‘Never Have I Ever’ Season 3 Almost Saw Devi Leaving Sherman Oaks High

Spoiler alert: The following article discusses the entirety of “Never Have I Ever” Season 3.

“Never Have I Ever” Season 3 could have ended much, much differently. 

As much as the show is grounded by its lovably irreverent protagonist Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), its junior season makes strides in maturity, displaying growth in both its central character as well as its ensemble cast. In one of the finale’s concluding scenes, the high schooler makes a tearful decision to stay at Sherman Oaks High because she’s not ready to leave her mother — with whom she’s continually grieved the loss of her father, Mohan — for the progressive and posh Colorado Ivy-prep school to which she’s been invited for her senior year.

“We actually pitched out an intro to Season 4 that was her going, like we had her just leaving at the end of Season 3,” showrunner, executive producer and co-creator Lang Fisher told TheWrap. “And then we were like, ‘Let’s see what happens if she goes there.’ But we just thought that maybe the more emotional thing for our show arc and for her arc with her mom, is that this, all of a sudden, makes her realize how much she loves her mom. They’ve been at odds for so long and not understanding each other but it’s like these little baby steps in the last few seasons have brought them closer and closer together.”

Fisher said that Devi’s decision to stay was ultimately “more emotionally satisfying,” continuing a long journey of the character finding herself in the aftermath of tragedy.

“I’m sure sometimes the audience is like, ‘Why? Why are you doing that?’ but we want to show that it really does come from a real place of wanting to have a great life and to feel good about herself and to get over this trauma that she’s had in her past, she said. “And so hopefully that wins you back to her when you watch her kind of fall on her face.”

Early on in the process, Fisher and co-creator Mindy Kaling, both of whom have lost parents, devised that Devi should “have a really deep wound” that would have “broken her heart.”

“To make it feel like a balanced show, you want to see all of it, you want to see the moments of hilarity, and then also the gravitas of these emotional moments,” Fisher said of the show’s approach to grief and humor.

It’s an experience that many of the show’s writers and star Darren Barnett can relate to. When asked what the show symbolized to him, the actor recalled a line spoken by Devi’s grandmother Nirmala, who says, “There is no time for hanging up and not speaking in this life.”

“I did lose my dad in real life at a young age — I was like 17 — so it just brought me back to that and thinking, at any moment, at any time of the day, you can lose someone very close to you,” Barnet told TheWrap. “Life is too short not to speak. Be the bigger person. Let go of the ego and make the best out of each moment.”

In Season 3, Devi and her mother Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan) are still mourning; after stepping back into the dating pool last season, the latter is trying to branch out with new friends following the loss of her best friend. She finds an acquaintance in Rhyah (Sarayu Blue), also an Indian American woman in the health field and who has a son, Des (Anirudh Pisharody), around Devi’s age. However, their friendship is short-lived: When Des (full name, Nirdesh) and Devi decide to date, Rhyah forbids the match, telling her son that Devi has a “lot of problems.” 

“Something that is so interesting, which is so nuanced, within the immigrant community [is] if something has happened to you or your child acts out, there’s immediately a good immigrant and a bad immigrant,” Jagannathan said. “The bad immigrant is quickly ostracizing, ‘No no, they’re not one of us.’ I love that the writers explored that, but Nalini is opening her heart this season and pulling Devi closer, in order to ultimately let her go.”

Rhyah’s outlook on Devi spills over with backhanded insults, where she says she is “grateful” that Des has been “so easy” to parent in comparison. In a final confrontation, Nalini defends her daughter, later telling her “You are never too much, and you are always enough.”

“It’s really a very pivotal moment when she stands up for her daughter instead of throwing her under the bus, which she normally would do,” Jagannathan said. 

While Des and Devi’s relationship ultimately doesn’t work out, Pisharody’s character is a welcome addition as a romantic rival to heartthrob Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Barnet) and Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison).

“He adds a lot in different layers,” Fisher said. “One, it’s just fun to have another rival who kind of is oddly like the combination of Paxton and Ben. He’s great at school, but also a smoke show. But I think culturally and for representation, Mindy and I wanted to bring a handsome Indian love interest on-screen who did call [Devi] out.”

Still raw after her breakup with Paxton, Devi heads to a party for the sole purpose of proving that she’s over him. Caught by Nalini before successfully sneaking out of her window, she’s given permission to go only if Des accompanies her, much to her chagrin. 

