Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) returns with her chaotic high school life in “Never Have I Ever” Season 3, which premieres on Netflix August 12. Season 1 of Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher’s comedy series launched in the summer of 2020, and it instantly endeared itself to viewers. With Season 3 on the horizon, we’ve put together a complete recap of Season 2 to get you up to speed.
Devi lives with her mother Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan) and single cousin Kamala (Risha Moorjani). Her best friends Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez) and Eleanor (Ramona Young) serve as her wingwomen in every crazy situation she experiences. Peripheral characters Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet) and Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison) take up Devi’s attention in different ways, Ben being her archnemesis and Paxton being the hottie of Devi’s dreams. Sherman Oaks high school witnesses how these teenagers collide and interact. Season 2 brought some new characters into the lives of Devi through her gal pals, and a new Indian classmate rivals Devi’s position at school.
Here’s our “Never Have I Ever” Season 2 recap:
Devi Briefly Becomes a Two-Timer
Fresh off of scattering her father Mohan’s ashes on a beach in Malibu, Devi can be found making out with Ben in his father’s car, which Ben stole to drive Devi to the beach in her emergency. Ben and Devi previously treated each other as enemies, each dividing up parts of academia that they can conquer, but now it looks like that tension is also sexual.
Nalini, Devi’s mother, catches Devi making out and abruptly cuts it off. Narrator John McEnroe (yes, the hot-headed tennis player) returns to narrate for Devi as well. Meanwhile, things left off in a good way with Paxton Hall-Yoshida as well, and it looks like he might also have feelings for Devi. So of course, she does what neither of her friends really support and tries to date Ben and Paxton without them knowing. She tries to break it off with Ben at first because her friends encourage her to go for Paxton, but Ben asks her to be his girlfriend. It should also be mentioned that Nalini wants to move the family to India to be near her family for support, so Devi factors this into her decision, thinking she will only have to get away with cheating for a month or so. Kamala, Devi’s cousin, is about to start her rotation working in a lab for renowned scientist Dr. Elgin Peters, but her long distance boyfriend Prashant is also going to visit her soon.
As for Devi’s two besties Eleanor and Fabiola, they both are in happy relationships: Fab dating Eve (Christina Kartchner), and Eleanor seeing Oliver (Martin Martinez). Nalini visits India, sees her own mother who tries to set her up with an old man, and visits her mother-in-law Nirmala (Ranjita Chakravarty). Nirmala actually takes care of Nalini when she visits, and she realizes that the support she wants from her own mother if she moves to India might not actually exist. So, she decides to invite Nirmala back to California with her in a compromise that works well for both of them. Nalini also tries to offload her list of clients onto Dr. Jackson (Common) before she moves to India, but then she realizes she won’t need to do that. Those two are very competitive in dermatology with each other.
Devi Throws a Goodbye Rager
Eleanor and Fab want to throw Devi a goodbye soirée that turns into a good ol’ fashioned high school rager after Eleanor accidentally invites Ben, when the consensus was that Devi would only invite Paxton. At this classic party, Eleanor and Fab help Devi keep track of her two boyfriends until her hotheadedness gets in the way. She overhears Zoe and Shira talking about Paxton “not really” dating Zoe, and of course Devi gets insecure about it even though she is also secretly dating Ben. She confronts Zoe about it, claims that she is dating Paxton, and immediately regrets it when Ben overhears her. Ben tells Paxton the truth, and Devi follows Paxton when he leaves the party. She tries to stop him and explain, but this brings him to stand in the middle of the street, and he gets hit by a car in the process of Devi’s apology.
Paxton Learns to Study
Supermodel Gigi Hadid narrates Paxton’s solo episode in Season 2 (just as Andy Samberg echoed Ben Gross’ thoughts in his episode last season.) Paxton has a broken arm as well as some other injuries from the car wreck, so the high school counselor breaks the news to him that he has to improve his grades if he wants to go to college, since a swimming scholarship might not be on the table anymore. Luckily a great peer tutor has been called in to help Paxton, except that tutor is actually Devi. He rejects the idea that she tutor him because he is still mad at her. Then he goes hom to hang out and do dumb stuff with Trent (Benjamin Norris), but he quickly realizes that he doesn’t want to live the rest of his life that way, so he approaches Devi with the proposition that she do all of his homework versus helping him with it. Devi agrees because she still feels guilty for everything she has caused. Rebecca (Lily D. Moore), Paxton’s sister puts him in his place when he reveals to her that Devi is doing all the work for him, and as Hadid puts it “drags his ass” with her best sass. This brings Paxton to rethink his strategy and actually try to learn by himself.
