Never Have I Ever
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She was talking to her mother.
Or, more accurately, how losing her father complicates an already messy relationship with her mother.
The mother-daughter storytelling inNever Have I Everis striking poignant and visceral.
The episode almost operates as a bottle episode in its confined setting.
It all takes place on the day Prashant comes to visit Kamala.
Nalini wants Devi on her best behavior none of the usual Devi nonsense.
But when her mom asks her not to make her life any harder, the full picture comes together.
We see the flashback in full.
She told her mother she hated her, prompting Mohan to act as peacekeeper.
Throughout the episode, we get some more glimpses into this memory.
Devi cant quite break free from this memory and its implications.
Nalini thinks Devi is careless and disobedient, and shes frustrated.
Mohans caught in the middle.
Its such a perfect, tight look at family dynamics that does a lot with a little.
But then her mind settles on something else.
Not one of her fantasies.
Another moment of softness between her and her dad.
He gave her her first harp.
The calmest we ever see Devi is in these flashbacks with her father.
And Devi has good reason to be angry as hell in the present.
Youre struggling to raise me because you dont like me, she says.
Its a gut punch, and Nalini falters.
Devi tells her what she heard, and its a devastating moment that Ramakrishnan absolutely nails.
Devi then goes for the jugular: I lost the only parent that actually cares about me.
I wish you were the one that died that night.
Devis anger stems from so much more than the loss of her father.
She feels abandoned by her mother.
She feels more than misunderstood.
She feels rejected and hurt.
What Devi hears her mother say is truly heart-wrenching, but the writing does not demonize Nalini.
She is an exhausted mother.
She indeed does not really understand Devi.
The peacekeeper isnt here anymore.
The fact of the matter is that both Devi and Nalini say ugly things about each other.
But theres no denying that their relationship is fractured and that the gap has widened in Mohans absence.
