Never Have I Ever
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But Devi rejects him not once but twice.
It messes with rom-com tropes instead of merely replicating them.
We pick up withDevis choiceto help Paxton instead of helping Eleanor.
In her mind, she can do both, but its clear where her priorities lie.
Shes applying to fashion school and needs a last-minute model to show off her collection.
She should be with her friends instead of having anAmericas Next Top Modelmoment.
(Devis love of pop culture is a fun and consistent part of her personality.)
She should be with her friends because Eleanor is completely unraveling.
Eleanor dramatically decides to leave drama behind, which is funny and fitting.
She swaps out her colorful clothing for plain, beige clothes.
She quits the play.
And then she and Fab decide to take a friendship break from Devi.
It has all the emotional stakes and tension of a romantic breakup, altering Devis life right away.
She does what she does best: suppresses her real feelings.
Devi lashes out at Dr. Ryan and says she doesnt want to see her anymore.
Devi keeps pushing people out of her life.
Soon, she might not have anyone.
Kamala isnt the perfect good girl Devi thought she was (and resented her for being).
Like Young, Richa Moorjani also brings a lot of specific humor to her character.
Her timing is particularly good.
Devi seizes the opportunity to blackmail her cousin into letting her go to Bens birthday party.
Unsurprisingly, Bens birthday is a sad affair.
She ruins Fabs suit, and its the last straw.
Fabs sick of being sucked into her drama.
Shes sick of Devi being selfish.
The scene has aBooksmart-climax friendship-fight vibe to it.
Fabs outburst is intense, emotional, and convincing, and all the pieces of the buildup fit together.
Rather than remorse, Devi meets the accusations against her with, you guessed it, anger.
Devis two main emotions are anger and denial, and they go hand in hand.
Shed rather make things more difficult for herself than just admit that shes wrong.
She only really cares about one thing: Paxton.
Because Paxton remains outside of the orbit of her fathers death.
He doesnt remind her of it.
He is a pure escape.
Longing for Paxton doesnt require any real emotional intimacy or honesty.
And the very end of the episode makes it clear exactly why that might be.
Devi gets her big movie kiss with Paxton, and hes even the one to initiate it.
But she comes home to the ghost of her father, flashing back to his death.
The jarring final scene does a few things at once.
Paxton might be an escape for her, but its a Band-Aid solution.
And the Band-Aid gets ripped off after their kiss.
Hyperfixation wont stop her brain from letting these memories in no matter how hard she tries.
Up until this point, all of the flashbacks to Mohan from Devis point of view have been sweet.
They had a good relationship.
But no relationship is perfect, and this flashback lets in some of the mess.
This also helps contextualize why shes pushing her friends away.
Devi doesnt want to do the hard work that meaningful relationships require.
Shes too afraid of that vulnerability.
