Who does Devi end up with in Never Have I Ever?

Love triangles are a part of teen shows that is almost mandatory. Never Have I ever’s love triangle of Devi-Ben-Paxton has certainly gone through the wringer across the show’s four seasons. Not only has it been a back-and-forth between nerdy Ben and hunky Paxton, but in between the drama with the two main guys, Devi’s also flirted with and dated a handful of other boys.

How to get there Never Have I ever Dealing with the romance threads in this season may disappoint some while pleasing others. But the truth is the show actually nails its core love story; Devi’s most important relationship is already shored up.

[Ed. note: This post contains major spoilers for the final season of Never Have I Ever.]

Photo: Lara Solanki/Netflix

This season, Devi’s romantic life took some new twists and turns, but — surprise! Ben is the one she ends up with. Yes, after four seasons of bickering, will-they-won’t-they tension, Devi and Ben Then,They end up being together. After spending the first half of the year barely speaking to one another, they finally get together in the final moments. Their futures are uncertain as they leave for different colleges. But hey — at least they get to redo their awkward sexy encounter from last season and actually have a good time! This counts for something right?

Whether or not Devi’s romantic arc came together nicely is up for debate, but here’s the thing: As fun as those romances were, they were never the most important relationships in her story. The show’s tendency to end on an open-ended and clunky note is in fact pretty accurate for the high school life. The important thing to remember is that Never Have I ever did right by the actual best love story in Devi’s life: her relationship with her mother.

Image: Netflix

Devi and Nalini, over the course of four years, slowly but surely have been working to understand each other. They are the core of the whole series. Devi has a lot of interesting and fulfilling relationships with other characters — her best friends Fabiola and Eleanor, her absolutely perfect cousin Kamala, and, of course, her romantic interests. But while those connections ebb and flow throughout the show, Devi and Nalini’s relationship is constantly in the background, a throughline tying the entirety of I Have Never Been Happy Before together.

Relationships between teenage girls and their mothers are often tense. Add to that the overwhelming grief of losing Devi’s father, Mohan, and the added tension of a cross-cultural story, and you get the core of Never Have I ever. The relationship between Devi and Nalini is divided when we first see them in Season 1. Before Mohan’s sudden death, the relationship between Devi and Nalini was tense. But after his passing, their bond completely broke down.

They are both overwhelmed with grief, and because they can’t talk about it either, jump to the worst conclusion when talking to each other. Nalini is convinced that Devi has a hot temper and is impulsive. Devi believes her mother to be strict and domineering. When Devi rebels, she’s not just rejecting her mother, but her culture. Nalini is even more hurt by it, and tries to squeeze her mother’s hand. Things get a lot worse before they get better — with a lot of explosive fights and deep-cutting words. But by the end of the first season, they’ve tentatively taken the first step in the right direction and share a cathartic, tearful moment together as they spread Mohan’s ashes on a beach.

Image: Netflix

After four seasons, their relationship isn’t perfect, but they’ve come a long way. They used to fight, but now they choose each other repeatedly — and stand up for each other even when the other person isn’t around. Both of them try to get each other’s point of view. Perhaps most importantly, their relationship hasn’t completely mended. The two women still fight because of their strong personalities and attitudes. They can now see the point of view from which their other half is coming, and they are able to express themselves. This is best illustrated by their final scene.

Nalini, stressing about planning her mother-in-law’s wedding, keeps nagging Devi to pack for college. Devi is putting off packing for college. They can’t say exactly what they want: Devi wants to be free. to be leaving, and doesn’t know the first thing about packing her entire life into a suitcase; Nalini doesn’t want Devi to go. They bicker about packing, but with none of the malice that colored their fights in earlier seasons, till finally Nalini goes to help Devi and they have a tearful heart-to-heart while sitting on the floor of Devi’s room.

Photo: Jessica Brooks/Netflix

It is an incredibly sweet, real moment — and one that hits harder than Devi and Ben’s big romantic encounter! Ben and Devi hardly spoke this season and, when they did talk, it seemed that their relationship was deteriorating. The problems that they were having with each other never came up. Sure, it’s a sweet moment, but there are so many elements that undermine it. But in Devi and Nalini’s final scene, we know that the serious tension has been resolved. The two can still squabble but love and trust each other in a new way. It is the packing scene that gets to the core of what makes them tick. Never Have I everThen, bring it back to Devi and Nalini. Show them how far they have both grown.

By the end of the show, many of Devi’s relationships are up in the air as she enters a very transitional point in her life. She has one final big party with her best high-school friends, and begins tentatively a relationship with Ben. It is comforting to know that Devi has a mother-daughter relationship which will last forever.