Never Have I Ever – Season 4 Episode 5 Recap & Review

…been to New Jersey

Episode 5 of Never Have I Ever Season 4 starts a week after Devi’s breakup with Ethan. Devi, Eleanor and Fabiola, along with the rest of the Sherman Oaks senior-year students are on a trip to New York to visit colleges. Devi is excited to go to Princeton for a tour with a student that goes there, Blair, who used to be Devi’s idol and a model student at Sherman Oaks.

Meanwhile, Fabiola hides the fact that she too had applied to Princeton and tells Devi instead that she’s applied to Yale. In New York, Ben gets a special tour to Columbia University due to his father’s contacts, while Fabiola accompanies Eleanor for her auditions at Juilliard. At the Vishwakumar house, Margot’s father, Andres, continues to do a bunch of odd jobs to help Nalini.

Kamala tells Nalini that she thinks Len is cheating on Paati. Nalini is sure that Kamala is overthinking everything. Nalini is excited to have the entire house to herself though, with Kamala and Devi gone while Paati spends the weekend vacationing with Len. Andres tells Nalini that being home alone isn’t all that fun but she is excited to prove him wrong.

Devi meets Blair and realises that she’s no longer the study brat she used to be. Devi finds out that Blair parties a lot when the latter takes Devi to a nightclub instead of taking her to see the Princeton campus. Eleanor goes in for her audition and Professor Warner asks Fabiola why she was keeping her application to Princeton a secret from Devi.

Fabiola claims that she wants to surprise Devi but Professor Warner tells her that she needs to go to the school in person since she had come all the way there. Fabiola tells her that she was afraid Devi would lash out at her. Meanwhile, Eleanor gets rejected from her audition at Juilliard and feels heartbroken. At Columbia, Ben soon finds out that his social awareness is way below that of the students there. He feels less intelligent than the students there and gets all awkward around them.

Blair tells Devi that she had way more freedom in College and that Devi could look forward to a lot of partying and dating boys here. Nalini gets home from work and tries to enjoy the peaceful calm but it soon starts making her feel anxious. At the same time, Fabiola and Eleanor return to their hotel and find Ben there. Eleanor is bummed by her rejection.

Fabiola texts Devi, asking her about Princeton and learns that she was at a party. Fabiola takes Eleanor there to cheer her up, where Ben asks to join them. At the party, Devi learns that Blair was actually not a student at Princeton but a bartender at the club they attended. Back in Sherman Oaks, Andres shows up at the Vishwakumar house looking for his phone.

Nalini asks him to stay since she’s getting bored living alone at home. With Margot away at her friend’s house, Andres agrees to stay. Nalini and Andres discuss what being alone after their kids leave for college looks like. Nalini talks about Mohan (Devi’s dad) and how she had hoped to spend leisurely time with him before his death. Andres also shares how suddenly becoming a single parent was jarring to him, but adds that he’s getting used to it now.

In New York, Blair tells Devi that being away from family meant she was not able to keep up with academics and that life got in the way because she was burned out from high school and partied a lot. She was kicked out of college which makes Devi doubt her own potential. Devi calls Paxton and apologises for judging him after leaving college without even trying.

Fabiola, Eleanor and Ben find Devi waiting outside the club and Blair invites Devi and her friends inside for a party. At the club, Eleanor tells her friends how she was rejected from Juilliard but Devi and Fabiola cheer her up. They tell her that she did not need to give up on her dream of becoming an actress just because some school asked her to.

Eleanor suddenly feels motivated and the three teens start dancing. Devi gets groped by one of the college students but Ben comes in just in time to punch him and saves Devi.

Outside the club, Devi chats with Ben about not being so sure she wanted to go to college anymore because of what happened with Blair. Ben tells Devi that she was nothing like Blair and that Blair was too uptight and a very good student. He adds that Devi has had her fair share of boyfriends already and has attended parties and will know how to prioritise studying over having fun during college.

Devi also gives Ben a pep talk about feeling like an outcast at Columbia University. She tells Ben that he could read a few articles and educate himself to fit in with the kids there. The duo are happy to be friends again but Fabiola and Eleanor join them. Blair tells the group that the groper has been kicked out, but the group are also asked to leave because they were underage.

Blair apologises to Devi for not giving her a proper tour. Professors Warner and Shapiro arrive just in time outside the club to take the kids back to the hotel. Professor Warner is pissed that the four students left the hotel room and went to a club. She cuts the trip short and the entire group has to go back home early.

The next morning, Andres leaves a hand-made birdhouse outside the Vishwakumar house for Nalini. Meanwhile, Devi’s happy on her flight back home that she’s back to being friends with Ben. She tells Fabiola that she feels guilty because Fabiola is not able to visit Yale. The episode ends with Fabiola feeling guilty about lying to her friend.

The Episode Review

I really don’t get how Nalini felt lonely while being left alone for one night. Having their show on Netflix, the makers really need to be weird to not have her watch some Netflix and call it a fun night in. The entire episode seems pointless because none of the students really got anything from the trip to New York. It feels like the professors, Warner and Shapiro wanted to come to New York to watch the drama and bounced back to Sherman Oaks as soon as that ended.

Seeing that Devi did not even try going to Princeton to take a look around the campus, makes her entire trip and the expenses around it pointless. How are the Indian parents not creating a fuss about unwanted expenses? I feel bad for Ethan who just got kicked out of the plot after 3 episodes too. I hope there is some character development with him as the season progresses.

Fabiola and Devi’s friendship is strong enough to withstand this misunderstanding though, and I’m sure Devi has grown up as a person and will understand where Fabiola is coming from, making this entire misunderstanding pointless!