23 years.

The point being that people and relationships are complicated and are made all the more complicated when we don’t take particular care to see where they’re coming from.

In the end, everyone is able to work through their feelings and frustrations and come together for something resembling a wonderful Christmastime.

But after all, this is “Jane the Virgin,” so a whole bunch of other stuff happened as well.

Primarily, though, we learn about the continuing perils of Petra, wherein she’s been enlisted by her mother to help bury the body of Ivan, the man her mother killed, who is now haunting Petra “Leftovers” style. It’s an appropriately soapy plot that leads to a lovely scene between Rafael and Petra where she comes clean about everything she’s done and he helps her plan a way to get rid of her mother forever.

That is, right before Petra’s mother falsely turns her over to the police for Ivan’s murder.

Rafael’s half-sister Luisa isn’t having a great time of it either, working with the police to try to find her mother, who was long-suspected dead.

While Luisa and Petra are both better characters than either have any right to be, given their often cartoonish behavior, it’s still difficult to treat their emotions with the same gravitas as the other characters. Though they both have real and complicated relationships with their mothers, neither is allowed the space to fully explore those complications, because they’re too often being thrown in as the punchline to a soapy, slapstick twist.

Christmas is a time for feelings, both good and bad. The challenge on “Jane the Virgin” is striking that perfect balance between the absurd and the genuine that allows for those feelings to ring true for all characters equally.

Thankfully, they have an entire half season to work on getting the balance right.

“Jane the Virgin” returns to the CW at 9 p.m. Jan. 25.

Follow me on Twitter at @midwestspitfire.

libby.hill@latimes.com