Paxton also visits his Ojichan Theodore Yoshida (Clyde Kusatsu) in the nursing home to help him with his technology. Ojichan gives Paxton some books to take home with him as well as family heirlooms. Later he has a history test that Devi helps him prep for, but he freaks out at the beginning of it and walks out of class. Devi manipulates Mr. Shapiro (Adam Shapiro) into letting Paxton retake the test and he pulls off a B. He and Devi seem to be on the mend in their friendship.
Aneesa Enters the Picture
Devi is feeling pretty good about herself and patching things up with Paxton until Aneesa (Megan Suri) arrives on the scene. To Devi, Aneesa seems way cooler and prettier, so Devi immediately gets jealous. Mr. Shapiro introduces her in their history class and accidentally calls her Devi for which he “cancels himself.” Aneesa shares the exact same schedule as Devi, so the Sherman Oaks Principal Grubbs (Cocoa Brown) asks Devi to show her around school. When Aneesa starts bonding with Mr. Kulkarni the English teacher (Utkarsh Ambudkar), who Devi previously had a strong bond with over ethnic reasons, because he also happens to be the soccer coach and Aneesa plays soccer, Devi starts to fume.
Eleanor starts lusting after Malcolm Stone (Tyler Alvarez) when she runs into him at school after his current acting gig ends. He knows he catches her eye, so he starts the pursuit of her, and she realizes she has to break up with Oliver. Malcolm invites her out one night when she and Devi are having a sleepover, to which Devi also invites Aneesa after she mentions to her mom that she is jealous of the other Indian girl in school. Nalini thinks Aneesa will be a good influence on Devi.
Devi, Eleanor and Aneesa meet up with Malcolm, and also Ben because the two guys know each other from Hebrew school, that night in an abandoned lot, and the idea of getting a tattoo somehow comes up. The group heads to a tattoo parlor for Malcolm to get a tattoo, and Aneesa encourages Devi to get her nose pierced. Ben knows that Devi wouldn’t do this for fear of upsetting her mother. Devi does it to make Ben hold up his end of the deal to get a tattoo, since he said he would if she got her nose pierced. (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan already had her nose pierced before the show.) But Ben gets a temporary basketball tattoo vs. Devi’s permanent nose ring, to which he says, must be difficult knowing you committed to something, mocking her for cheating on him. He then tells Aneesa that Devi is not who she wants to hang out with, but Aneesa sticks up for Devi and fires back at Ben.
The Cross Country Relay
Devi has been skipping P.E. because she thought the credits wouldn’t transfer over to India when she moved there. To bump her grade up from an F, the gym teacher asks Devi to put together a team to participate in the school’s 24-hour cross country relay. Fabuiola, Eve and Aneesa volunteer, and then Aneesa suggests they invite Ben. Devi realizes that Aneesa and Ben are flirting, which she opposes.
At the relay, Trent introduces the “Spurt Yurt” aka the hookup tent where kids go when they aren’t running to, well, hook up. It is disguised as a study hall in case any teachers or adults see it. Devi sees that Ben books a slot on the signup sheet, and she is not only mad because of her jealousy of Aneesa, but because of the loose thread of her winning him back since she feels like she sould have chosen him all along. She said that in therapy. First, she strategizes to keep making Ben and Aneesa run so that they can’t spend time together and get too tired to hook up in the tent. At first she thinks her plan is working, but then she has to run a lap and they still enter the tent, so she cheats (in another way) and shortcuts her lap, but loses her phone which contains a precious voicemail from her dad before he died.
