American marketing executive Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) has been in the City of Lights for almost a year in Season 4 of Emily in Paris, and what started out as a fun adventure is getting pretty real. Season 4 “just feels like an evolution of her character,” creator Darren Star tells Tudum. “Characters can’t stay static. I feel like she has been growing and evolving, and this season she’s more confident, but also we dig a little bit more below the surface of some of the relationships. And so they get a little messier and more emotional.”
The moody nature of this season plays out visually through the glimpses we get of Paris in the wintertime, but also on-screen via tumultuous relationship upheavals experienced by nearly all of our favorite characters.
Well, Emily and Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) work out their differences following the Season 3 wedding cliff-hanger, but then immediately break up because they know they’re not in a place to be the right kind of partner for each other. Camille (Camille Razat) runs away after breaking off her engagement with Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), and when she returns she starts (and quickly ends) a relationship with Greek artist Sofia (Melia Kreiling) — all while thinking she’s pregnant with Gabriel’s child (until she realizes she’s not actually expecting). While that opens the door for Emily and Gabriel to be together, an encounter with handsome Italian businessman Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini) changes the trajectory of Emily’s love life — and work life.
At Agence Grateau, Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) struggles with the decision to speak out in a Me Too–inspired exposé on JVMA boss Louis de Leon (Pierre Deny). She fears the repercussions against her husband, Laurent (Arnaud Binard), who’s opening a new nightclub with JVMA funding. Julien (Samuel Arnold) leaves for a new job at JVMA (and quickly returns), and Luc (Bruno Gouery) learns that he’s been lied to for years. The JVMA situation comes between Emily’s BFF, Mindy (Ashley Park), and Mindy’s boyfriend, Nicolas (Paul Forman), who also happens to be Louis de Leon’s son and heir apparent.
In the second half of the season, Mindy and Nico ultimately part ways after he spitefully gets her kicked out of Eurovision, but her heartbreak leads to a mega-viral (and mega-beautiful) musical moment on the streets of Rome. Agence Grateau snags a few important Italian clients while Emily gains a new office rival in the form of Sylvie’s stepdaughter, Geneviève (Thalia Besson). Oh, and Emily might be moving to Rome.
Naturally, there are plenty of lingering questions about all the drama that played out in Emily in Paris Season 4, so read on for answers.
No, not yet. At the end of the season, after securing an Italian espresso client and a six-month contract with Marcello’s family-owned quiet luxury fashion house, Sylvie appoints Emily head of Agence Grateau’s new Rome office. But that doesn’t mean our favorite American expat is leaving the City of Lights completely.
“Emily’s going to have a presence in Rome. It doesn’t mean she’s not going to be in Paris, but she’s going to have a presence in Rome,” Star tells Tudum. “I want to stay ahead of the audience and take them to unexpected places. It doesn’t mean that Emily’s leaving Paris forever, but the show has the ability to have a bigger footprint.”
Besides, there’s too much unfinished business for Emily back in Paris.
Although the star-crossed couple finally admitted that they loved each other, Gabriel was still preparing for fatherhood and growing acclaim for his restaurant. “Gabriel enters [Season 4] with the promise of a Michelin star, being a dad, and his love for Emily because they’re both finally single and they can be together,” Bravo tells Tudum. “So it’s only hope and only a bright future ahead of him.”
But the best-laid plans can always go awry — especially when Gabriel and Emily have so rarely been on the same page. “I think there’s something about the relationship between Gabriel and Emily that was a little surface-y,” Star says. “They didn’t know each other that well. It was a little bit of a fantasy for both of them. And I think this year, it gets a little bit more real in terms of who they are and taking off the rose-colored glasses about each other.”
When the two decide to go their separate ways, Gabriel is able to focus on his restaurant and get used to the idea of not being a father. “At the end of the season, for me it’s the most mature he’s ever been,” says Bravo. Once he achieves his Michelin dream, he’s ready to go after the other things that matter to him — namely, Emily. “I think he’s very focused and I feel like he’s ready to go to war for what he wants.” The season ends with Gabriel seemingly on his way to Roma to get the girl back.
After Camille called out Gabriel’s feelings for Emily in the Season 3 finale, Alfie’s confidence was shaken, “which is a rare thing for him,” Laviscount tells Tudum. “I think his heart and his head [have] been in balance most of the time. Whereas I think this season, his head and his heart are in different places, and he’s figuring out how to map that out and also what his friendships really are and relationships are.”
That’s why the heartbreaking moment on center court at Roland Garros stadium — which sees Emily and Alfie reunite for an emotionally charged breakup kiss in the middle of a crowded tennis match — is so cathartic for both characters. Later, their tender run-in on Christmas solidifies their relationship ending despite the fact that some feelings remain.
