Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Netflix
For three seasons, Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher’s coming-of-age-teen comedy Never Have I Ever drew viewers into the messy, awkward love life of Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan). During her tenure in high school, she’s fallen for her former class rival/frenemy Ben Bross (Jaren Lewison); crushed on hot jock upperclassman Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet), who became her boyfriend for some time; and, later in the new season, an intelligent Indian boy named Des (Anirudh Pisharody).
But for all the misadventures of Devi’s romantic endeavors, Season 3 reveals the true love of her life all along: her mom Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan). Forget the boys. Devi’s most significant relationship is the mother-daughter relationship that matters most.
In the finale, “…I Lived the Dream,” Devi is scouted to attend a specialized high school in Colorado for her senior year, ensuring her chance of getting into her dream university, Princeton. Devi is torn over the idea: Why would she want to leave her girlies Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez) and Eleanor (Ramona Young)?