Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) had one goal in Season 1 of Never Have I Ever: to sleep with her high school’s heartthrob, Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet). It’s all in the title of the show, after all.

But at the show’s heart, Devi’s an Indian American girl working through her father, Mohan’s (Sendhil Ramamurthy), sudden death. She and her mother, Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan), get into a massive fight since Nalini wants them to move to India for more support. But by the season’s finale, they make up and go with Devi’s cousin, Kamala (Richa Moorjani), to spread Mohan’s ashes in the ocean at a scenic Malibu beach in honor of his birthday. 

Devi’s academic rival turned love interest, Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison), sped (well, really, drove like a snail on the 101 freeway) to get Devi there just in time and waited to make sure it all went OK afterward. Devi is so touched that they make out in his car, just as Paxton realizes that he really wants to make a go of it with Devi and calls her. In a sudden turn of events, though, she lets the phone call she’s been waiting for all season (scratch that, since third grade)... go to voice mail.

So where do we find this “playa” in Season 2? Here’s your recap of where we left off before Season 3 premieres on Aug. 12.

Key players

Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan): Never Have I Ever’s hotheaded protagonist who’s still learning to love herself and struggling to process her grief over her father’s death.

Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet): Devi’s dreamboat, a superstar swimmer and the most popular boy at Sherman Oaks High, who’s very protective of his younger sister.

Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison): Devi’s nemesis who, behind all the verbal barbs, likes Devi and is “all in” on making their relationship work after the Season 1 finale.

Fabiola Torres (Lee Rodriguez): Devi’s best friend who’s the captain of the robotics team and just started dating her girlfriend, Eve.

Eleanor Wong (Ramona Young): Devi’s other best friend who embraces the saying “All the world’s a stage,” and is thus determined to be the most theatrical player of them all.

Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan): Devi’s mom who’s a dermatologist and, like Devi, working through the grief of losing Mohan.

Kamala (Richa Moorjani): Devi’s cousin from India who lives with Devi and her mom while she attends Caltech and whose family is pushing her into an arranged marriage. 

Aneesa (Megan Suri): Sherman Oaks High’s newest student, Aneesa, is excited to become friends with Devi, Fabiola and Eleanor.

Key locations

Devi’s house: The center of the Vishwakumar universe, located in sunny Sherman Oaks, California.

Sherman Oaks High: Where Devi, her friends and her love interests get into all sorts of shenanigans in between Facing History classes.

Key plot points

So who does Devi choose, Ben or Paxton? 

Devi kicks off the season with not one, but two boyfriends. She likes both Paxton and Ben and feels like it’s only a matter of time before her family relocates to India. Fabiola and Eleanor help her make a nifty pros-and-cons list to decide, and Devi leans toward Ben at first. But her gal pals immediately encourage her not to let Paxton go because he’s the boy she’d want to imagine naked from her deathbed. And so Devi’s “playa” status commences.

Unfortunately, this scheme blows up in Devi’s face after Nalini visits India and realizes Sherman Oaks is the best place for the Vishwakumar family after all. At Devi’s “going away” party, Ben and Paxton both learn she’s two-timing them. Devi follows Paxton into the street as he gets hit by a car, halting his swimming ticket to college. And Ben’s left standing in the cold, heartbroken.

Yikes! OK, so what’s Paxton’s college game plan now?

In an uncomfortable surprise for the both of them, the school college counselor assigns Devi to tutor Paxton, since he needs to bump up his grades now that a swimming scholarship isn’t an option. It’s rocky, to say the least, at first, but Devi helps him realize he can be good at school if he puts his mind to it to “go above and beyond.” He presents a meaningful extra-credit project about his Japanese American grandfather’s time in an internment camp in Facing History class. 

Paxton is so moved that Devi helped him blossom that he sneaks into her room one night — in the rain and through her window, in a romantic send-up to teen rom-coms of yore — and kisses her. But it’s not smooth sailing from there. Paxton decides to keep their relationship a secret because he’s still embarrassed by how she hurt him so badly before. Devi wants and deserves more (as she learns thanks to a helpful dream featuring her dad) and breaks up with him. But he shows up at the winter dance to be her date, proving that dreams really do come true for Devi Vishwakumar.

Does the ice thaw at all with Ben?

Yeah, Ben is rightfully pissed. Dude was all in! He broke up with Shira (Hanna Stein) to be with Devi. It takes a long time for him to warm back up to her. (You can’t really blame him, since she did follow Paxton and not him.) He even tricks Devi into getting a nose piercing, to show her that “it feels bad to commit to something not knowing the other person is lying the whole time.” This happens the same night Devi and her friends sneak out of their sleepover so Eleanor can meet up with her new crush, Malcolm (Tyler Alvarez). 