“I think it’s actually very indicative of the respect they have for one another,” Collins tells Tudum. “They both care about each other so much, but Alfie also has to care about himself and take himself out of something he knows isn’t right for him. And Emily hears that and really respects that. It’s so sad, but it’s also beautiful to see two people acknowledging that about themselves. It’s sad that they aren’t together, but they also still care for each other and they want the best for each other, and they’re reading the room.”
Emily’s run-in with a handsome Italian stranger in the Alps becomes more than just a missed connection when she learns he’s old friends with Nicolas. After reconnecting at a polo match, Marcello invites Emily for a romantic weekend in Rome and introduces her to the Muratori luxury cashmere business in his quaint (but fictional) town of Solitano. She accepts — just as Gabriel realizes he wants to make things work with her. So is Marcello her new boyfriend? Does Gabriel still have a chance?
“Timing definitely affects all of our decisions,” says Collins. “I think that if you can accept being in an undecided state of mind and open to timing showing you a decision in and of itself, that’s when an amazing opportunity can come up. And Marcello happens to come at a time when Emily is starting to be able to sit in the uncomfortable and embrace what the world is bringing her, and she’s more open to new opportunity. I think that’s perfect because Marcello is a whole other adventure that we want for Emily. We ultimately want Emily to be able to have a better work-life balance. We want to have Emily be able to smile without condition. We want to see her beyond her vacay mode.”
But that work-life balance might be disrupted since Sylvie pushes Emily to pursue signing Marcello’s family business as a client. Thankfully, she’s able to win over his mother, Antonia Murarori (Anna Galiena), opening the door for both business and pleasure.
Mindy spends the season telling her boyfriend that she doesn’t like how he’s trying to control her behavior, and it reminds her of why she cut ties from her controlling father. Although he comes around enough to support her performance at famed nude revue Crazy Horse, it’s not enough — and when he purposefully sabotages her chances at Eurovision by licensing the band’s song for an ad (which is explicitly against the Eurovision rules), it’s over.
Mindy flees to Rome to forget her troubles with Emily, and inspiration strikes while the duo are strolling through the streets of the Italian capital. Mindy works the original song that’s been swirling in her brain, and goes viral when strangers film her performance.
“This is the first time we’ve heard a song coming from Mindy [alone],” Park tells Tudum. “The reason I love that storyline so much is that for me, personally, any time I think, ‘Oh my God, this is the moment, this is the next big thing,’ and something completely 180s in your life, there’s always something beautiful that comes out of it. That opportunity, Eurovision, being taken away — that was almost limiting her. And now she gets to totally be free.”
Emily’s position as the token American in the Agence Grateau office is challenged by the arrival of Sylvie’s early twentysomething stepdaughter, Geneviève. Laurent’s daughter from New York — whom he did not know about until she was 16 — moves to Paris hoping to work in fashion, and finds herself employed by Sylvie. Geneviève’s brazen actions in the office (and in life, as she moves in to Emily’s building and flirts with Gabriel) shock Emily. Could this be a little karma coming back to bite her for her early, overeager ways?
“I love the way that Geneviève was written because you never quite know if she’s conniving or if she’s just quite naive,” says Collins, “but I think that ambiguity helps fuel [the drama]: Is Emily going to be replaced? Is she out for Emily’s position? Her life? Is she just sweet? Is she not? I love the dynamic between the two of them, and I think it gives Emily a whole new purpose at her job.”
Geneviève’s presence also gives Sylvie a whole new appreciation for Emily. “I think Sylvie has a lot more respect for Emily than she did before,” Leroy-Beaulieu tells Tudum. “And I think Sylvie also feels like, as much as she may not want to admit it, she really needs Emily. Emily has become a crucial part of her business. I think that Sylvie also oversteps her boundaries with Emily, and Emily tries to put up boundaries. She really did that this season. And I think a little bit of Emily has rubbed off on Sylvie in terms of her ambition, her wanting-to-win-at-any-cost attitude.”
While Leroy-Beaulieu actually grew up in Rome, her character studied film in Rome under handsome professor and lover Giancarlo (Raoul Bova). It’s something that adds even more layers to Sylvie’s character, the actor says. “She had taste for more than just marketing — she’s a bit of an artist, but repressed, which I love,” says Leroy-Beaulieu. “It gives a depth that I hope is going to be developed.”
Emily’s new love and the potential for more Italian business reignites her spark for Italia, and also helps her connect with longtime friend (and onetime lover) Giorgio Barbieri (Rupert Everett), an interior designer who’s also old friends with Marcello’s mother.
Yes, it sure will! Collins herself confirmed the news on Good Morning America, and Star tells Tudum, “We’re thrilled with the incredible response to this season of Emily in Paris and excited to return for a fifth to continue Emily’s adventures in Rome and Paris!”
