‘Never Have I Ever’ Season 4 Episode 8 Recap: “Set My Mom Up”

Similar to Paxton, Never Have I Ever Season 4 hasn’t spent as much time with Devi’s family aside from a few scenes here and there. Finally, in Episode 8, we get to share a meal with the Vishwakumars — as usual, things don’t go quite as expected. 

In  “…set my mom up,” Devi notices her mom and Andres flirting in the kitchen (the graze of an arm and the tuck of her hair behind her ear are tell-tale signs) and sets out on a mission to get them together. The only issue is that Andres has understandable hesitations about dating the mom of her daughter’s sworn enemy. This season (and honestly, the series overall) has always been about Devi’s growth, and we see it again here: she takes it upon herself to make up with Margot so that their “lonely single parents” can find companionship when they’re both at college next year. 

At first, Margot is reluctant. She hates Devi and doesn’t want her dad anywhere near that family. But Devi bribes her with In n Out and invites her over to witness their flirtation. When Margot sees it with her own eyes, she agrees to come over for Pati’s birthday dinner along with her dad. 

At dinner, Len keeps declining phone calls until he decides to excuse himself to take the call upstairs. Kamala, still suspicious about her grandma’s boyfriend, follows him up and eavesdrops on the conversation with the woman he calls “baby,” overhearing him say that they need to stick to the plan until after the wedding. She steals Len’s phone when they’re back downstairs and texts “Baby” to come over to the house so the secret can be revealed once and for all.

It’s a rocky start to dinner with a few jabs between Devi and Margot, but the girls end up bonding in the kitchen over their parents and Ben, and Margot reveals that Ben has been texting her. It leaves Devi a little heartbroken because Ben had also rekindled a textual friendship with her, and this makes her believe it was all platonic. But Margot says she still has feelings for him so Devi tries to push her feelings down…until Ben shows up at the house with flowers in hand looking for Devi.

You see, across town, Trent decided to take Ben under his wing and teach him a thing or two about senioritis. He convinces the overachiever that he doesn’t need to do schoolwork anymore since he already has his college acceptance in hand and invites him over to get high one night. Trent may be a stoner, but he’s not a safe person to get high for the first time with as he tells Ben, “there’s no such thing as ‘too high’.” (But there is, kids.) Ben pops another edible and tells Trent he had a sexual dream about Devi, which was similar to one Trent had about Eleanor. To Trent, that means it’s true love and he encourages Ben to go to Devi’s house immediately. 

Ben appears at the house at the same time as Baby, leading to a chaotic third act. Baby, it turns out, is Pati and Len’s real estate agent — the two are looking to buy a vacation home for the family and were waiting until after the wedding to share the news. Ben, meanwhile, hits his high at the house and ruins Pati’s birthday cake before asking Andres and Margot to drop him off at home. 

Proven wrong, Kamala apologizes about Len and confesses that she’s been feeling odd about her future. She turned the Baltimore job down because she’s never lived so far from family, but Nalini reassures her that they’ll always be there for each other and that she should take the leap of faith. Kamala makes a one-off mention of Manish, Devi’s former teacher and Kamala’s boyfriend, who has been conspicuously absent throughout this series. It’s probably a scheduling conflict with Utkarsh Ambudkar who plays Manish, but his presence has been missed this season.

Nalini is also touched that Devi is now okay with her dating again (let’s never forget how she reacted when she found out her mom was dating a fellow doctor played by Common in season two). The Vishwakumars are slowly emerging from the darkness, Nalini says, and it’s another amazing sentiment of acceptance and love towards widows moving on instead of staying trapped in their grief. And it’s a great thing, too, because Andres comes back the next day to reveal his feelings and he and Nalini share a beautiful, tender kiss that I’ve been waiting for all season long.

Of course, college admissions are in the background and it’s finally decision day. Devi feels confident by the extracurriculars she’s picked up since being deferred earlier in the year. But when she opens the mail to find out she’s been waitlisted at Princeton, she’s ready to fight. Things only get worse when she’s rejected from Yale, Harvard, and every other Ivy League because yup, you guessed it — our girl only applied to the Ivies. It turns out she didn’t take her counselor’s advice about safety schools, and now our favorite overachiever may not get into college at all.

Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, Teen Vogue, Paste Magazine, and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.