... been Daisy Buchanan

**... been Daisy Buchanan** is the eighth episode in Season 2 of the Netflix series, *Never Have I Ever*.

## Synopsis

*Watching an ex with someone new tests Devi's resolve to be more mature. Fabiola struggles to stay true to herself, and grows concerned for Eleanor.*

## Plot

Devi goes to school where Ben starts talking to her again. Ben and Aneesa officially get together as a couple, following Aneesa's confirmation from Devi, after much reluctance from her, wanting to follow a more mature approach.

Fabiola, Eve, Eleanor, and Malcom come to the locker area where they discuss everything with one another about the upcoming Winter Dance. Eleanor asks Devi if she has any dates, and Devi lies that she has plenty of them with her. Eleanor, Fabiola, and Devi talk to each other about Eleanor's toxic relationship with Malcom, with the former denying anything wrong with it. Fabiola sacrifices her robotics club schedule for Eve and Sasha to campaign for the LGBTQ community to impress Eve, much to her disappointment.

Devi goes to Mr. Kulkarni's class and apologizes to Paxton for yelling at him the other day, with the latter telling her he doesn't want her to spoon feed him anymore with her tutoring, although he forgave her much to Devi's gladness.

Mr. Kulkarni announces that the class will make a mock trial based on *The Great Gatsby* to test the knowledge of the students. The play is about whether Daisy Buchannan is responsible for murder of Jay Gatsby. For Paxton, Fabiola, along with Malcom get paired for the offense, whereas which Ben, Devi, and Aneesa get paired for the defense, much to Devi's annoyance imagining having to endure their PDA.

Ben and Aneesa are at Devi's house for the mock trial's preparation flirting with each other, much to Devi's annoyance. However, despite this Devi is glad that Ben is back being normal after what she did. To add more flame to Devi's life, she is picked for Daisy Buchannan's character in the mock trial, with the Ben and Aneesa being her defendants. Seeing her cousin in peril, Kamala steps in and stops the constant flirting of Ben/Aneesa by bringing in Pati who silenced everyone, giving Devi a break.

Meanwhile, Paxton and Fabiola try to prepare for the mock trial on their side, where Fabiola discovers Malcolm might be cheating on Eleanor, much to her immense anger. Devi goes to Mr. Kulkarni where she asks him to switch her into a different group, as she cannot stand the constant PDA of Ben and Aneesa, which he refuses, and to douse more oil into her fire, Mr. Kulkarni tells her to say "hello" from his side to Kamala, making Devi irritated at him, telling him his pizza is "just a regular pizza" much to his agitation.

Devi then learns about Malcolm "cheating" on Eleanor with Isabella from Fabiola, much to her rage. Back at dinner, Devi's mom leaves the house to go to dinner with Dr. Jackson, lying to her entire family that she is going to see Frost/Nixon at the Taper Forum. Kamala learns more about Mr. Kulkarni's interest in her, and she starts to think about him a little bit more.

Fabiola and Devi inform Eleanor about how Malcolm might be cheating on her in the canteen, showing her the texts, she saw at his phone, making her sad. Fabiola and Devi try to console Eleanor and make her realize that she should break up with Malcolm. Devi is studying at home, then Ben arrives where he asks her if things were okay between him dating Aneesa, where she tells him she is okay with it as he deserves far better than herself.

The mock trial happens at the school where Paxton starts the debate by telling everyone how Daisy (Devi) is responsible for the death of Gatsby. Ben then comes into defend, and he insults Paxton's response by saying it was a "simple assessment", attempting to prove his point about the defense of "Daisy." Paxton tries to rebut his statement, but he fails at that due to his lack of confidence and Trent's incapability to work for him properly as evidence. Aneesa attempts to make her argument, but she fails as she forgot to write bring her palm cards, much to Ben's disappointment. Fabiola, then gives a strong rebuttal which seals the deal and makes Paxton's team win the game as she proves how by Daisy breaking Gatsby's heart, she killed him before the accident.

Eleanor then comes to Fabiola and Devi with immense anger, as she yells at them due to Malcolm telling her friends are toxic. She insults Devi by telling her that just because her life was bad, she didn't need to "take a dump" over hers. This makes Devi incredibly sad as she goes home in tears, as her efforts to be a selfless kind friend weren't enough for Eleanor.

Paxton finds Devi and offers her a ride back home. Fabiola misses two practices for the Science Club, much to her disappointment, and she misses one more practice due to Sasha. where they discuss about each other. Devi tells Paxton how she faced tough times with Eleanor and how Paxton felt sad losing "to the kid you cheated on me with." Devi tells Paxton that if he worked his hardest, he could have beaten Ben, if he pushed himself above and beyond.

Then, as Devi reaches home, she and Paxton notice Nalini and Dr. Jackson flirting with each together in his car much to Devi's anger and shock.

## Cast

### Starring

* Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Devi Vishwakumar
* Richa Shukla as Kamala Nandiwadal
* Jaren Lewison as Ben Gross
* Darren Barnet as Paxton Hall-Yoshida
* Lee Rodriguez as Fabiola Torres
* Ramona Young as Eleanor Wong
* John McEnroe as Narrator
* Poorna Jagannathan as Nalini Vishwakumar

### Guest Starring

* Utkarsh Ambudkar as Manish Kulkarni
* Benjamin Norris as Trent Harrison
* Tyler Alvarez as Malcolm Stone
* Christina Kartchner as Eve Hjelm
* Megan Suri as Aneesa Qureshi
* Ranjita Chakravarty as Nirmala Vishwakumar

## Trivia

* Trent did not fully watch the movie, *The Great Gatsby*. He left the movie halfway.