Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for the series finale of Never Have I Ever.Let’s face it: we all knew Lang Fisher and Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever was going to have a happy ending. No fan of the Netflix hit teen series was expecting it to wrap up its final season on a depressing note. It was clear from the get-go that things were going to work out for young Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), no matter how many coyote attacks stood in her way. However, upon reaching the final episode of Never Have I Ever, we can’t help but feel that there is something wrong with how the story ended, even though everything went perfectly right. As a matter of fact, it is precisely because everything went perfectly right that “…said goodbye” leaves us with an odd taste in our mouths. Sure, we all know Devi was in for a happy ending, but maybe her ending was too happy? Okay, that may not be exactly the problem. The real issue with the Never Have I Ever series finale is that it was too predictable.
Once again, it’s not like fans were expecting something wild out of this fourth season. It would have definitely been out of character for the show to include something bizarre or unexpected, such as a major character death or a complete change of life goals for its lead. Even so, it sure seems like Never Have I Ever could’ve dared a little bit more when wrapping up its main storyline. The way things were done, the finale was not only predictable to viewers, it was predictable to Devi. Everything in her life turned out exactly as she expected: not only did she get into her dream college, making all of her friends and family members happy and proud, but she also got with the boy of her dreams — you know, that boy that was pretty clear she was going to get with since Season 1. For a show that spent so much of its time teaching young (and older) viewers about the importance of learning how to deal with frustration, this sure felt a bit off-beat.
The ‘Never Have I Ever’ Finale Erases Its Characters’ Mistakes
The series finale of Never Have I Ever is a somewhat rushed episode that has the difficult task of concluding more than just a handful of plots. There’s Nirmala (Ranjita Chakravarty) and Len’s (Jeff Garlin) wedding, followed by Kamala’s (Richa Moorjani) announcement that she will move to the East Coast with Manish (Utkarsh Ambudkar) for her research. After lying to everyone that she had gotten into all Ivy League schools, Devi celebrates being finally accepted for real into Princeton. Fabiola (Lee Rodriguez), on the other hand, changes her mind about attending the New Jersey school and decides to take her robotics skills to Howard. Paxton (Darren Barnet) gets back into ASU and starts an age-appropriate relationship with Ms. Thompson (Genneya Walton). As for Ben (Jaren Lewison), he moves to New York to start his days at Columbia but flies back to Los Angeles when he realizes what his heart truly wants. He pops up at Nirmala’s wedding and confesses his love for Devi. The two spend the night together and decide to give their relationship a shot, as long as Ben keeps the New Jersey jokes to himself. After all, Princeton and Columbia aren’t that far away from one another.
It all wraps up neatly in a way that everyone, and not just Devi, gets exactly what they wanted, their past mistakes counting for nothing in the grand scheme of things. Let’s take a look, for instance, at Fabiola’s plot: for a good chunk of the season, Devi felt betrayed by one of her best friends, who decided to apply to Princeton without telling her. Fabiola got an early acceptance, and Devi got waitlisted, which prompted her to feel as if her dream had been stolen by someone she trusted. As a plot, this served to teach both Fabiola and Devi an important lesson: while the former needed to learn to be open and upfront with the ones she loved, the latter was in dire need of understanding that she doesn’t have a monopoly on dreams. The story was resolved with Fabiola owning up to her mistakes, and Devi admitting that she was happy for her friend. Maybe they would even get to be roomies at Princeton! But by having Fabiola choose Howard instead in its final run, the show all but erases this previous plot. Fabiola and Devi’s mistakes are effectively canceled in favor of a happy ending that better suits what the show set up in its first season: Devi left to live out her Princeton dream alone.
This erasure of past mistakes is something that extends to most if not all the other character arcs in Never Have I Ever. No bad deed goes permanently punished in the show. There are no real consequences. Devi doesn’t get properly punished for being so arrogant about her college applications that she never even considered choosing a safety school. She gets a little scared when none of the Ivies accept her, of course, but this is only temporary. Likewise, there are no actual consequences for both her and Ben squandering their chances of getting together in high school. They can just do it in college, no biggie. Even Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan) is affected: though it once seemed like Devi’s terrible actions towards Margot (Victoria Moroles) would get in the way of her relationship with Andres (Ivan Hernandez), the two quickly patch things up before Nirmala’s wedding.
‘Never Have I Ever’ Squanders Its Chance to Teach a Final Lesson About Frustration
This all becomes even more problematic when we take into consideration that Never Have I Ever is a show that has always been about teaching its fans and its characters important lessons on growing up. Over the course of four seasons, we have watched Devi and the others (but mainly Devi) learn about the importance of letting grief run its course and how life doesn’t always move on a straight line, among other things. The finale was the perfect opportunity to teach the show’s lead, as well as its fans, something about how we don’t always get what we want in life, and how that’s fine. Instead of taking this opportunity, however, Kaling and Fisher opted to give its character everything she wanted, from her high school crush to the university of her dreams. She won’t even have to move away from her family, considering that Kamala will be just around the corner, in Baltimore.
A more compelling and, to be frank, honest ending would be to have Devi lose at least some of her battles. She could still get a happy ending, of course, but maybe in a university other than Princeton, or at least without Ben and Kamala to preserve her connections to home. This would certainly make things a little harder for her. Considering how reliant Never Have I Ever is on its narration, we could perhaps even get John McEnroe telling us what Devi learned out of the whole experience: perhaps that we shouldn’t postpone love or that we shouldn’t be cocky about our best qualities. The lesson didn’t even have to be learned through herself: had Fabiola stayed in Princeton or Paxton not gotten a second chance at ASU, things would’ve already looked a lot different. Past mistakes would not have been erased, and the finale wouldn’t have felt so out of touch.
In the end, it feels like the final season of Never Have I Ever wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to send a message about mistakes having consequences, but it also wants those consequences not to matter. It wants its characters to be ready for the real world, but it also wants to protect them from any form of hardship. It wants to say something about frustration, about losing the things we want, but it also wants to give its characters everything they were hoping for. And, in doing so, the show fails both them and its fans.
All episodes of Never Have I Ever are now available to stream on Netflix.