The sleepover crowd has a new addition that night, Aneesa, who’s also Indian American and immediately intimidates Devi. She’s cool, plays soccer and seems to have the whole social scene on lock the moment she arrives. Devi’s also none too pleased when Aneesa and Ben seem to hit it off after the sleepover sneak-out. 

So now we’ve got a love quadrant?

You bet. And at the school’s charity relay, Devi’s jealousy gets the best of her. She does her darndest to separate Ben and Aneesa, and accidentally ends up spreading an ugly rumor about Aneesa having anorexia. To make matters worse, that rumor carries weight because it’s  why Aneesa left her last school. Aneesa is devastated and plans on leaving Sherman Oaks High, and Ben encourages Devi to make it right. 

Thankfully, Devi sincerely apologizes for spreading the rumor, and Nalini convinces Aneesa’s mom to let her stay. Aneesa also starts a relationship with Ben. The two go to the school dance together, but he can’t shake his pangs when he sees Paxton and Devi slow dancing. “Of course it’s him, it’s always been him,” he says. But Eleanor reveals that couldn’t be further from the truth and that she and Fabiola were the ones who talked Devi out of choosing Ben after he drove her to Malibu. This leaves Ben utterly crushed.

Enough with the love messiness. How’s Devi’s family holding up?

Right. Well, before Nalini decided against moving to India, she’d consulted with another top dermatologist, Dr. Chris Jackson (Common), so she could leave her clients in good hands. They didn’t exactly get off on the right foot, but Nalini’s disdain soon enough melts to affection, and they begin dating. Devi catches them together and is wrecked that her mom could be dating someone else so soon after her dad’s death. Her grandmother (Ranjita Chakravarty) reminds her that Nalini is an adult and can do as she likes. But Nalini also realizes that now just isn’t the right time and ends things. Devi’s also devastated after she loses a voice mail from her father, so Nalini shows her a home video Mohan had made when she was pregnant with Devi, and they come back together as a family.

Meanwhile, Kamala is stuck dealing with misogyny in her latest lab at Caltech. She comes up with the brilliant discovery for the team’s lab paper, and they try to keep her name off the list when they submit it to a prestigious journal — even after she pretends to like anime and Dungeons & Dragons to get on their good side. Prashant (Rushi Kota), her family-approved, handsome suitor, isn’t much help either. He tells her to keep her chin up,  keep her head down and not rat on her peers. She wants what she deserves... and she’s thinking that it’s also not Prashant. She “Devis” it up and demands what she wants, forcing her team to include her.

The Vishwakumars also welcome Prashant’s family to a dinner at their home, and Kamala can’t stop freaking out that it’s meant to be an engagement meal. Before dessert (and a ring) is served, she sprints out the door and runs to Devi’s school. Why, you ask? Because the alternative of singing karaoke with the chaperones at the school dance with booze is better than being shackled into a marriage she isn’t ready for. Plus, Devi’s favorite teacher, Mr. Kulkarni (Utkarsh Ambudkar), invited Kamala, and clearly she finds that escape more appealing than Prashant.

Let’s bring it home with Fabiola and Eleanor.

After Devi apologizes (she does a lot of apologizing — it’s cool, she’s growing) for not being there for her besties enough last season, she, Fabiola and Eleanor are going strong in Season 2. Eleanor dumps her old beau for new thespian flame Malcolm, but Devi and Fab realize that a) he’s cheating and b) he doesn’t treat her like the star that she is. They try convincing her to break out of this controlling relationship, but she only sees the light when he dumps her over text (the gall!) and her stepmom convinces her that stability isn’t a bad thing. It can be hot! But you know who sees her for the star that she is? Paxton’s best pal, Trent (Benjamin Norris), who’s stunned by her performance in the school play and asks her to dance at the winter dance.

Fabiola is very happy in her new relationship with Eve (Christina Kartchner). That is, until Eve’s friends make her feel like she isn’t lesbian enough because she doesn’t go to the Library Bar or watch The L Word. Fab introduces Eve to her mom at the school’s charity relay, and they hatch the idea for Fab and Eve to run for Cricket Queen and Queen at the school dance. (Fab’s parents had been Cricket King and Queen back in the day.) But all the campaigning forces Fab to neglect her true love (robotics) and her favorite robot, Gears Brosnan. At the dance, she stops trying to be someone else, and she and Eve are crowned the Queens and declare their love for each other. A truly royal affair.

Key questions going into Season 3

1. Are Devi and Paxton official now?
2. What’s Ben gonna do now that he knows that it wasn’t always Paxton for Devi?
3. So is Kamala’s engagement with Prashant off the table, and is she into Devi’s teacher?
4. Are Eleanor and Trent a thing?
5. Will Devi learn to love herself?

What To Know About Never Have I Ever Season 3Devi and all your favorites from Sherman Oaks High are back.