In season two episode four of Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, titled “…had an Indian frenemy,” there’s a new transfer student at Sherman Oaks High School, and Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) isn’t having it. Aneesa Qureshi (Megan Suri, Atypical), the new student, seems to be picture perfect: beautiful, funny, and making a good impression with the popular kids on the first day. On top of that? She’s the only other Indian-American student in Devi’s class, and Devi doesn’t understand why Aneesa is getting more attention than she ever did. Oh, and it doesn’t help that the white students are calling Aneesa ‘Devi 2.0.’
Devi wants to come to terms with her jealousy, but she can’t help but compare herself to Aneesa. Up until this point, being the only Indian-American woman in the class was Devi’s territory, and she doesn’t want to share the title. Devi’s resentment is put to the test after her mother forces her to invite Aneesa over for a sleepover.
However, Devi’s perspective of Aneesa begins to change with the more time they spend together. Their sleepover goes off the rails in a fun night of typical teen mischief, sneaking out of the house to meet up with boys and Devi even gets her nose pierced. Devi starts to realize how charming and kind-hearted Aneesa is, especially after she smoothly covers for Devi after Devi’s mom rages about the nose ring. Devi changes her mind, and realizes she actually enjoys having a friend to bond over her culture with and being able to relate over the angst they feel towards their overprotective mothers.
Meanwhile, Devi’s cousin Kamala (Richa Moorjani, NCIS: Los Angeles) is dealing with a big issue: sexism in her workplace. Kamala received an opportunity to work in a research lab for a Nobel Prize winning scientist, but the other men on the team would rather have her clean the beakers than contribute to their findings. She takes her boyfriend’s extremely questionable advice and decides to pretend to be one of the guys in an effort to earn their respect. It will be interesting to see how long Kamala can keep this up. She’s a strong and intelligent woman who deserves to be treated with respect just like everyone else in the lab without having to prove herself.
The episode ends on a major cliff hanger when Devi catches Aneesa flirting with her ex-boyfriend. Suddenly, she’s anti-Aneesa once again and out for blood. It looks like these two characters are going to have a very bumpy road ahead of them, and we wait with anticipation to see how their relationship ends up.
All eight ten episodes of season two are now streaming on Netflix.
Rating: 9.5/10