If you’re a fan of the Netflix original, Never Have I Ever, you probably know that their last season just rolled out and is already topping the charts. However, there is significantly less lesbian-centered content in drastic contrast with previous seasons.
Now you know we love our girl Fabiola, and she definitely has quite a year in the final season. However, we only catch a glimpse of Fab’s partner, twice — maybe?
In previous seasons of the show, we have seen Fab struggling with her sexuality, to her coming out, to having her first, second, and third girlfriend. A running theme on the show was how accepting Fab’s friends and family are of her sexuality, and deeper conversations about being a neuro-divergent lesbian of color. However, in this final season of Never Have I Ever, we get next to nothing. The argument can be made that this seasons focus was on wrapping up the story of Devi and her friends, but it is a stark difference in how they portray straight relationships versus gay ones in this season.
Fab struggles with deciding which college she wants to attend, and has many, many conversations about it. Thus, Fab is definitely one of the main characters of the show as we see her when she is away from Devi. With Devi at the helm, though, Fab’s entire storyline seems to be as a supportive character rather than standing on her own like we’ve previously seen. The question is how can a character that has the same amount of screen time suddenly not talk about the one thing that defined her from the beginning of the show and created a safe space for teen lesbian and bisexual girls?
While it is wonderful that Fab’s sexuality is so accepted the characters no longer feel like it should be a topic of conversation, the other side of the coin is not so cheery. Taking away the conversations around Fabiola could inadvertently reverse the work that her character has always stood for. Why would Netflix suddenly just… stop? Could this be because sapphic shows on the platform are getting canned left and right and their new lesbian reality show isn’t bringing in the big bucks? Where can the conversation around bi-erasure be had? By taking Fab’s sexuality out of the rotation, we suddenly have less representation that if we had had a new gay character.
We still love our girl Fab, though. Throughout the season we see Fab come to accept herself as a more masculine woman, help bring other women into male dominated spaces, and accept a spot in her dream institution. She gets into Princeton! As the end of the final season comes, it’s impossible not to feel emotional and full of hope for all the girls, and grateful for a show that puts women of color and lesbians at the forefront, even if this season didn’t quite live up to the rest.
Never Have I Ever is Now Streaming on Netflix.
