Warning: The following contains spoilers from the Season 3 finale of Never Have I Ever. Read at your own risk!

Once upon a time, Never Have I Ever protagonist Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), had a long list of Never Have I Evers. Chief among them was well, um, boinking. But things may have changed after the Season 3 finale, titled “...Lived the Dream.” As series lead Ramakrishnan poetically tells Tudum, Devi and her on-again, off-again love interest Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison) “fall into each other's direction,” to close out the season, suggesting a hookup.

This is the culmination of the “One Free Boink” coupon Ben slipped Devi in the previous episode “...Had an Indian Boyfriend.” But, the minds behind Never Have I Ever say, this big moment was much earlier in the making.

As showrunner and co-creator Lang Fisher tells Tudum, Season 3’s core theme is about allowing Devi to “grow up” and feel “good about herself.” Hence the post–Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet) breakup time jump in “...Made Someone Jealous,” which gives Devi lots of time to mature quickly on-screen. That evolution is evident in the finale’s graduation scene, when Devi isn’t overwhelmed by butterflies the moment hotshot Paxton compliments her in his speech. At last, Fisher explains, Devi knows she is worthy of that kindness. She does, however, feel that flutter for Ben.

“Devi had realized that Paxton is this person she'd put on a pedestal, because she felt so low herself,” says Fisher. “When Ben —who never says anything nice and is always a little bit of a dick — opens up about not wanting her to leave, that takes her aback and she decides to give him [the coupon back] … Ben is the person who gets her.”

Ramakrishnan is happy to see her character finally stop trying to “appease what her middle school self wanted,” as her therapist, Dr. Ryan (Niecy Nash) has been recommending for seasons. “Devi realizes she's going to take control over her own life,”  says Ramakrishnan. “She's grown. I really like that it’s her own decision to go to Ben's house and [be] like, ‘Hey, do you want to do this?’ It goes back to the trust.”

Devi & Paxton's Relationship from Never Have I Ever in 3 MinutesRemember when Paxton gets Devi to walk again just by being hot? Us too.

Devi and Ben’s finale scene — which shows Devi popping up at Ben’s home, handing him her boink coupon and the pair wordlessly understanding the proposition — really does come down to trust and comfort. As Season 3’s early episodes revealed, no matter how attracted Devi was to Paxton, she was never prepared to be that vulnerable with him. “She actually feels emotionally ready for it [now]. She's like, ‘Yeah, all right, let me go shoot my shot,’” Ramakrishnan says.

Ramakrishnan’s scene partner Lewison agrees. “[The scene] shows that they trust each other,” he says. “They do go head to head and they push each other. And sometimes they aggravate the heck out of each other, but underneath all of that, it is a really strong foundation of care, kindness, generosity and genuine love for each other.” Lewison says he’s proud of the characters for getting to this point. “At the heart of every great relationship, friendship, anything like that, if it's a special someone, you just need care and kindness. You need patience,” he says.

But, before fans start airbrushing #BeviEndgame T-shirts (sorry, #PlowedByPaxton), Fisher promises Never Have I Ever’s central love triangle “is not over.” Instead, it will continue into the comedy’s fourth and final season, whose theme will ultimately be “moving on.”  Viewers can expect dynamic shake-ups now that Paxton has left Sherman Oaks High for college and something happened with Devi and Ben’s boink card.

“It used to be, Paxton is up here and then Devi and Ben are down here. And Devi and Ben were always at odds,” says Fisher. “Everything gets tumbled upside down.… So therefore the love triangle can get reignited again.”

Additional reporting by Chancellor Agard and Tara Bitran.