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teamdevi · 1 year

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Devi, Ben, and the Power of Happy Endings

Never Have I Ever is about to go down in the history books as one of the most thematically rich coming of age stories produced in the streaming era.

While the thought of parting from my beloved, Devi Vishwakumar, makes me want to curl into a fetal position, I’ve been struck with the sudden inspiration to document my predictions. Every wild, outrageous opinion.

Maybe this post will be nothing more than fodder for your morning coffee Tumblr scroll, but my hope is that it will convey a sense of optimism. Not only do I think that Never Have I Ever will have an explicitly romantic ending for Ben and Devi, I think that it fundamentally has to. But we still have a long journey ahead.

1. Devi: T-minus 5 Seconds to Heartbreak

This is Devi Vishwakumar, walking into school for her first day of senior year, smiling like the lovestruck nerd that she is, having finally figured out that she wants to be with Ben.

I mean, just look at her gloat! This is the gloat of someone who is ready to join forces with her soulmate so they can terrorize the school with their combined obnoxiousness!

Only to walk in and see this:

Oh Ben… To quote the great Logan Echolls, “no one writes songs about the ones that come easy”.

2. To boink, or not to boink?

I’m not convinced that Ben and Devi had sex.

Now, hold on-

Let me first caveat and say that Never Have I Ever always manages to surprise me. While I can pick out the broad narrative strokes and character arcs they are aiming for, they manage to awe and delight me with the details.

I think that following through on the “one free boink” scene is the more interesting route, but it also makes the writers’ jobs much, much harder.

I cannot fathom Ben and Devi having sex and then Ben immediately rebounding to Margot. That level of womanizing would make Paxton Hall-Yoshida tremble in his tiny swim shorts. In order to keep the audience on Ben’s side, the writers would have to spend a considerable amount of time unpacking his trauma and explaining his perspective. It’s not impossible, but I’m dubious.

The show never rewards Devi for making a decision based on her own insecurities. She wants to have sex with Ben, but her catalyst for getting there is the sext Fabiola accidently sends to her instead of Addison (i.e Devi is insecure about being the only virgin in her friend group left).

Maitreyi confirmed that season 4 would pick up immediately where season 3 left off. Do I think we’re getting play-by-play? An under-the-cover post boink scene? Them starting to make-out then something happening? I’m betting on the latter.

3. The Ben Problem

Picture this:

Mid make-out, Devi casually lets slip that she is staying at Sherman Oaks for senior year. Suddenly, sex with the love of his life is an actual relationship that he has to contend with. All the trauma and pain from season 2 comes flooding back. And it’s important to remember that Ben was deeply traumatized from the events of season 2.

His actual brain catches up with his er… primal instincts, and they agree to see where things go. It’s just vague enough that Devi thinks they’re going to be together, but Ben is scared. Scared of being more in love with her than he already is and scared of being hurt again. He goes with the safer option of neglecting his feelings, because his arc of vulnerability has yet to be fully actualized.

This manages to set up the same conflict and angst between Ben and Devi and give Ben a starting point to make amends without having him abandon Devi right after she has sex for the first time.

It’s a much more palatable fallout for the “one free boink scene”, but I digress.

4. Never Have I Ever… Been a Wallflower

We catch up with Paxton in episode 3, narrated by Gigi Hadid, and he’s kind of shy?

He has always used his popularity as a crutch and now has to grapple with his new identity. Much like Devi and Ben, Paxton’s insecurities are an ongoing battle, as he realizes that his choice to go to college was partially defined by his desire to escape the “dumb jock” label. Tucked away in his dorm room, watching life pass him by, he realizes that he doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone else. He can pursue his athletic aspirations and still defy the labels that people have placed on him. By the end of the episode, Paxton makes the decision to come back to Sherman Oaks as a swim coach assistant.

I’ll admit, I think it’s a strange choice to reignite Devi and Paxton’s romance by making him a faculty member at the school. The writers might as well hold up a big red sign that says, “The only reason we can think of for Devi and Paxton to interact is if they are stuck in high school together”.

But I want to make one thing clear: I do not think this undoes his arc from season 3. To realize that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you have to is a very natural extension of gaining personal liberty.

And I, for one, am proud of him.

Also, I’m getting season 2 vibes from this scene.

Devi and Paxton fans can probably expect callbacks, sweet moments, a kiss, and an emphasis on how important they have been to each other’s personal growth.

