But it’s really the stuff unfolding on the periphery of Devi’s life that gives the episode its color. She reaches a new place with Paxton by the end: He shows up at the hospital after the coyote attack and posts a selfie of them to his actual grid rather than just his Instagram story, suggesting that he might care about her a little more than just a ticket to an easy A. That’s not to say that there aren’t stakes to Devi’s quest to impress Paxton while working with him on a school project (the running gag of the history teacher trying way too hard to be hip hits an all-time high when he has them develop apps to mitigate violence during World War II), but the plotline hits all the expected beats and doesn’t add much new. This is the first episode of the series in which the non-Devi B- and C-plots are actually more engaging. He might not be actually present in the current narrative, but his presence is still fully felt in the ways his wife and daughter miss him and remember him. These flashbacks have really become the emotional backbone of the series, rooting us in the feeling of loss that Nalini and Devi are experiencing, and retroactively developing Mohan and his relationships with each of them. The tomatoes are rotting, and Devi flashes back to a more vibrant time when Mohan showed off his vegetable haul to her. Like she bailed on orchestra practice last week, this time she storms off when Nalini asks her to tend to Mohan’s garden. (The beers she chugs after being rejected by Paxton at a house party probably don’t help.) Devi’s denial and suppression of her real feelings is an ongoing emotional through line for the series, and the coyote encounter suggests it’s more than just damaging - it’s dangerous.īecause she’s still not ready to confront her feelings, Devi keeps bailing. She’s so desperate to believe that a coyote could be her dead dad that she puts herself in harm’s way. She’s being reckless with her self, particularly with her body. Since all of these injuries are genuine accidents, I wouldn’t go so far as to classify them as self-harm, but they might signify yet another way that Devi’s grief is manifesting. She might be awkward, but clumsy isn’t really part of her personality (I mean, look at the way she slays that TikTok dance with Eleanor and Fab at the top of the episode, which she posts as a thirst trap to try and get Paxton’s attention … it does not work). It seems too specific and extreme for this to merely be a way of establishing Devi as a clumsy person. Now, in episode three, she gets mauled by a coyote because she drunkenly approaches it thinking it’s her dad trying to communicate with her. In the second episode, she gets stabbed by a trophy in Paxton’s garage. In the pilot, she falls and skins her knee. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but it’s hard to ignore a pattern happening on Never Have I Ever: Devi ends up bleeding in every episode. Photo: LARA SOLANKI/NETFLIX/LARA SOLANKI/NETFLIX
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |