Hey all! Wow, so much wonderful discussion to catch up on already, and then there's the lovely episode on top of that. I will come back to today's episode in a bit, but first I wanted to share something that I have been observing about Dev's behaviour. This is in regard to the discussion that originated with Lavanya's question: why is Dev's behaviour with Ishwari inconsistent?
Dev 2.0 is a lot like Neha. He has seen Ishwari's true face and he no longer goes out of his way to please her. And when he is at the edge of his wits, he calls her out on her hypocrisy. However, he enjoys those instances when he is able to please Ishwari just by being himself. That is precisely what he tried to tell her in the first few episodes after the leap: your Dev hasn't gone anywhere, but he won't live for others anymore. Translation: please accept me for who I am. As Ishwari has shown, she is incapable of that; she wants her children's happiness on her terms.
It was similar with Neha when Ranveer came on the scene. What Ishwari saw was that despite all of her shortcomings in raising Neha, the latter chose integrity over wealth when it came to deciding her life partner. Ishwari saw this as a victory and blinded herself to the problems that Neha could face in her marriage. As a result, she blinded herself and caused a lot of indirect damage. The best example of this is when she told Ranveer not to buy Neha gifts after he had bought her those earrings; she wanted so badly to believe that Neha had been "cured" of her materialistic desires (or at least declaring them out loud) and was therefore Ishwari's daughter in the true sense.
Also, much like Neha, Dev's one sincere relationship is as a foster parent. Just like Neha didn't allow her bitterness to affect Riya and Nikki, Dev shares that innocent and vulnerable part of himself with Golu. And just like Riya and Nikki, Golu forgets his biological parents in front of Dev, his primary caregiver. I think these are important echoes, and I'd love to believe Neha had a conscious role in those early years after Sona left, but even if not, understanding her character really helps to see Dev's oscillation between cynicism and hope.
Just like Ranveer's love initially made Neha happy enough to overlook the problems she had with Ishwari, finding out about Soha had a similar effect on Dev. Truth be told, his attitude towards Sona also changed, the only difference being that he knew right away that Ishwari hadn't kept him from his child on purpose. He still wasn't sure that Sona wasn't doing that, so his anger would rear its head every time that fear cropped up. Now that he is certain Sona isn't trying to separate Soha from him, he isn't angry at her either, nor is he very interested in discussing the past. He is solely concerned with being a good parent to Soha.