5. Where are Ben and Devi?

Hidden behind a Michael Cimino-sized red herring. They are going to give us as little as they possibly can about Ben and Devi during promo season. The same way they have in *checks notes* every single season prior.

I’ve written about this before, but it is integral to their individual arcs that they are honest about their love for each other. It is the bedrock of the story. But between Michael Cimino’s washboard abs and closing out Paxton and Devi’s arc in a way that feels satisfying and emotionally resonant, I don’t think we’ll be seeing Ben and Devi’s domestic bliss phase.

Put another way: The love triangle and push-and-pull romance is not a side story, it’s a source of narrative conflict that’s integral to the plot. Would you resolve the final battle in a fantasy series three episodes before the finale? Resolving the Ben and Devi plot early would be like sucking all of the tension out of the story. It would not give us the euphoric high of Ben and Devi blurting out that they love each other at the eleventh hour after trying to suppress their feelings. The show has always saved these big moments for finales, and this season will be no different.

But for anyone worried that Ben and Devi will be fighting the entire season, I think we’re in for our most Benvi-centric season yet, filled with great moments and their trademark banter.

They go to New York to visit colleges. Neither of them admits it, but they are relieved to know that they will remain constants in each others’ lives.

They study for finals together while bantering, skirting around the topic of prom, and just generally being the only two idiots who don’t know they are in love. *Buries self under 10 pounds of cement*

This time, Ben asks her to dance. The angst, unspoken feelings and tension are palpable.

They fight over valedictorian and it’s practically foreplay. Devi wins, and Ben is proud of her, underscoring his growth and ability to put aside his competitive nature to be supportive.

And that is just a fraction of what’s in store for our obnoxious, loveable nerds.

6. 🎶 It’s the circle of life 🎶

“Hey, gods. It’s Devi Vishwakumar, your favorite Hindu girl in the San Fernando Valley. What’s a-poppin’? It’s the first day of school, and I thought we should have a check in. I think we can all agree that last year sucked for a number of reasons. So I thought of a few ways you guys can make it up to me.”

“One: I’d like to be invited to a party with alcohol and hard drugs. I’m not gonna do them. I’d just like the opportunity to say: ‘No cocaine for me, thanks. I’m good.’”

John Mcenroe Voice: Devi, you seem a little drunk.

“Two: I’d love for my arm hair to thin out. I know it’s an Indian thing, but my forearms look like the frigging floor of a barber shop.”

The mehndi on her hands symbolizes her love for her family and heritage. Juxtaposed with her western clothes, it signifies her acceptance of her intersectionality.

“And lastly, most importantly, I’d really, really like a boyfriend, but not some nerd from one of AP classes.”

The picture that I want to get my hands on is currently stashed away in Netflix’s top-secret headquarters, but I’ll settle for this one of Ben’s adorable, dopey smile.

7. The Finale: Why Devi and Ben Must Have an Unambiguously Happy Ending

For the longest time, I believed that Never Have I Ever would go the way of its spiritual successor Crazy-Ex Girlfriend and give Devi the “I choose myself” ending” with hints of her ending up with Ben in the future.

It was only when watching the season 3 finale that I realized how wrong I was. In fact, I was so fundamentally wrong that I overlooked the obvious: Never Have I Ever has never done anything halfway. The writers of Never Have I Ever know something about the audience that we often fail to recognize ourselves, which is that we desperately want a happy ending.

Season one could have ended with Devi’s heartfelt goodbye to her father and reconciliation with her mother. What do we get instead? A sweeping, romantic shot of Malibu while Devi and Ben share their first kiss.

In the season 2 finale, Devi proclaims that she will not settle for “some weird secret thing behind closed doors” and that she wants to be “someone’s public girlfriend.” And what does she get? Exactly what she wants.

But it’s only in season 3 when this pattern becomes apparent. The season could have easily ended with her deciding to stay at Sherman Oaks. We had already said our farewell to Paxton, and gotten this chemistry-choked, almost-love-confession between our favourite dorks:

And we think that maybe, just maybe, the season will end with Devi single and ready for her senior year. But the show says “subtlety be damned”. It demands a triumphant ending, with Devi showing up at Ben’s door, leading to what will certainly be one of the most intimate moments in the entire show.

Tonally, the story makes bold choices, and the reaction from fans is always electric. In a world of being told “no” and being conditioned to temper our expectations, Never Have I Ever is like a warm hug reminding us that even the most broken people can heal and find love.

