Words by Quinci Legardye

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

Three years after Never Have I Ever‘s original premiere, it’s time to say goodbye to Devi Vishwakumar.

Fans of the excellent teen comedy have watched Devi (who’s portrayed by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) grow from a determined, chaotic girl grieving the unexpected death of her father to a matured… slightly less chaotic young woman heading into her final year of high school. Along the way, Devi’s been torn between the two great loves of her teenage years: popular jock Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet), whom she first propositioned on a just-sex basis, and her academic nemesis turned on-and-off crush Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison).

The final season, which is streaming now on Netflix, begins in the moments after Devi and Ben have sex for the first time and… it’s awkward. Neither of them know how to address their feelings, and after some classic miscommunication, the pair spend the entire summer before senior year not talking. Then, when school starts, it turns out that Ben has started dating artsy student Margot. That leaves a rift between Devi and Ben, but eventually they find their way back to being friends over the course of the tumultuous year.

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

As a senior, Devi’s in the final stretch of her efforts to get into Princeton. She hits a few snags right out of the gate, including hospitalizing the teacher she hoped would write her recommendation, and getting briefly distracted by a romance with a newly-hot classmate, Ethan Morales (Michael Cimino). Though the fling with the bad boy allows Devi to explore her sexuality, she realizes he’s not the one for her when he steals the Princeton rep’s wallet at the college fair. Once acceptances roll out, Devi ends up rejected from all of the extremely-competitive Ivies she applied to except Princeton, where she was waitlisted.

Meanwhile, Paxton begins the season as a freshman at Arizona State, where he’s learning that the big-fish-little-pond effect can apply to popularity as well as academics. After struggling to make friends, he decides to drop out and move back to Sherman Oaks, where he gets a job as assistant coach for the swim team (and gives Devi a resume boost by making her the equipment manager). However, he eventually learns that you can’t go back to high school, and actually rises to his new position of authority when he helps Eric get onto the JV team and embraces his calling as a teacher. It does briefly seem like he and Devi will get together again, after they have a deep moment while trapped in the equipment closet, but instead they end things with a sense of closure. (Leaving Paxton to get with the gorgeous substitute teacher Lindsay Thompson).

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

Fast forward to the last episode, which starts on a high note: Devi gets into Princeton! She got off the waitlist thanks to an emotional essay about her father, which Ben encouraged her to write. The finale covers a lot of ground, speeding through graduation and Devi’s last summer with Fabiola (who’s set to study robotics at Howard) and Eleanor (who graduated a semester early to being her acting career). Devi’s last weekend before college coincides with Nirmala’s wedding to her boyfriend Len, and she invites all of Devi’s friends to come celebrate before the teen has to leave. Unfortunately, the person Devi wants to attend most can’t make it. Ben’s been gone the whole summer, working at a law internship at NYC before he starts school at Columbia.

While Devi’s stalling from packing for college, she finds her placard from Model UN all the way back in season 1, a sweet nod that she still has feelings for Ben. Luckily, he’s on the same page from all the way across the country, regretting that he never actually told Devi that he wants to be with her. The pair finally have their big romantic moment when Ben shows up at the wedding(!), surprising Devi by flying cross-country to tell her he loves her (!!). They spend the night together, and the next morning they decide to give their relationship a real shot. After all, New York and New Jersey aren’t that far away.

In the end, after four years of angst, grief, longing, and growth, Devi and the rest of the Sherman Oaks crew embarked on their new lives. Devi’s mom Nalini has a new boyfriend, and Kamala has taken a job at Johns Hopkins and moved in with Manish in Baltimore (just a few hours from Devi). Fab and Gears Brosnan are loving Howard, and Eleanor’s working on a production with Trent. Paxton has re-enrolled at ASU to become a teacher. And our girl Devi has ended up with “both the boy and the college of her dreams.” With that, one of the best teen comedies of the past decade comes to a close for now… at least until Devi pops up in a cameo on Sex Lives of College Girls. (Please let this happen!)

This article originally appeared in harpersbazaar.com.