This study explores the dynamics of an unstable jet of two-dimensional, incompressible fluid on the beta-plane. In the inviscid limit, standard weakly nonlinear theory fails to give a low-order description of this problem, partly because the simple shape of the unstable normal mode is insufficient to capture the structure of the forming pattern. That pattern takes the form of ‘cat's eyes’ in the vorticity distribution which develop inside the modal critical layers (slender regions to either side of the jet's axis surrounding the levels where the modal wave speed matches the mean flow). Asymptotic expansions furnish a reduced model which is a version of what is known as the single-wave model in plasma physics. The reduced model predicts that the amplitude of the unstable mode saturates at a relatively low level and is not steady. Rather, the amplitude evolves aperiodically about the saturation level, a result with implications for Lagrangian transport theories. The aperiodic amplitude ‘bounces’ are intimately connected with sporadic deformations of the vortices within the cat's eyes. The theory is compared with numerical simulations of the original governing equations. Slightly asymmetrical jets are also studied. In this case the neutral modes along the stability boundary become singular; an extension of the weakly nonlinear theory is presented for these modes.