And this brings us back to “the Ben problem”, the idea is that he must overcome his fear and confess his love to Devi. And Devi, in turn, must love herself before being able to embrace her narrative mirror.

On a show that prides itself on big endings, escapism, and romance it seems unfathomable, and almost cruel, for Devi and Ben to be in love and not be together.

The writers do not want people finishing the show, shrugging, and saying “that was a realistic ending.” They want us to watch the finale with grins too big for our faces, our hearts bursting with excitement. They want us to know that all of Ben and Devi’s suffering over the past four seasons meant something, that when Devi finally makes the right decisions, she “will find someone who loves her exactly as she is.”

Love, unvarnished and without fear. That is the true narrative promise of Never Have I Ever.

#i love this <3 #s4 spec

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teamdevi · 1 year

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NHIE S4 Promotional Photos

#nhie #s4

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teamdevi · 1 year

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senior year starts this summer 📚 the final season of Never Have I Ever premieres June 8 only on Netflix! ✌️ [x]

#this is the video that all the screenshots are from #nhie #s4

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teamdevi · 1 year

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NHIE S4 Trailer: The Essentials (Part 2)

#nhie #s4

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teamdevi · 1 year

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NHIE S4 Trailer: The Essentials (PART 1)

#nhie #s4

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teamdevi · 1 year

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I'm gonna be honest the trailer scares me, it seems like Devi is going to hide her pain and trauma of literally seeing his dad die again.In S2 we don't see Devi being vulnerable about it with her therapist until ep10 and it was because she finally had time to focus on herself without boys drama and now that she has a boyfriend and is going to try to be popular and cool, i love the romcon part but Devi needs to heal, I hope her friends help her more this season (big hope in Ben and Aneesa helping her since they both tried to be "popular" but realize it wasn't real and ultimately decided to stay true to themselves)

hi anon!! I definitely understand why you'd be worried because the trailer focused significantly on the popularity/relationships aspect of the show. however, trailers are often intentionally designed to be misleading, especially when they're targeting a certain audience. look at the second season trailer - from everything we saw in the s2 trailer, I thought the entire season was going to be about Devi having two boyfriends and I did not anticipate that plan falling apart by episode 2. I think the s3 trailer is similar in the sense that they're showing as little as possible in order to deceive the audience, and I'm betting that the majority of the scenes are from 3x01-3x02.

oh, and as much as I hate to say it, the main selling point of this show to the general public is the love triangle....so it makes sense that they would focus on that in order to market the new season. but I really believe that the heavy focus in the trailer doesn't necessarily mean that the whole season will be like that. the few short clips of Devi and her mom/grandmother, as well as the Indian holiday episode clip in the new trailer give me hope that the show will focus more on her family and culture this season like it did in s1. and the scene where Dr. Ryan reminds Devi that relationships aren't everything gives me hope that Devi will finally learn that she doesn't need to use relationships to deflect from her grief anymore.

also!! I really love the idea of Ben and especially Aneesa trying to rein in Devi when her pursuit of popularity gets taken too far. both of them have been victims of this mindset themselves (Ben flaunting his wealth and behaving in an overly pretentious manner to get people to notice him and Aneesa starving herself because being thin made her more well liked to the girls at her old school) and it would be really clever writing to have them advise Devi against going down that road. we know that the trailer showed a voiceover of Ben telling Devi not to try so hard, so I'm genuinely hopeful that we will get a scene about this very situation and I'm excited to see it :)

#once again reblogging bc of paragraph 2 bc the new trailer had way more shots of paxton and that other guy than it did of ben #sr #s4 spec

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teamdevi · 1 year

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NEVER HAVE I EVER “…had an Indian boyfriend” 3x09

#devi vishwakumar #nalini vishwakumar #dynamic: devi & nalini #3x09 #nhie

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teamdevi · 2 years

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this ten second scene truly has NO RIGHT to hit as hard as it does reader, my heart WRENCHED

#this scene hit me harder than 'one free boink' ngl #otp: bad morning enemy #3x03 #s3 #nhie

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teamdevi · 2 years

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Eleanor and Trent in Never Have I Ever 3x01

#trent harrison #eleanor wong #ship: trent x eleanor #3x01 #s3 #thanks for tagging me!

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teamdevi · 2 years

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One day, you will find someone who loves you exactly as you are, just like I do. I love you too, Mom.

