... started a nuclear war is the fifth episode in Season 1 of the Netflix series, Never Have I Ever.
Synopsis[]
Devi allows rumors about her and Paxton to swirl during an overnight school trip. Fabiola opens up to Eleanor, who gets upsetting news about her mother.
Plot[]
Fabiola has begun to accept that she is gay, but coming out to her family, particularly her parents, is a whole other matter.
Fabiola also tries to take the all-important first step as she gathers her parents together, along with her brother on a video call. She is ready to tell them this important truth about herself, but when she looks at her parents' hopeful, expectant faces, Fabiola is unable to go through with her plan.
Instead of coming out to her family, Fabiola tells them that she's leaving AP French for AP Latin, which is a big deal for her parents.
Despite this setback, Fabiola still has her loving friend Eleanor, who she is able to come out to. Eleanor is ecstatic for Fabiola and honored to be the one Fabiola has come out to. She even helps Fabiola figure out what kind of gay woman she likes such as K-Stew from Twilight or K-Stew from Charlie's Angels.
Eleanor may be happy for Fabiola, but she's also dealing with some difficult matters of her own. As it turns out, Eleanor was pretty much abandoned by her mother when she was a child because her mother was an aspiring actress and left Eleanor to follow her dreams.
Unfortunately, her dreams haven't really been coming through because she's auditioned for numerous roles but is resigned to doing bit parts on cruise-liners. At least she sends cool postcards to Eleanor from her trip. Eleanor's excitement is cut short, however when Paxton stops by to tell her how he'd met her mom at a restaurant nearby. She was serving dishes there and had a long chat with Paxton's mother.
Obviously, Eleanor is furious and accuses Paxton of being racist and not being able to tell Asians apart. Eleanor immediately realizes her mistake, but this is apparently news to Paxton's stoner friend Trent, who always thought Paxton's dad was his neighbor.
Eleanor is shaken by this exchange and eventually acquiesces to going to the restaurant with Fabiola, if nothing else, at least she can prove Paxton wrong.
That is not to be as Eleanor finds her mother at the restaurant, in the server's garb. Seems like Eleanor’s mom has been living a lie for a very long time.
Heartbroken though she is, Eleanor needs to go about her life and the auditions she's got coming up. Eleanor's sorrow about her mother fuels a performance so powerful that she not only gets praise from her drama teacher, but he offers her the lead role which she wasn't even trying out for.
Meanwhile, Devi has never been part of Model UN because she and her rival Ben had divided up the school activities between them. But being grounded has made her desperate and she really doesn't care about some silly pact she made with Ben in sixth grade.
While Ben is repping the United States in Model UN, Devi is stuck as Equatorial Guinea. Ben thinks he has this in the bag.
Devi practically wipes the floor with Ben and he tries to retaliate by bringing up how her being with Paxton doesn't make her cool. Unfortunately for Devi, one of their fellow Model UN-ers hears the conversation.
Before Devi even gets back to her room, half the school knows about Devi and Paxton and the girls in Model UN are ready to accept Devi as their new god.
Devi's level of coolness only increases when she and Ben find a stock of alcohol to share with their competitors. Their teacher ends the party, but not before cementing Devi as the coolest person in Model UN history.
Devi's ascent on the school social ladder because of the rumour doesn't escape Paxton, who is not happy.
Instead of accepting her mistake, Devi takes her anger out on Ben and throws him to the wolves.
When Devi returns to school, she finds a deeply distressed Paxton who feels betrayed by his new friend, and somehow Devi manages to make it even worse. Eleanor and Fabiola want to tell her about everything that's been happening with them but Devi is so entangled in her own mess that she blows her friends off.
At least her mom lifts her grounding when Devi gets home.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Devi Vishwakumar
- Jaren Lewison as Ben Gross
- Darren Barnet as Paxton Hall-Yoshida
- John McEnroe as the voice of The Narrator
- Poorna Jagannathan as Nalini Vishwakumar
Guest Starring[]
- Ramona Young as Eleanor Wong
- Lee Rodriguez as Fabiola Torres
- Adam Shapiro as Lyle Shapiro
- Jae Suh Park as Joyce Wong
- Tembi Locke as Elise Torres
- Atticus Shaffer as Russia
Co-Starring[]
- Benjamin Norris as Trent Harrison
- Christina Kartchner as Eve Hjelm
- Rachel Zimmermann as Belgium
- Alex Skinner as Dudley
- Andrea Ramos as Rosalia
- Kevin S. Williams as Bartender
- Chris Schleicher as Mr. Schleicher
- Joe Toro as Victor Torres
- Mateo Mpinduzi-Mott as Hugo
- Chandler Shen as Six-Year-Old-Eleanor
Absent[]
Quotes[]
| “ | Now is not a good time! Trust me, whatever you guys have going on, my shit's bigger, okay! I have the bigger shit! | ” |
| — Devi |
| “ | You can't just start a rumor about someone's mom like that. Clearly, you think all Asian women look alike. You're a racist, Paxton Hall-Yoshida! | ” |
| — Eleanor |
Trivia[]
- First episode without Kamala.