Mindy and Nico seemed happy together — until she realized how much his father disapproved of their relationship. Nico apologizes with a trip to the JVMA brand closet, a magical room with fashion from all of the luxury conglomerate’s brands — but, as Mindy learns, there’s a catch: According to the JVMA whisper network, women shouldn’t enter the brand closet alone. One such whisperer is Sylvie, who had previously worked with Louis and is reluctant to raise her voice about a possibly traumatic time in her past.
“It’s something that Sylvie really didn’t want to recognize, but the events of the story made it front and center in her mind and forced her to engage,” Star says.
It also forces Mindy to have a conversation with Nico about how the accusations against his father might be true. She sees a parallel between the controlling Louis and her own high-profile, image-conscious father.
“This is the first time she had to explain the pressures of what it means to come from a family with that kind of [profile],” Park tells Tudum. “She ran away from it, and it’s obviously something she doesn’t have closure with. So I think that watching someone that she is dating and loves have to deal with a father who is not proud of what he’s doing or who he is adds an extra layer [of complication]. I like that she puts him on the spot and says, ‘You better choose the right side.’ And he does. To me, the fact that he listens speaks volumes.”
There are many reasons why Sylvie hesitates before participating in a journalist’s exposé. “First of all, she thinks she’s going to jeopardize her husband’s project,” Leroy-Beaulieu tells Tudum. “She doesn’t want to do that. Also, it’s an old story that she kind of buried in her subconscious that she doesn’t want to bring up because it is obviously painful. She knows the moment she’s going to talk about it, pain is going to come back.”
The thing that brings her around, however, is a sense of responsibility to speak out on behalf of younger women who might not be in the same position of power she now holds. “Younger women know that they have to talk, and they talk, but Sylvie feels that she has a responsibility to give the example that, ‘Guys, we don’t need to cope with those things.’ That’s why she does it. She’s still kind of hesitant. When the article comes out, she has this moment where she’s like, ‘Whoa, I did it, and what about my husband?’ But he’s obviously very supportive until he says, ‘I need to go back to Saint-Tropez.’ And she’s like, ‘No, no, no. Stay here. I’m going to save your day.’ ”
It turns out that the woman who brought the world such a powerful marketing maven is something of an impresario herself: Sylvie’s mère Héloïse (Liliane Rovère) was a nightclub owner in the ’60s and ’70s, and offered an old, shuttered club of hers to Sylvie’s husband, Laurent, after JVMA fell out with Sylvie and pulled funding.
The character of Héloïse is based on the real-life French club pioneer Régine, who created the world’s first discotheque. She’s played by an equally storied Paris fixture. “I love that actress,” Leroy-Beaulieu says of Rovère. “I worked with her in Call My Agent, and she’s amazing. In real life, she dated Chet Baker and people like that, so she’s totally the character too. She had that past that is wonderful.”
Arnold tells Tudum that Julien felt underappreciated and wanted to find a new job where he could “show others that they should respect him more. He’s putting his foot down, like, ‘Hey, I am here. I exist. And if you don’t want to acknowledge that, I’m going to go where they do acknowledge it.’ But what I love about it is that they still highlight his sense of loyalty, and that comes before anything else.”
The fact that Julien doesn’t let professional issues affect his friendships is a much more American trait than a French one, Arnold says. So although Emily has frustrated him at work, she’s also rubbed off on him. “French people are very known to — if they’re offended professionally, you’re going to feel it in the personal space too. But Julien got offended professionally, and that made him change his job. That doesn’t mean that his colleagues are not his friends and that he won’t be there to help them. And there’s nothing personal about that. It’s just, ‘I need to put me first,’ basically.”
Listen, Marianne (Laurence Gormezano) was never technically lying about her job. All along, she said she worked for Michelin as a tire inspector, and all along, that was true. People believed “tire inspector” was a euphemism for a different kind of Michelin inspector — but no, she’s actually a literal tire inspector, not a wink wink, nudge nudge tire inspector. Sometimes people just hear what they want to hear! That said, she did leave out the fact that she no longer works for Michelin because she got busted for “insider dining.”
Thankfully, Marianne’s reveal as a fraud turns out to be a freeing moment for Gabriel, who’s able to stop chasing her approval. He fires his snooty pastry chef and is able to refocus on making his really good food — and it earns him a Michelin star after all. For Luc, however, the consequences might be bigger: That relationship might be over.
Gouery tells Tudum, “With the character of Luc, I think the writers want to always, even in this love story, give something more funny, comical, humorous. [Gormezano], who plays Marianne, she’s got a lot of fantasy, a lot of skills, very comical. I have a great time with her.” But now that Marianne has lied to Luc — a lie of omission, but a lie no less — it might be time for Luc to move on. Big decisions are looming over the rooftops of Paris for everyone.
Emily in Paris Season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.
