Never Have I Ever episode 8 sees protagonist Devi confront her worst fears. But first, she has to deal with a rollercoaster of emotions with her friends and family.
Never Have I Ever’s protagonist Devi has been through the wringer over the past year. But losing her dad, and psychosomatically becoming disabled, might just be the beginning of a whole host of new problems.
In episode 8 of the show, Devi finally has to confront her actions—she doesn’t handle it as well as she should. We recap the stunning turn of events in the episode.
Ben’s Life Still Sucks
As we have seen on Never Have I Ever, Devi’s isn’t the only one living a life that sucks—Ben Gross pretty much takes that title, and both his parents are alive and wealthy.
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Unfortunately for Ben, that doesn’t mean they’re going to spend time with him on a momentous occasion like his 16th birthday—it’s not like it’s one of those events that only happens once in your lifetime, right?
But Ben’s dad needs to help out a client with a business thing, and Ben’s mom wants to join him to sail around the Caribbean. A disgusting cake with Ben’s unfortunate face on it and 1000 dollars will make up for them missing his big day.
Well, at least they tell Ben to have a big, fancy party to enjoy his birthday. Except Ben isn’t interested because, well, he has no friends.
Then in class, the history teacher makes a big deal about it being Ben’s birthday, and Devi overhears, and she asks Ben if he’s having a party. And suddenly Ben is having a party and everyone is invited. This should be great, right?
Friend Breakup
As we saw in the previous episode of Never Have I Ever, Devi is struggling to be a good friend. She promised to be there for Eleanor and Fabiola, but after Eleanor’s mom abandoned her, Devi chose to help Paxton with his emergency, rather than be there for her oldest friends.
And it turns out Paxton’s emergency isn’t all that pressing. Paxton’s sister Rebecca (Lily D Moore) was going to have a photoshoot with some of her designs, but her co-workers bailed on her. She and Devi had bonded over their fashion sense, so she was the obvious replacement.
Paxton will do anything for his sister, so he reached out to Devi. And there she was. Devi would happily have left Paxton to help her friends, but Rebecca looks at her with such hope that Devi just can’t.
The photoshoot goes off well—eventually—and Rebecca gets an excellent portfolio displaying her gorgeous designs.
But as a fallout of this fun event, Fabiola and Eleanor announce that they need a break from Devi. She isn’t there for them, and they want to give her time to come to her senses.
Devi is annoyed by this and tells her therapist as much—her friends aren’t understanding about her situation. But Devi’s therapist brings her back to the main problem—Devi isn’t dealing with her dad’s loss, and her subsequent reactions have been out of order.
Not only is she desperately clinging to the dream of Paxton, but she’s pushing away everyone else who can ground her to reality.
Devi refuses to listen—to the point where even her therapist lets her go. That’s yet another breakup in Devi’s life.
But at least Devi has Ben’s party to look forward to.
Party Time
Not so fast.
Have you met Devi’s mother, Nalini, on Never Have I Ever? Do you really think that she isn’t going to find out about Ben’s party and ensure that Devi never attends said party?
Devi is confined to the house that evening, set to study under the watchful eye of Devi’s perfect cousin, Kamala. Meanwhile, Nalini will be taking her nurses to a play.
True to her word, Devi studies like a good girl. But the evening is so dull that even her calculator dies of boredom. When Devi looks for Kamala to get her batteries, she finds Kamala with her boyfriend, Steve.
Perfect Kamala isn’t perfect, after all, and Devi happily uses this event to her advantage. She gets Kamala to take her to Ben’s party—in exchange for not telling Nalini about Steve. Devi just needs to get back home by 11.
The party starts very badly—Devi walks in and immediately finds Fabiola and Eleanor, who refuse to talk to her. They walk away to get drinks, side-eying Devi throughout.
Ben comes to the rescue and gives Devi a tour of his home. In the home theatre, Ben makes his move on Devi—twice. It turns out he was interested in her this whole time—no wonder he didn’t like Paxton.
But Ben makes it weird, and Devi tries to leave—only to find out that Trent has sullied the punch being served. Punch that is about to be drunk by Fabiola.
Devi races to save her friend but ends up splashing the entire punch bowl all over Fabiola’s pristine white suit.
Fabiola loses it. She and Eleanor have been patient and kind with Devi, but the girl before them right now is nothing like their friend.
To make matters worse, Fabiola is so furious that she comes out to everyone and explains Eleanor’s mom-drama a bit too loudly.
The situation is horrid—and public—and ends with Devi landing up in the swimming pool before being fished out by Paxton.
Despite being enraged, Fabiola gets a win out of the evening. The girl she has a crush on, Eve, comes to her clothes’ aid, and Fabiola asks her out. Eve says yes. Yay!
Meanwhile, Devi has to get home, and Paxton does the honors. Devi is still reeling from the events at the party, and Paxton is very kind about the situation. Before anyone knows it, Devi and Paxton are kissing. Double yay!
An ecstatic and slightly dazed Devi walks into her home to find her dead dad at the refrigerator.
Final Thoughts
Wow, that was a rollercoaster of a Never Have I Ever episode. I’m glad to see that Devi is getting some pushback for her behavior towards her friends and her therapist. She hasn’t been there for her friends, and she isn’t dealing with her problems, so something drastic needs to happen. I do hope Devi can get the help she needs.
The Ben reveal was expected since his spotlight episode, but the Paxton moment was a bit more surprising. His connection with Devi has been see-sawing since the start, and one hopes that he can finally make his mind up about how he feels about her.
I’m interested to see where the show goes with regards to Devi and her father. This loss is weighing heavily on her, but she barely acknowledges it. Grief is never an easy subject to explore, but this show has proven that it can do a great deal. It will be interesting to see where the story goes next.
Never Have I Ever is currently streaming on Netflix.