'Never Have I Ever' star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan says the upcoming final season will focus on 'new chapters' and end on a 'cathartic' note

• "Never Have I Ever" star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan teased season four in a new interview with Insider.
• She said that the upcoming final season picks up right after the events of the season three finale.

"Never Have I Ever" star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan said that the upcoming fourth and final season will conclude on a satisfying, "cathartic" note.

"It's very intense, right off the bat," Ramakrishnan, who stars as Devi Vishwakumar on the coming-of-age Netflix show, told Insider's Kirsten Acuna at the Super Nintendo World welcome celebration at Universal Studios Hollywood on Wednesday in Universal City, California. "I was kind of concerned."

Season three, which debuted on the streamer in August 2022, wrapped up with some significant changes, especially related to the show's central love triangle involving Devi, Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet), and Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison).

During the season, Devi toyed with the idea of accepting a one-year program at a boarding school in Colorado called Shrubland School, which would mean that she'd miss out on her senior year at Sherman Oaks High.

She ultimately decided to stay at Sherman Oaks and enjoy her time with her friends and family.

Meanwhile, Paxton graduated from Sherman Oaks High and delivered a moving commencement speech in which he credited Devi with pushing him beyond his popular guy status and helping him to grow. It's a moment that would have had the younger version of Devi swooning over Paxton, but instead, she received his compliment in a platonic manner and told him the feelings were mutual.

However, Devi and Ben's enemies-to-lovers dynamic reached a new level during the finale, when Devi realized that she still has feelings for him.

In the finale's cliffhanger, Devi was seen cashing in the coupon Ben previously gave her for "One Free Boink" and heading into his room, presumably to hook up.

Ramakrishnan told Insider that the theme of season four will be "new chapters." She said that the 10-episode final season "will kick off right where the last one ended," with the first episode having an "intensity" that's typically reserved for later in a season.

"We're not setting up the scene," she said. "We're diving deep and the stakes that you feel usually in the middle of a season, we're starting there."

Even though last season ended with Paxton gearing up to attend Arizona State University and Devi choosing Ben, the love triangle hasn't been resolved yet.

Showrunner Lang Fisher assured Deadline in 2022 that Paxton is in season four "as much as in season three, so the love triangle is not over." She also told Elle that there will be a definitive winner in the Team Ben vs. Team Paxton debate by the time "NHIE" concludes.

Ramakrishnan said that she'll always be the biggest advocate for Devi, but perhaps after season four is released, she'll reveal which team she's actually on.

Back in March, prior to the release of season three, Netflix announced that the show would be ending with its fourth installment. Cocreator Mindy Kaling later told Entertainment Tonight that "four seasons for a high school show felt like it made sense," and they "can't be in high school forever."

Ramakrishnan said that she's grateful that the show will end on its own terms.

"We're very lucky to be able to have a show that ends, rather than we're spontaneously cut off," she said.

Seasons three and four were filmed back-to-back and production wrapped in August 2022. The release date for the last season has yet to be revealed, but it's confirmed to premiere sometime in 2023.

Ramakrishnan told Insider that she was "so sad" when she read the final script and realized that this journey was ending for good.

"I don't think it hit me that that was the final script," she said. "I was like, 'Oh so what's gonna happen next, guys?' Also, it's just kind of nice. I really liked the way it ended. It's very cathartic, I guess, is a nice word for it."