From Cute Guys to Coyotes, 9 Never Have I Ever Scenes That Made Us Love Devi

It's clear from the opening moment when Devi is praying for a boyfriend that the girl has a plan. It doesn't take long for her original plan of getting her and her friends attainable boyfriends to unravel (thanks in part to a comment by Ben Gross) and for a new one that involves Paxton Yoshida-Hall, the hottest guy in her school, to form. Throughout the entire episode, we get glimpses into who Devi is as a person and what makes her tick. When she finally has the courage to approach Paxton, we're on board with Devi and feel like there's nothing she can't do.

Devi and her mother are constantly fighting on Never Have I Ever. We get glimpses of her late father throughout the show, but it's in that first episode we see exactly what Devi is missing in her life. As she tearfully asks a vision of her father "Am I ugly?," you can see the pain in Devi's eyes as she relives insecurity we've all felt at one time or another. It's also serves as a poignant reminder that even though someone may be gone physically, they'll still be with you when you need them.

After arranging a time for her and Paxton to actual follow through on their no-strings-attached agreement, Devi ends up chickening out. It's while watching Devi that you can feel the awkwardness through the screen. Moments like this are what make the characters truly feel real, and it's when Devi goes back to Paxton's house and meets his sister that we all begin to see there may be more to this pair than meets the eye.

At this point on the show, Devi hasn't found a healthy way to deal with the grief of losing her father, Mohan (Sendhil Ramamurthy). Desperately trying to see her father wherever she goes, Devi has a moment with a coyote in her family's garden. It isn't until later that she sees the coyote again, while she's drunk and at a party, that she realizes it's not her father. It's also in this moment that her relationship with Paxton seems to transform.

Devi is a straight-A student with dreams of going to Princeton. Instead of listening to a college counselor named Ron and using her dad's death coupled with her temporary paralysis to gain the upper hand on other college applicants, Devi sticks her ground saying she's not just "another Indian try-hard" and she wants to get into school on her own merits. Each and every word is oozing with the confidence of someone who knows who they are and what they want from life. Devi has us fully believing that although she may not make the best decisions at times, her heart is always in the right place.

Upon finding out that Paxton knows she lied about them having sex, Devi has resigned herself to becoming the outsider once more. Devi is ever the dramatic teen in a hoodie and dark sunglasses as she walks through the halls, certain he's told everyone she was lying. When she realizes he hasn't told anyone, our hearts soften once more towards Paxton.

Devi is a gifted musician, but throughout Never Have I Ever she's conflicted about her love for the harp since it reminds her of her last moments with her father. For her, it's the source of pain and anguish as all she can see is him. It's not until she's taking one for the team by playing the harp for Prashant (Rushi Kota) and her uncle as her cousin Kamala (Richa Moorjani) and mother sneak Kamala's boyfriend Steve (Eddie Liu) out of the house without them knowing that she finally allows herself to let the pain in. At first she's wary, but when it looks like all is lost, she loses herself in the music and finally begins to accept that it's okay to grieve.

While her mother Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan) has had a breakthrough with her therapist, Devi still isn't ready to make nice with her mother and move to India. Nalini comes to make peace and tell her about the decision to spread Mohan's ashes, and Devi does not take it well. As she flashes back through all the good and bad times, it feels as if she is truly trying to grieve. Rather than realize what her mother is saying is right and that she's here for a good reason, Devi chooses to pick another fight which sets her up for a whirlwind of a finale to the first season.

Once she's patched up her relationship with Eleanor and Fab (thanks to Ben), Devi realizes there's one thing she still needs to do, but doesn't think she'll be able to make it on time. Despite an earnest Ben, who tries his best to get her home, she just misses out on her mother and Kamala leaving for Malibu. Just as everything seems hopeless, narrator John McEnroe makes an appearance and saves the day. After catching her family's attention, she runs down to the beach and finally makes peace with everything that's been going wrong in her life, which sets up a potential season two as she kisses Ben and misses out on a phone call from Paxton.