First Impressions: The Chaos and Excitement of Senior Year in “Never Have I Ever”’s Final Season

This article contains spoilers for Never Have I Ever. 

Welcome back, Sherman Oaks High students! Our favorite San Fernando Valley teen Devi Vishwakamur is back for her senior year in the fourth and final season of the hit Netflix show Never Have I Ever. Created by Mindy Kaling (The Office and The Mindy Project) and Lang Fisher, the teen dramedy follows Devi’s adventures and journey in life and love after witnessing the death of her father during her freshman year of high school. Her difficulty with facing her grief, coupled with the typical difficulties of being in high school, causes her to get into a ton of shenanigans. 

The Highs and (Many) Lows of Senior Year

Now that it’s senior year, Devi focuses on getting into her dream school, Princeton University. However, the honor student finds trying to get accepted into the university much more difficult than believed. She’s not the only one facing troubles with the college admission process though, as Ben, Eleanor, and Fabiola are also dealing with anxiety about moving forward in their academic careers. But it isn’t only school that they’re having difficulties  with. Devi, Ben, and Eleanor face challenges in their love lives as well.

It isn’t only the high schoolers facing obstacles this year though. Former “it-boy” and current college freshman Paxton begins to question if going to college was the right decision. Meanwhile, Kamala is given an exciting new offer that will help her professional career but means that she will have to move away from her only family in the United States. Nalini grapples with the idea of being alone now that Devi is getting ready to go off to college, and Nirmala surprises the family with a new man in her life (who Kamala is very suspicious of).

Cast and Characters

Devi Vishwakumar

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan plays Devi Vishwakumar, a senior at Sherman Oaks High who consistently gets into antics due to her chaotic decisions, and is at the center of the show’s main love triangle. After losing her virginity to her academic rival, Ben Gross, she thinks that there could be something more between them. But, to her surprise, he decides not to hang out with her over the summer. When she returns to school on her first day of senior year, she’s even more surprised to see Ben kissing Margot, his classmate from art class, and learns that they are now dating. On top of this, she learns that she’s been deferred (and then later waitlisted) from her dream school, Princeton University, and gets rejected from every other school she’s applied to. Will she be able to salvage what’s left of her senior year and stand out on top, or will she unexpectedly fall flat and fail in her dreams of both love and school?

Ben Gross

Jaren Lewison plays Ben Gross, an overachieving and lonely young man who is one of Devi’s suitors in the show’s triangle, as well as her nemesis/crush/ex-boyfriend/friend. After Devi came to his house on the last day of junior year with the “One Free Boink” card he made her, he was excited to see if their relationship could really move onto something. When their first time having sex results in awkward tension, he’s not really sure what to do. But after receiving some advice from Dwight Howard (yes, the basketball player), Ben decides not to pursue anything further with Devi. Instead, he starts dating Margot, his classmate from art class last semester, for what he believes will be a more fulfilling relationship for him. He finds it hard to let go of those lingering feelings he has for Devi, but this is for the best, right? Besides, he needs to focus on getting into Columbia University. However, anxiety about being good enough for college and others, senioritis, and Devi will continue to be on his mind.

Paxton Hall-Yoshida

Darren Barnett plays Paxton Hall-Yoshida, the most popular guy at Sherman Oaks High (and SoCal in general) and Devi’s former crush/boyfriend. Paxton has now moved to Arizona to attend Arizona State University (ASU). Though, it seems like this once big man on campus is now considered a nobody. Because he no longer feels popular at college, he drops out a few weeks in and decides to return to Sherman Oaks High as the Assistant Swim Coach. Now that he’s back home and back at school, he can regain his popular guy status, right? However, he soon realizes that his return may make him look more pathetic than cool to his former schoolmates now. He begins to question who he really is and wants to be, but the presence of a young woman will help him open his eyes and better understand what’s best for him. Who could it be?

Fabiola Torres

Lee Rodriguez plays Fabiola Torres, one of Devi’s best friends and a lover of all things robotics and engineering. As president of the robotics team, Fabiola has a lot of big plans to make the club successful during her final year at Sherman Oaks. But when she realizes that she’s the only girl on the team, which has a reputation of being an incel club that steers other girls away from joining, she makes it her priority to make her team more inclusive and enjoyable for all. However, her biggest trouble this year comes when she applies to Princeton (due to a push by her mom) without telling Devi and actually gets in! This news causes Fabiola to deeply reflect upon both her friendship with Devi and where she’d like to go for college.

Eleanor Wong

Ramona Young plays Eleanor Wong, a stereotypical theater kid with a deep passion for acting. However, after failing to impress the judges at a prestigious performing arts school, she decides to graduate early to get a head start on her acting career. After months of auditioning with little callbacks and seeing how the brutality of the acting world has affected her mom, she starts to question if she made the right decision to go down the path of acting.

Love, Family, and Self-Discovery

Many shows tend to fail ending their series on a high note, suffering from sloppy writing, rushed plotlines, and failure to seamlessly tie up any loose ends or connected storylines. However, this isn’t the case for Never Have I Ever. The show’s final season beautifully showcases the growth of all of the characters and their relationships with each other. Though the show’s hotly-debated love triangle is still at the forefront and a winner is decided in sweet, rom-com fashion, it is not the primary focus of the season. Instead, this season focuses on highlighting the growth of each character, particularly Devi. It delves into each character better understanding themselves, their relationships with one another, and, most importantly, Devi coming to terms with the grieving process of her father’s passing during freshman year. This season will make you tear up just as much as it’ll make you laugh and want to hug your loved ones.

You can watch the fourth and final season streaming now on Netflix.

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