You can’t get a much bigger spoiler than this one when it comes to Never Have I Ever’s series finale. So, if you haven’t caught up with the comedy on the 2023 TV schedule, you can stream all four seasons with a Netflix subscription.
There were a lot of happy endings for the characters of Never Have I Ever as Season 4 came to a close. Devi got into Princeton, Fabiola went to Howard, Elanor became a director, Pati got married, Kamala accepted her dream job, and Devi’s mom had a “zaddy boyf.” On top of all this, the love triangle between Devi, Paxton and Ben was officially wrapped up. While many of us were thrilled to find out that she chose Ben and she remained good friends with Paxton, there was one part of this conclusion that surprised Maitreyi Ramakrishnan the most.
Since the final moments of Never Have I Ever’s third season, I had a gut feeling Devi would end up with Ben after she showed up at his door with the “one free boink” card. However, it took them the whole season to finally confess their feelings for each other. Following their big moment at Pati’s wedding where they both said “I love you,” we found out that they managed to stay together as they started college. The final frame features the two snuggling together on Devi’s bed in her Princeton dorm, and it was that sequence plus the final fade-out that really surprised Maitreyi Ramakrishnan. And, she explained her reasoning to CinemaBlend, saying:
What surprised me most definitely, I think is the fade out. Because I think a part of me – and maybe it's just me like wishfully thinking – I genuinely didn't know if they were going to go in a Team Ben route or a Team Devi just solves her life [direction]. They definitely get together at the end of the show. But at the end, end I didn’t know if they were going to have a scene like that or not. You know? I thought maybe it might have just ended right after the alter scene, or Ben and Devi are in two different dorms or like their own college. Right? I was very surprised that they did go with that, but at the same time, I wasn't. We really could have been in any direction. I mean, anytime we get a script, we're kind of always anticipating truly anything. The writers are so amazing at just keeping us on our toes. So anything could have happened.
While John McEnroe noted that Devi “finally had both the boy and the college of her dreams,” before signing off “for now…,” Ramakrishnan explained that she was shocked they showed Devi and Ben in college living their lives together. Even though she pranked people over being Team Ben or Paxton, she explained that she’s really Team Devi, and while chatting with us she noted that she didn’t know which route the show would go down when it came to who she ended up with or if she ended up alone.
I can totally see why she was so shocked. The wedding confession from Ben was super sweet, and the pair scootering off into the night would have made for the perfect end. However, the series added a small epilogue to the final episode which confirmed that Ben and Devi were still together by having Jaren Lewison’s character visit Ramakrishnan’s as they went to college at Columbia and Princeton, respectively. Getting that final moment of closure was what surprised the lead actress the most, but it sounds like the cast of Never Have I Ever had gotten used to shocking plot points over the seasons.
Overall, the surprise is part of the fun with TV shows, and even Maitreyi Ramakrishnan got to participate in the fun of finding out who Devi chose at the end of Never Have I Ever.