“What I love about the introduction of that character, and I remember reading it in the script, thinking like, ‘Hell yeah, we’re actually talking about this,’ is when Devi’s getting called out for all of the things she preassumes about Nirdesh — and is like, ‘Oh, wow, his name literally has nerd in it. Oh, he’s probably some dork,’ [even] pulls the cousin card!” Ramakrishnan told TheWrap.

“He calls her out and is like, ‘OK, no, I’m done here.’ And I think that’s really awesome because that is something that needs to be unpacked. When she gets into this relationship with him, she’s not necessarily growing in a way [where] she’s discovering her culture more [than] she is understanding ‘Oh, wow, I have had my own biases and that’s pretty gross. I need to unlearn that.’ That’s a very real thing.”

Just as Devi grows more secure in herself, so do all of the people in her life. While Fisher described the season as a “tale of insecurity”, it’s also equally a story about burgeoning self-confidence. For example, although Paxton and Devi don’t end up together at the end of Season 3, he graduates more sure of himself because of her.

“Devi really is the one that I feel catapults him into that, gets him serious about school and realizing he’s not just a jock … just making that authentic has been very important to me,” Barnet told TheWrap. “So each time I tried to come at it with truth and reflect my own experiences that I had at that age as well. Not saying that I was at all Paxton in high school because I was not — at all.”

Lewison, whose character hits rock bottom in Episode 6 and (literally) overcomes being “full of sh–,” added, “It’s great to be able to watch a show that is representative of your real life. I think that especially in high school, a lot of kids are maybe going through anxieties for the first time and trying to find themselves and their identities. And I think that no matter what age you are, demographic or whatever, in this show, you can find something that relates to your intersectionality.”

Fisher said of Ben’s polarizing nature and eventual growth, “He’s also a comment from us on just how insecurity fosters itself in young men and he’s kind of a dick because he’s lonely and insecure. He has these big feelings for [Devi] and cares about her. And I hope, after four seasons of this show, you see our characters grow up and grow out of some of these personality flaws. They mature a little bit and I think in Season 3, you see him be a lot more vulnerable than you’ve seen him before, and we see him put his heart out there.”

Part of Ben’s development comes from his failed relationship with Aneesa (Megan Suri), who eventually breaks up with him for his condescension and lack of respect toward her.

“I definitely was super focused on Aneesa getting justice because I definitely think my girl got did dirty last season,” Suri told TheWrap. “And I do think that in Season 3 we see that. Aneesa gives it right back to Ben a little bit more … The writers after we filmed that scene were like ‘That was really cathartic.’ I feel like in that moment Aneesa was really able to say things that I feel like a lot of us wish we could have said sometimes.”

The season also explores Aneesa’s budding romantic relationship with friend Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez). Although the two eventually decide they’re better off remaining platonic, it’s all part of their larger journeys leading up to the fourth and final season.

“After Season 2 came out, I saw a lot of people trying to ship Fabiola and Aneesa, and we were DMing back and forth, and we were like ‘Hmm,’ and so I kind of saw it coming because I feel like people wanted to see it and knowing the writers they always pay attention to things like that,” Rodriguez said. “So I wasn’t surprised, and I was really happy that they went in that direction.”

For Richa Moorjani, who plays Devi’s cousin Kamala, her character’s attempts to get her family to accept her relationship with teacher Manish Kulkarni (Utkarsh Ambudkar) was similar to real life.

“It’s not just the fear, it’s also that we want to make our family happy,” she said. “We want them to love the person that we’re with and because we believe in our culture that — whether it’s through marriage or a relationship — when you’re with somebody, it’s not just you with that person, actually it’s the family marrying the family. So it’s something that Kamala obviously has to navigate. And I just love that. Not for the first time, but she’s continuing on this journey since Season 1 of standing up for herself and using her voice and just saying what she wants and what she deserves.”

The season — sure to have #TeamBen and #TeamPaxton fans ready to go to battle for their ships — ends on an unexpected cliffhanger. Devi cashes in her “one free boink” ticket that Ben gave her earlier, back when she was complaining about dying a virgin. 

When asked who she could see Devi ending up with, Ramakrishnan responded, “Definitely with a degree — that would be hot. I think that would just be like, ugh, that’s sexy. That would be really awesome for team Devi, which I personally have appointed myself the president of — or prime minister, we’re a Canadian team.”