Personally I've hoped for a character development arc for Devin since season 4, after their ORIGINAL divorce. Specifically a REDEMPTION arc, which is always the best but hardest arc to pull off. Devin, despite being this series Regina George, has always interested me, but not BECAUSE of her mean, spoiled-rotten rich girl status, but because she was a mystery. She was almost as prominent as her "dumb muscle", Lola, but nowhere near as crucial as Lola became. In fact after season 5 she kind of faded out entirely until season 8, which is a shame, because I always wanted to know more about her. What is her sister's name? Her parents names? What is her home life like? Also, why did her parents allow her and Devon to run off alone for their "honeymoon?" Do they know their younger daughter drinks? To me it feels like they might possibly be neglected, like Lola, except in S8 we heard Devin's mom, and saw a picture of Devin with who is presumably her. We also saw Devin on an exercise machine after her mom told her to use it before school. This ties into a theory I saw on Reddit that Devin might have an eating disorder, as she was seen stuffing her face with candy at the school sleepover in S2. But after seeing this episode I feel perhaps Devin was merely eating candy because perhaps her mom, being an apparent health nut, doesn't allow it, so Devin used the school sleepover to indulge in forbidden pleasure. Tito also called Devin "fat, ugly,", etc. Perhaps this is Tito echoing her MOTHER'S words, words that have filled Devin with negative images of how women should look, as we saw she wears makeup to cover her freckles, which imo she shouldn't, because imo the freckles, and her white skin, make her look younger, prettier. Actually she's BEAUTIFUL.
But back to the character development. Obviously she's angry at Nick for lying. Understandable, but some might say hypocritical, because she lies to get popular all the time. But when Nick finally gets the balls to apologize, she forces him to tell the entire school. When he does, we see he's booed by the entire gym and pelted with trash. But pay attention to Devin: she doesn't seem HAPPY about it, she's not laughing or smiling or showing any joy in his humiliation. Not like she normally would. She's just too angry and hurt to accept his apology after. But perhaps she finally does that night, after Coco pays her a visit, and convinces her to have compassion for herself. Then, in her biggest step so far, Devin admits it doesn't matter if she turns out on top. Perhaps after learning how to love herself despite her flaws and failures, her progress, in both defending her honor after Nick's lies, and learning to love her face, freckles and all, she now realizes she should love her life no matter where she ends up.
In the series finale she's seen wearing a ton of makeup again, hiding her true beauty, so it might at first seem she's old Devin again, which also seemed to be the case when she told Lola to get on her knees in compassion episode, although obviously then she needed to resume her role as cheer captain. But at the end of the episode she asks what if she peaks in high school. Missy assures her things will turn out great no matter what. Devin smiles at her. Not her usual mean, condescending smile, but an actual FRIENDLY smile, as if she finally considers Missy a friend, despite history. She even has one of the final lines of the show: "Well, here goes nothing."
Indeed, she's right. Since this epic show is done, we'll unfortunately never know what happened to her after that, but I'd like to think if we'd had a season 9, Devin would have continued to evolve in surprising but amazing ways, perhaps indeed becoming friends with Missy and all the others, perhaps becoming part of the main crew, all the while no longer caring about her old status as alpha. Perhaps she'd even defend a fellow girl being picked on, redeeming herself even more. But we'd also have to see more of her home life, her parents. Perhaps Devin treated people the way she's seen her mother treat people? Perhaps her mom had friends she manipulated and used like she used to use Lola? Who knows, but seeing more into her world through her eyes might have helped us understand her more, which is why I HATE that she only had this amazing development in the last few episodes.
Perhaps, if we ever DO get that college spinoff I've heard rumors of, we'll see them all again, Devin included. But PLEASE, keep the NEW Devin. Keep this amazing development going. Redemption arcs are the most beautiful. I loved John Murphy in the 100. His redemption arc was amazing, and he became such an awesome, pivotal character. If only they'd put effort into developing Devin earlier, she'd have become crucial earlier, and been an interesting character before S8. Blame it on time if you want to be nice, blame it on lazy writers if you want to be honest.
But still, even though most people will disagree, I've always loved Devin. Loved her mystery. I feel she's one of the very few characters we didn't get to see develop in one way or another. With S8, at least, we got to the the start of a great redemption arc, which, unfortunately, won't be continued, or completed. At least not yet. But I still gotta say, that was one of the most beautiful finales ever, and I'm just glad Devin had one of the last lines. I just wish she'd wiped the makeup off her face and declared she'll face the future with her TRUE face. It'd have been even more symbolic and poetic.
Sorry for such a long post. It's just when I talk Big Mouth I can talk for hours. I'll miss it. Miss it all. Everyone. Including-or perhaps ESPECIALLY- Devin.