In her angst, Devi lets slip some very harmful words about Aneesa after someone mixes them up and calls her Aneesa. Following the end of the relay, Devi finds Aneesa crying and asks her why. It turns out, Devi calling Aneesa anorexic actually struck a nerve, because Aneesa transferred to Sherman Oaks from her previous school because she developed an eating disorder and wanted to start fresh. She doesn’t know that Devi started the rumor because Devi is kind of forgettable, and the girls who actually spread the words Zoe and Shira, can’t remember that they heard it from Devi.
Devi Juggles Too Much
Devi is tasked with tracking down who started the rumor about Aneesa being anorexic, so she tries to cover her tracks, but when Eleanor and Fabiola get involved, they clear up the trail pretty well. Devi lets Zoe and Shira take the fall for her until she realizes she has to come clean and tell the truth. Paxton has a big chemistry test that he hasn’t studied for, and he tries to get Devi to help him right before it, but she gets too caught up in the gossip train and trying to work it out for both herself and Aneesa.
Later at another group sleepover, Devi tells the truth, and Aneesa leaves. The next day, Devi gets suspended for starting the rumor. Her mom tries to make it even more of a punishment by taking away Devi’s phone and making her help her grandmother. Ben comes over to beg Devi to make things right or Aneesa will transfer schools AGAIN. Devi sneaks into school twice, first to orchestrate a big apology involving cheerleading and the marching band and Devi donning the Cricket mascot costume and a second time to impart a more personal, heartfelt one. Aneesa forgives Devi, but she doesn’t think her mom will budge on transferring her to a different school. Devi begs her own mother to sit down with Aneesa’s mother and try to convince her to change her mind. Nalini agrees largely in part because she had confided in Dr. Jackson about the trouble Devi was causing. Dr. Jackson, who is also a single parent as Nalini learned from their shared mentor’s retirement party, gave her the advice to say yes to Devi’s crazy requests so that Nalini can be there for Devi. (Another therapy session revealed that Devi thought getting Aneesa to stay at school might mend her relationship with Ben as a bonus.)
Kamala’s Trouble in Paradise
Poor Kamala was so excited to start her research in the lab, but Evan, her team leader, has made a really tough time of it. He showed his true colors from the beginning, and has ben making Kamala complete meaningless tasks. When she has to come to the lab to redo some of her samples after he knocked them over at an odd hour of the night, she later makes an important discovery and tries to report it to him, but he brushes it aside. Then the group writes their paper about her findings and leaves her name off of it! Not only are they disrespecting her, but Evan is also making it tough on her to maintain her relationship with Prashant, who has come to visit her in California and reveals he eventually will move to LA to be closer to her. Prashant himself tries to give her advice and also encourage her to keep her head down through the rest of the rotation, but he doesn’t quite understand, and Devi does. Devi encourages Kamala to stand up for herself, so she marches into the lab, gives Evan a coffee with cow’s milk to make him run to thre restroom, types her name on the paper and sends it off. Note: Dr. Peters sat down with Kamala and when she confided in him about the lab politics, he didn’t want to get involved.
The Great Gatsby Mock Trial
Once Episode 8 rolls around, viewers are in for a real treat with the final three installments of Season 2. Mr. Kulkarni, who definitely has a crush on Kamala, decides that his English class will conduct a mock trial of Daisy Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” He assigns Devi, Ben and Aneesa to the defense team while Paxton, Fab and Malcolm will prosecute. Devi has to deal with Ben and Aneesa flirting while they come up with her argument, and Paxton wants to take the work seriously for once with Fab while Malcolm volunteers to dress up as Jay Gatsby’s ghost in order to avoid doing work. The trial amuses, and the prosecution wins because Aneesa mixes up her notecards. Eleanor plays the secretary, and glares dagger eyes at Malcolm because Fab and Devi thought they caught him cheating. Trent plays a witness.
Malcolm plays off the suspicious text messages as conversation with his agent, and Eleanor, who has fallen under his spell, starts to avoid her gal pals. The Winter Dance is approaching, and it looks like Devi might be the only one without a date. Ben has officially started dating Aneesa, Eleanor is in Malcolm’s clutches and Fab and Eve are campaigning for Cricket Queen and Queen.