DEVI & NALINI VISHWAKUMAR + relationship development NEVER HAVE I EVER (2020– )

#i love them...#devi vishwakumar #nalini vishwakumar #dynamic: devi & nalini #misc #s1 #s2 #s3 #nhie

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teamdevi · 2 years

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220811 Jaren Lewison and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan at afterparty of the Premiere of Never have I ever - Season 3

#best friends!!#jaren lewison #maitreyi ramakrishnan #cast #nhie

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teamdevi · 2 years

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#oh my god 😭#ben gross #devi vishwakumar #otp: bad morning enemy #2x10 #3x10 #s2 #s3 #nhie

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teamdevi · 2 years

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Devi vs. David: aka a comprehensive list of every single time ben gross has referred to devi as one or the other (season two edition)

first and foremost: if you missed it, please go check out part one where i talk about devi vs. david in season one. i also want to refer you to these posts: x, x by @catty-words, because they are very well-worded and also very relevant to what i'm about to talk about. i will be referencing some of what cori said in those two posts as well. once again, this is a list of every single time in season two that ben has called her either devi or david, with context + insight, and i am creating this post for myself more than anyone else. expect a season 3 edition in the future; likely sometime next week.

anyways. here goes.

"Devi, I'm all-in."

the first time in season 2 that he refers to her at all, he calls her devi — he’s opening up to her, telling her that what they have is real and that she makes him better, literally tells her that he stood up to his parents for the first time in his life because of her. he is all-in, even if it means long distance. he wants to be with her, but he is also giving her time to think about it. the use of devi as opposed to david here shows that he’s being vulnerable, that he is serious about her.

obv we don’t see much of his short-lived relationship with devi, and while i personally believe he did still throw around the david nickname with her (teasingly, lovingly), it does make sense that he wouldn’t use it with her friends while she isn’t present. so, devi.

the way his eyes light up when he sees her. his whole body language changes. he perks right up the second his eyes land on her and the “come here” motion he makes i still have not gotten over and it has been over a year since i saw this scene for the first time. anyways. i mentioned in part one that david belongs to ben and devi and no one else. and here i feel like that shines in a new light. he calls her devi here because they’re in front of people, but more importantly in front of paxton. the last time ben referred to devi in front of him, he called her david (in 1x08, if you were wondering). he was jealous back then, crushing hard and knowing she’s got a thing for pax. but here? he’s secure in their relationship (haha just wait like…ten minutes ben lol then you’re going to be shattered). he thinks she is his. he doesn’t need to take control of the situation by calling her david here.

okay, so obv he’s calling her devi here bc 1) he’s talking to paxton and 2) paxton also just referred to her as devi. but i wanna talk about his tone here. his voice goes up like…three octaves. cracks at the end when he says her name. because as opposed to the last instance he called her devi, he’s nervous here. knows that pax is this ladies man that had caught devi’s eye before, and he’s worried that he’s going to catch her eye again (give it literally two minutes, ben, and then you’ll find out, lol). being around paxton without devi present pulls on his insecurities, because he can’t look over at her and think, “she chose me. she chose me.” (again, she didn’t, but that’s beside the point right now)

“There should only be one choice..."

oof. this stings, tbh. cori mentions it in her posts as well, but here you can see him using her real name as a way to distance himself from her. he says it like it’s a curse, like it’s the most vile thing that could come out of his mouth. he’s hurt, obviously. he was all-in for her! and i think this here helps prove my theory that he’s had feelings for her for far longer than we’re made to assume — like yes, obviously you’re going to be hurt if your significant other cheats on you regardless for how long you’ve been together or how long you’ve really, truly cared about them, but ben is absolutely devastated. i’m not saying paxton isn’t upset, because he is! this is during paxton’s pov episode, so we do hear from miss hadid here that he was upset about the whole two-timing thing. but ben? it absolutely crushed him, because he was that much more invested in devi than pax was. we aren’t sure of the exact timeline, of course, but since they’re still in the first semester of school at this point it’s safe to assume that it’s likely been maybe a month or so since ben and devi started actually being friends. ben’s reaction runs so much more deep than someone who’s only had romantic feelings for that short a time period. (i also want to point out that the scene immediately following this one is where paxton coins the term “crazy devi,” though that’s not particularly relevant to this post.)

"...At the party, you followed him, and you left me behind.”

