🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

As Wayne Gretzky once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” So when, in the very first episode of Never Have I Ever, nerdy high school sophomore Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) decides that she wanted to hook up with the hottest guy at Sherman Oaks High School, Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet), she asks him. And he says yes. 

Even though Devi’s story is narrated by a different sports star — tennis great John McEnroe — the Great One’s advice rings true for the California teen throughout the run of the series, in which she navigates relationships, school and her ultimate goal: getting into Princeton. And although she doesn’t always succeed, Devi never fails to try. 

One of her first goals for her high school experience is getting a boyfriend — or at least losing her virginity. Hence the proposition to her classmate, which was actually the very first scene Ramakrishnan and Barnet filmed together. Says Ramakrishnan, “It was in the first week of filming, and [Barnet] cracked up every time I stuck out my hand. I came up with that. I was just like, handshake.”

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“It’s obviously one of the most awkward moments of the show,” says Barnet, who had only met his new co-star shortly before they began working together. “I didn’t know what to expect,” he adds. “But it was such a hilarious process, and it really set a great tone for the rest of the show.”

While the two characters do not, in fact, bone, Paxton eventually does become Devi’s first boyfriend — although it takes the two of them multiple seasons to actually get together. Then there’s a whole love triangle with Devi, Paxton and Devi’s academic rival, Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison), and by Season 2 she’s technically dating both of them. In Devi’s defense, she thinks she’s about to move to India with her mom, so why not have a little fun with both of her crushes while she still can?

Unfortunately, neither Paxton nor Ben sees it that way when they find out about each other — and Devi learns that she’s staying in California after all. They’re both hurt, and while Ben moves on and begins dating Devi’s new friend Aneesa (Megan Suri), Devi tutors a pissed-off Paxton until one day, his feelings for her change again. They begin secretly dating, but Devi refuses to be a secret — so he makes it official (and public).

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As Season 3 begins, Devi and Paxton are officially dating. And while Devi is still not quite ready to have sex, she and Paxton are teaching each other a lot about themselves. “He started off as a very aloof character,” Barnet tells Tudum. “He had to find out how far he was really willing to push himself.”

That’s where Devi comes in: As she tutors Paxton, he realizes that he can be more than just a jock if he wants to be. It’s something he hasn’t actually heard before, and he takes it to heart. Unfortunately, Devi finds it almost unbelievable that the hottest guy in school actually wants to be her boyfriend, and her insecurity causes them to break up.

Enter Des (Anirudh Pisharody): the new object of Devi’s affection, and perhaps a match made in her mother’s dreams. Des is the son of a family friend who goes to a fancy private school, and Devi expects him to be a mega-nerd. Like, nerdier than she is. 

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But when Devi meets Des, she learns that he’s not a dork but rather a stone-cold fox. And because his mom allows him to date, Devi’s mom allows her to date him. Until he ghosts her. Frustrated by the roller coaster that is her love life, Devi seeks solace in her frenemy Ben and turns in the “One Free Boink” coupon he gave her earlier in the season. Their flirtation is always simmering in the background, and it finally boils over. 

Surprise! In the opening moments of Season 4, we learn that Devi and Ben do the deed. Too bad neither of them is emotionally mature enough to know what to do next, and they both blow each other off and get new partners. Ben starts dating the artsy Margot (Victoria Moroles), and Devi hooks up with “broody, moody bad boy” Ethan (Michael Cimino), as Cimino describes him. 

“He knows, ‘Oh yeah, I am the shit right now.’ He knows that this is his moment, so he has no problem with seizing it and flirting with whoever he wants to flirt with, which is, in this case, Devi,” Cimino explains. “And he has no problem with just being that guy. He is that guy.”

The leader of the Hot Pockets, aka the sexy skater crew, Ethan brings out things in Devi that we haven’t seen before. “She’s confident and more relaxed and more comfortable,” Cimino says. “And I think that Ethan has something to do with that because he’s just so chill and confident and that definitely translates over to her.”

Unfortunately, some things about Ethan are lost in translation. He graffitis Devi’s car; he steals the Princeton admissions representative’s wallet when she refuses to meet with Devi. Admits Cimino, “I don’t think he’s a bad boyfriend. I think he’s mid. I think Ethan’s coming and going was definitely just a catalyst for Devi becoming the person that she needed to become and just being like, ‘OK, why am I hanging out with people who are like this? And why am I surrounding myself with people who don’t have a similar mindset as myself?’ ”

After a brief make-out with Paxton — a closure kiss, if you will — Devi realizes the hard-body hottie is not necessarily the person she’s meant to be with. “Not that Paxton’s a bad dude, it’s just, you mature and you grow and you change what you like. My dream job when I was a kid of being a unicorn has changed,” Ramakrishnan tells Tudum. 

Finally, there’s Ben. Good old Ben Gross. Devi and Ben confide in each other about their fears for the future. When Devi gets waitlisted at Princeton, Ben is the one who encourages her to write the supplemental essay that eventually gets her admitted. But they don’t officially start to date until the end of their post-grad summer, when Ben flies back to confess his feelings for his onetime enemy.

Devi and Ben are “always there for each other in times of difficulty, and they also find each other for celebration” Lewison tells Tudum. “They sometimes make each other crazy, and they’ve made mistakes with ways that they’ve acted or things that they’ve said or done, but I think it’s coming from a place of genuine love, and I am proud of their journey.”

Ben rushes into Devi’s grandmother’s wedding fresh off a plane from his summer internship in New York and tells Devi that he loves her. “That’s one of the scenes that I think I am the most proud of in my entire career as an actor, because it’s the culmination of four seasons of buildup,” says Lewison. “Finally everything is out there where they both say ‘I love you’ to each other.”

It might have taken Ben and Devi years to actually get together, but they had some growing up to do first. “I think that they are the epitome of right person, wrong time. They both had a lot to learn. They were both very young,” says Lewison. “You have to learn who you are as a partner and what you need from your significant other. They both were figuring that out through their failures and their mess-ups, and then they would come back to each other.”

While John McEnroe’s final narration confirms that Devi and Ben are together “for now,” Lewison thinks that the couple will remain in each other’s lives forever. “I don’t know what happens in the future in the fictional world of Never Have I Ever, if they get married or not, but I think that no matter what happens they are two people that will always have a very strong love and care for each other. I think they’ll always know that they are each a special person in the other’s life.”

Additional reporting by Ariana Romero.