Devi Stalks Nalini on Her Date with Dr. Jackson
Devi spies her mom sitting in Dr. Jackson’s car outside their house and gets furious. She decides to tail her every chance she can get, following her (with Kamala) to Dr. Jackson’s house. They spy on Nalini and Chris through his skylight before Devi frustratedly drops her phone into Dr. Jackson’s jacuzzi. She rolls off the roof to get it and realizes her phone is fried, meaning she has lost that soothing voicemail from her dad that she uses to calm down. Nalini and Dr. Jackson find Devi outside where she accuses Nalini of moving on from Mohan (Sendhill Ramamurthy) too fast. Nalini persuades Devi that it was strictly a professional dinner. Then they go home and she lays into Devi calling her crazy, which seems to be the last straw amongst the fight with Eleanor, her disappointing Paxton and overall just being bummed.
Mr. Shapiro’s Extra Credit Project
Mr. Shapiro assigns his “Facing History” class an extra credit oral presentation about history connecting to their families and how it personally affected them. Of course Devi and Ben volunteer, but so does Paxton in an effort to boost his grade. He magically remembers the books that Ojichan gave him and picks up a journal from his great great grandfather, who spent part of his life in the Manzanar Japanese internment camp. Ojichan was 5, and Paxton brings him into class to speak a little bit about the camp, nailing his presentation.
Devi forgets to even do her presentation because of all the drama with her mom the other night. She goes to therapy in which her therapist Dr. Ryan (Niecy Nash) gives one of the best representations of mental health in this succinct quote: “Devi, You feel a lot, which means sometimes, you’re gonna hurt a lot. But it also means you’re gonna live a life that’s emotionally rich and really beautiful.” Devi and Dr. Ryan have a really productive session, and she goes to apologize to her mom at her office, but finds her ending things with Dr. Jackson, making her fume once more. She comes home and rats Nalini out to Nirmala, who comically soft slaps her and stands up for Nalini. Nirmala makes them talk it out.
Paxton Thanks Devi
In maybe the most iconic scene of Season 2, Paxton knocks on Devi’s window while it is RAINING, to come into her room and thank her for encouraging him to be better at school. She asks him if he is there to study, and he says no with a smirk. Then they start making out, set to the tune of “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals. You just had to be there.
The next day at Eleanor’s play, all ends well for the trio of friends because Malcolm ended up dumping Eleanor over text. She even bonded with her dad’s new girlfriend about the situation. Devi sees Paxton after and all he does is walk by her and call her “Pal.” She confronts him about it that night when he creeps through her window again, and he tells her he thinks labels are cheesy and overrated and he can’t do PDA. She goes along with it for a little bit, but then before the Winter Dance, which she asks him to but only for him to reject her, she tells him she can’t be his secret hookup.
The Winter Dance
Of course things end on a big school dance note, like in “Stranger Things” with the Snow Ball. Anyways, Devi attends as Eleanor’s date. Fab finds out that she has been replaced as the captain of the robotics team because of her absences from practices pursuing the campaign for Cricket Queens with Eve. She wears a gorgeous green velvet pantsuit to the dance, but goes to the robotics room to try and fix her robot Gears Brosnan, since she abandoned him under a ceiling leak. Eleanor, Devi and Jonah come to the rescue to hype Fab up about being the gay that she wants to be, since she has felt torn between robotics and Eve’s queer friends since the beginning of the season.
Fab and Eve win Cricket Queen and Queen (Fab’s parents were the first Black Cricket King and Queen) and slow dance to Sam Smith’s “Love Goes.” Fab confesses that she loves Eve, and Eve returns the sentiment.
Trent asks Eleanor to dance in his Trent style. It is unclear whether she accepts.
Devi makes to leave the dance, but Paxton hits her with his jeep. He makes sure she is okay before answering her question that he came there for her, to be her girlfriend. The walk into the dance hand in hand, much to everyone’s surprise.
Ben watches them walk in and says “It’s always been him.” Eleanor overhears and tells him no, Devi wanted to pick him in the beginning, but El and Fab talked her out of it. This is a big revelation to Ben, who is still with Aneesa. Looks like we’re right back where we started.
“Never Have I Ever” Season 3 lands on Netflix August 12.