OUCH. if the last one stung, this one is a punch straight to the gut. using her real name to hold her accountable for her own actions. to show her that she hurt him and that they aren’t okay. i mean, his exact words: “We’re not even. We’re not even close to even.” back in 1x06 he uses david as an attempt to return to their version of normalcy, and here he uses devi to show that they can’t return to that.

okay, obviously i’m going to be referencing this post by cori because she talks specifically of this instance. this is the first use of david we see in season 2, and we are already halfway through the season. while i don’t believe for a single second that ben has moved on from the two-timing incident, he is trying to move on from devi at the very least. as cori says in her post, we only see him refer to her as david after he and aneesa start flirting with each other. i really like how she worded it in her post: “it’s a relic from their rivalry, which makes it both an insult and a way to preserve their years of shared history.” he’s not ready to be best buds just yet, obviously, but he still cares about her.

once again linking cori’s other post that dives into this episode’s use of devi vs. david as well as 2x08’s. here, he’s obviously defaulting to devi because they’re in front of her family, but there’s also the way he says her name in this scene. like he’s using it to hold her accountable for her own actions. his tone after she tries to be lighthearted with, “I don’t know. She could spin that into a pretty good essay,” is disappointed because she keeps messing up. he wants to believe in her, but she isn't giving him any reason to.

just like cori says in her post, he goes back to david when her family isn’t around. while he is using the nickname as some form of familiarity & closeness, he is still so disappointed in her, because he wants to believe that she’s capable of doing right by aneesa. the wording of “use your brain” here comes off as their usual banter if you don’t take into account ben’s tone, sober and serious. he wants her to do better, not just for him, and not just for aneesa, but for devi, herself, too.

aaand here we are back with another term of endearment david! he’s genuinely pleased with her that she managed to pull off not only the apology, but in securing aneesa’s spot at sherman oaks — not just so he can ask her out, obviously, but because it means 1) aneesa doesn’t have to go through transferring schools again, because ben does care about her well-being and mental health, but also 2) it means devi is capabale of doing good and righting her wrongs. obviously, he doesn’t know that her main motivation was getting ben back, but still, in his eyes, she was able to hold herself accountable and fix her mistakes. not only that, but we are reverting back to banter here! this is such a huge turning point for them this season, giving a good headstart to what i am affectionately going to be referring to as their “besties era” in season 3.

not much to say here, really; just his use of david being an indicator of friendship. however what is interesting is…

"She's, like, super flighty and unstable, and throws away a good man for no reason."

okay, first off, obviously, this is a huge dig at her for the events of 2x02, which i can’t blame ben for, but it’s also so snarky that it comes across like their season 1 pre-friendship banter which is an era of their relationship i genuinely love (mostly bc it all comes across as thinly veiled flirting, but i digress). what is really interesting to me is that he doesn’t call her david in front of aneesa. he doesn’t do it even once. i have said it once and i will say it a million fucking times: david belongs to ben and devi and no one else. he uses it to both 1) take back control of situations when he is feeling uncomfortable or insecure, and 2) when he wants to establish a closeness to devi. the former isn’t relevant here, and he can’t exactly refer to his ex-girlfriend with their version of a fucking pet name in front of his current girlfriend. yeah, you can argue that maybe he just doesn’t want to explain the whole david thing to aneesa, but i think it’s deeper than that. he doesn’t want to establish that closeness with devi while aneesa is present because it starts blurring lines and crossing boundaries in his head.

the next time they’re together, aneesa isn’t around, and he reverts back to david. not even two whole seconds later he opens up a serious conversation, asking about devi’s feelings in regards to working with ben and aneesa. despite the fact that devi was the one to hurt ben! david here, once again, being used to establish closeness, familiarity, friendship. this is also just one of my favorite scenes of theirs, ever, because their smiles are so sweet and so genuine. you can tell how much they care for each other, despite the the events from earlier in the season.

“Devi, when are you going to realize that that dick doesn’t deserve you?”

(okay, i know it doesn’t show him saying devi in the captions, but he does.) BATHROOM SCENE MY BELOVED. this is my number one duo scene of theirs for so many reasons oh my god. the use of devi here, when it’s just them is so significant because during their friendship era, he has consistently referred to her as david when they’re alone. but not here. here she is devi. because he needs her to know what she is worth. he needs her to listen when he tells her that she deserves better than paxton, and he gets her to listen with the use of devi.

#i love this sm #devi vishwakumar #ben gross #otp: bad morning enemy #s2 #nhie #meta

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