Spoilers for Never Have I Ever’s series finale are ahead. If you want to find out what happened, you can stream the comedy on the 2023 TV schedule with a Netflix subscription.
Let's give it up for the nerds! In the final episode of Never Have I Ever’s fourth season we finally found out who Devi ended up with, and it was her fellow smarty-pants and academic nemesis-turned-firend Ben Gross. I'm sure many of us would have been happy with any of the possible outcomes of the Devi-Ben-Paxton love triangle. However, I know I was the most satisfied with her ending up with Ben, and so was Jaren Lewison, who plays the character, as he gushed to CinemaBlend about how much he loved their big romantic moment at the end of the series.
The big looming question throughout all of Never Have I Ever has been: Will Devi pick Ben, Paxton or neither? And in the series finale, we got our answer, she picked Ben. Following NHIE’s Season 3 ending, where the two “boink,” a good portion of Season 4 is spent showing both characters silently pining after one another. However, in the final moments of the finale, Ben makes a massive romantic gesture by flying from New York to California to confess his love for Devi. While it was incredibly romantic to watch on screen, Jaren Lewison told us what it was like reading what happened for the first time, saying:
I got such insane goosebumps. I've never read something like that. I think it's too maybe for me, I'm definitely a romantic person. And I think that going from Season 1 and looking at where they started and everything sort of flashed in my mind super quickly. From the first moment of their connection in Season 1, Episode 5 at Model UN where they high five and they're like, ‘Oh, I guess we're like a pretty good team for two people who hate each other.’ That, I think is something that's really profound going now to ‘I love you I flew [from] New York for you. I love everything about you’ that, to me is so romantic.
As you can tell, he really loved that ending, and so did I. Thinking back on everything Devi and Ben have been through, this final moment where they both confess their feelings felt so earned and true to their characters. Lewison continued to speak about how much he adored this sequence that was written by the show’s co-creator Lang Fisher, saying:
Lang [Fisher] wrote that episode with obviously help from the other amazing writers, and I don't if for me and me specifically, that it could have been any better. The way that it was written I think is one of the most brilliant scenes I have ever read in my entire life. The way that it was written was like, I don't want to use the word perfect, but it was truly brilliant. I think that it was just so touching and heartwarming and romantic. Getting to do that with my Maitreyi, and having Ben and Devi’s, sort of for lack of a better word, climax of their relationship and that kind of like lead up that culmination of romance was really, really special.
Agreed! It was “really, really special.” I’ve always thought Devi and Ben were a fantastic duo with great banter and insane chemistry. Plus they developed such a strong bond over the course of four seasons that it just felt right that they ended up together.
While this final scene where they both say “I love you” would have been a great end, the show took it one step further. This is because in the final, final scene we learned that they stayed together in college. Even though Maitreyi Ramakrishnan was surprised by Ben and Devi’s fade out, ultimately it was a great moment of beautiful closure on top of their already amazing moment at Pati's wedding.
Overall, Never Have I Ever’s ending was fun, goofy and romantic. Like Jaren Lewison said recognizing the history Devi and Ben have and everything that's led up to this moment made it all the more special, and such a great way to cap off the series.
