Never Have I Ever season 1 episode 7 recap: …been a big, fat liar

Never Have I Ever episode 7 puts protagonist Devi on blast—and makes some startling statements about family dynamics.

On Never Have I Ever­­, you can always expect one thing: the unexpected. Episode 7 is a surprise from start to finish. Having made a new friend in Ben Gross, Devi is still dealing with having lost Paxton’s trust and her friends.

But if viewers think they know how Devi’s path to redemption is going to unfold, they’re in for a shock. Never Have I Ever­­ is not your average teen comedy.

Contrition

Assuming that Paxton had told the entire school about their non-affair, Devi spends the next few days at school hiding in plain sight, only to realize that Paxton has told nobody. Devi is free to live her typical school life.

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But first, she needs to make up with her friends, Eleanor and Fabiola. The last time she saw them, Devi was so consumed with her problems that she pretty much yelled at them.

If Devi thought she could just pick up where she left off, she’s in for a surprise. Devi has pretty much been replaced by Jonah Sharpe (Dino Petrera), who Devi had been planning to ask to be her boyfriend in the pilot of Never Have I Ever. Then she found her chance with Paxton, and we all saw how that turned out.

Jonah has fit into the group because he is trying to figure out how to come out to his family, just as Fabiola is.

Devi missed this massive moment in Fabiola’s life, and she missed the drama about Eleanor finding out about her mom working at the Mexican restaurant, and not being a major star on a cruise liner.

Devi needs to do something drastic if she is going to earn her friends back. And she does.

She goes behind Eleanor’s back—like any good friend would do, right?—and asks Eleanor’s mom, Joyce (Jae Suh Park), to talk to Eleanor. But to do it with some flair.

Joyce takes Devi’s advice literally and ends up at school in the middle of the day. Her unannounced arrival puts Eleanor in a spot, but they surprisingly manage to make up. It turns out, Joyce got fired from the cruise liner and didn’t want her daughter to see her so low.

But Eleanor doesn’t care—she just wants her mom in her life, no matter what Joyce is doing with it. Could this be the start of a beautiful mother-daughter relationship?

The Bake Sale

Don’t count on it—not on Never Have I Ever. To make up for her absence, Joyce decides to bake cookies for the school bake sale. Since she doesn’t have a functional oven in the apartment that she shares with four teenagers, Devi offers her kitchen instead.

Joyce turns out to be a ‘cool mom’—she doesn’t do much of the baking, though she does eat the cookies. She wants to know all the girls’ gossip. And even though she has a somewhat sarcastic way of addressing Devi’s supposed relationship with Paxton, and somehow already knows that Fabiola is gay—the girls are comfortable telling her about their lives and love lives.

Big mistake! At the bake sale, Joyce arrives with the cookies and immediately makes Devi’s mother, Nalini, and Fabiola’s mother, Elise (Tembi Locke), uneasy. They don’t like Joyce much after she abandoned the three girls in a carnival when they were children.

Then Joyce takes the opportunity to discuss the girl’s romantic lives—practically outing Fabiola to her mother and unceremoniously announcing to Nalini that Devi has been having a physical relationship with Paxton.

To save herself, Devi finally admits that she lied about everything, but that doesn’t stop Nalini from being furious. They leave the bake sale immediately, but Nalini is far more understanding once Devi promises that she hasn’t been anywhere near a boy. Yet.

Mommy Dearest

The revelations from Joyce may have made things a bit complicated in the Vishwakumar household, but it gives Fabiola a much-needed moment with her mother. And surprisingly, coming out to Elise isn’t nearly as terrifying as Fabiola thought it would be. Elise is surprised initially, but she takes it very well and accepts Fabiola as she is.

Meanwhile, Eleanor brings Joyce into her world—she invites her to sit in at her drama rehearsal, where she is playing the lead, as we saw in a previous episode of Never Have I Ever.

The moment Joyce hears that Eleanor has a lead role, her face falls, and it gets worse when she sees Eleanor’s astounding performance. The rehearsal has barely ended, and Joyce has already left LA to look for another chance on Broadway.

Eleanor is so distraught that she leaves the play, vowing never to act again so she can avoid following in her mother’s footsteps. Fabiola doesn’t want Eleanor to give up on her dreams and races to Devi so they can work together to help Eleanor.

There’s just one problem—Paxton texts Devi asking for her help in his house because she owes him for lying about their relationship. But Eleanor is having her meltdown now. Devi has a decision to make—leave her friends, who she just promised to be with through thick and thin, or help Paxton and hopefully get that failed relationship off the ground again?

Devi runs to Paxton’s.

Final Thoughts

No episode of Never Have I Ever has gone the way I expected it to. Episode 7 least of all—the ups and downs of this installment were astounding. It’s interesting how this show has decided to show the different family dynamics one might encounter in real life.

We got a glimpse of that angle in the spotlight episode on Ben, and this episode continues that trend. Nalini, who is the typical Indian mother, shows herself to be more protective than anything else.

Elise, who seemed to be very rigid in her hopes for Fabiola’s future, turns out to be more understanding and open, which is a relief because LGBTQ+ children who feel unable to come out to their families tend to take a severe hit to their mental health.

Joyce, who was undoubtedly set up as the coolest mom of the lot, is shown in the worst light—she is the self-centered one who can’t handle her daughter’s success. That Devi can’t see this massive betrayal and be there for her friend is distressing.

Despite being the show’s protagonist, Devi is not pure as the driven snow—she is flawed, and that makes her compelling. Nobody is perfect, nor is any teenager, and it’s great to see such a complex character in a teen comedy.

What is going to happen next on Never Have I Ever? We can’t wait to find out!

Never Have I Ever is currently streaming on Netflix.