Making its return on Jan. 19, “Jane The Virgin” tackled some new issues in Monday night’s latest episode “Chapter 10.”
Fresh from Gina Rodriguez’s Golden Globe win for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, the show decided to bring up immigration reform with Jane’s grandmother’s, Alba Villanueva (Ivonne Coll), accident.
Alba was in a coma following her fall down the stairs and while this was a dramatic moment for the series, what came after was even more surprising being that the doctors informed Xo (Andrea Navedo) that her mother could be deported after she wakes up.
“Your mother is in the country illegally. She doesn’t have insurance and the hospital can’t afford to absorb the cost of her care,” is what was told to Xo . “We will have to notify I.C.E. ( Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and they will deport her to Venezuela where she can continue to receive care if he needs it.”
This was a shocking moment for Xo who even stated, “That can’t be legal!” only to have the call to action on the screen read, “Yes, this really happens. Look it up. #ImmigrationReform.”
“It’s called medical repatriation,” the doctor stated.
And what exactly is medical repatriation? It is a process which allows hospitals to put patients on chartered international flights, often when they are still unconscious, and effectively deport the patients because of their lack of immigration papers.
This hot button issue is something that is quickly blown over by the fact that Jane’s ex, Michael a detective, makes a call and let’s the hospital know that Alba is a key witness in a murder trial. While this is just an added plot twist to the hit comedy, in real life immigration reform laws are not blown over that quickly.
This isn’t the first time that the show has touched immigration topics. In earlier episodes we saw Jane drop a lawsuit against the doctor who accidentally inseminated her due to the fact that her grandmother didn’t want to get her family involved in court cases that could reveal that she was an undocumented immigrant.
This shows that “Jane” is a story much bigger than a comedic program on television, it is a great opportunity to shine light on real life incidents that many Hispanic families in this country deal with as well as government issues that are still being discussed to this day. During President Obama’s Obamacare pitch he made it clear that, “If you have a family where some people are citizens or legally here, and others are not documented, the immigration people will never get that information.”
But sometimes they do when a family member is in dire need of help such is the case we saw in “Jane The Virgin’s” tenth episode.
“Jane The Virgin” is making a splash and not only because it became the first CW Network television show to be nominated for a Golden Globe, but because it also demonstrates that a series can speak to its public, inform them, make them go research a topic more in depth and at the same time show Latinos in a new light.
Like Gina said in her Golden Globe acceptance speech, “This award is so much more than myself. It represents a culture that wants to see themselves as heroes.”
And that culture and its fan base are speaking up as fans on Twitter praised the show Monday night.
It’s also a good thing to mention that “Jane” had its most watched episode (1.42M) since its series debut and also matched its series high in women 18-49 (0.8/2) making this The CW’s most watched Monday night, with the help of “The Originals” in three years.
Don’t miss any of the upcoming “Jane The Virgin” episodes, Mondays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
