Emily in Paris is defined by romance: the romance of Paris, the romance of fashion, the romance of our heroine Emily Cooper’s (Lily Collins) journey overseas. After all, there’s a reason Paris is called the City of Love. In the series’ first four seasons, Emily charmed the men of Paris and had her pick of love interests. But Season 5 ups the ante, taking Emily to one of the dreamiest places in the world: Rome.
To recap, Camille’s (Camille Razat) (fake) baby with brooding chef Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) causes some tension in his relationship with Emily. After a dramatic moment on the ski slopes, the perpetually will they, won’t they couple reaches a tipping point, and Emily calls their relationship off.
On that same slope, however, she meets Marcello (Eugenio Francheschini) and the two start running into each other back in Paris. It turns out, Marcello is the heir to the luxury cashmere brand Umberto Muratori — and his family is in the market for a new marketing team. When Muratori signs with Agence Grateau, Emily heads to Rome to open the firm’s new office, and says “andiamo” to her new love story with Marcello.
But of course, because this is Emily in Paris, it’s not that simple. Just as Emily’s settling in to her new city (you know its official when she changes her Instagram handle to “@EmilyinRome”), Gabriel breathlessly sets out to follow her.
As we head into another season of Emily’s world abroad, let’s take a look back at the many handsome suitors who have already fallen for our favorite American in Paris.
In the Emily in Paris series premiere, Emily touches down in Paris on a bright morning with a flannel shacket and shockingly dewy skin for an eight-hour flight. So, after schlepping two heavy suitcases up six flights of stairs in an old Parisian apartment building, she is offered … a date. Less than 20 seconds after taking in the view from Emily’s new chambre de bonne, real estate agent Gilles asks our heroine if she wants to get a bite at the cafe downstairs right then and there, or maybe a drink later that evening. Emily shoots Gilles down, citing a boyfriend back home in Illinois — “So! You don’t have a boyfriend in Paris …” he counters — and this is just a portent of the romantic frenzy to come.
Halfway through the series premiere, Emily forgets that her fifth-floor apartment is actually up six flights of stairs. She tries to enter the wrong apartment door, putting her face-to-face with her downstairs neighbor and the show’s future romantic lead, Gabriel. He is immediately flirty, smiling at Emily despite her failed attempt at breaking into his home. It’s a timeless and charming (though maybe technically illegal?) meet cute, and Gabriel mutters, “Enchanté,” at Emily, watching her walk away for the first of many times. Three episodes later, Emily and Gabriel are making out in the kitchen of Gabriel’s restaurant, Les Deux Compères, setting off one of the defining romances of the series.
By the start of Season 5, Gabriel still seems to believe in their complicated connection. But what does the future hold?
Emily gets a crash course in Parisian sensuality in the second episode, “Masculin Féminin.” Her professor is Antoine, Savoir’s very posh perfumier client who’s having an affair with Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu), Emily’s commanding boss. This, erm, close relationship doesn’t stop Antoine from seductively chatting with Emily during a work party — within view of the wildly romantic Eiffel Tower, no less — inhaling her scent and describing it as “expensive sex.” Antoine eventually sends Emily lingerie but denies that any of this behavior is flirtatious. It’s clear to perhaps everyone, though, that this man is smitten, and even Sylvie is threatened.
Thankfully, heading into Season 5, Antoine and Emily have established a successful — and sexless — working relationship.
Fabien had so much promise as a Season 1 love interest, but alas, he comes on a little — or, well, a lot — too strong. Emily encounters this handsome would-be suitor in Episode 3 during a raging party that was intended to be a small dinner soirée thrown by Emily’s new BFF, Mindy Chen (Ashley Park). Desperate to escape, Emily and Fabien flee within seconds of meeting each other and walk the streets of Paris, swapping English and French translations. The conversation starts out innocent (“the moon” is la lune en Francais) until the pair start talking about necks and lips. “And I like American pussy,” Fabien whispers in Emily’s ear — which cuts off the could-be Parisian fling immediately.
Thomas is yet another Season 1 love interest that burns out quickly for Emily — after an immediate connection, of course. This time, Emily winds up seated next to the dashing semiotics professor at a cafe in Episode 6. Emily, who is seated alone, is pulled into a conversation with the neighboring Thomas. They start gossiping about a nearby couple, but Thomas then admits that the chitchat was a charade — an excuse to keep talking to her. Almost immediately, Emily and Thomas are falling into bed together. They have an intense fling, spending back-to-back evenings together (much to Gabriel’s dismay). But the relationship crumbles once Emily realizes Thomas isn’t a charming intellectual; he’s a snob who refuses to sit through a free performance of Swan Lake, lest it offend his high-brow taste.
Emily spends much of Season 1, Episode 9 swearing that she has a strictly business relationship with Mathieu Cadault, heir to the Cadault fashion brand. But Mat, as she eventually calls him, has an immediate connection with Emily — replete with the coy banter we’ve come to expect from our heroine over the previous eight episodes. By the end of “Auction in Paris,” Mathieu and Emily are passionately kissing in the Cadault manse. And in the Season 1 finale, they’re giggling on an elegant speedboat in the Seine and planning a trip to Saint-Tropez. Mathieu never stood a chance against Emily’s charms.
In Season 1, Episode 8, Emily takes a quick trip to the French countryside with her new Paris pal Camille (and Gabriel, awkward). When they arrive, Camille raves to Emily about her brother. He’s finishing business school and sounds like a total catch. So when Emily meets Camille’s brother Timothée during a winery tour, she’s immediately taken — and so is he. Timothée can’t help but make eyes at Emily in the tasting room or ply her with Champagne. That night, Timothée and Emily hit the sheets, with Emily reminding her new lover that the experience should be savored like a great glass of wine.
The only problem? In the morning, Emily meets Théo, the brother Camille had been talking to her about. Timothée is, unfortunately, Camille’s littlest brother, at just 17 years old.
In Season 2, Emily is introduced to lots of new Parisian friends. Alfie, a classmate in her much-needed French class, is at the top of the list. Although Alfie pretends to be unimpressed by Emily, he’s inevitably (and quite quickly) pulled into her orbit.
Despite pretending to give Emily the cold shoulder, Alfie opens up to her the first time they hang out during class. In Episode 5, he admits to finding Paris’ “City of Love” reputation manipulative and manufactured. Yet by the end of the episode, the pair are sharing knowing glances on a romantic boat ride. And, from there, a complicated, swoon-worthy love story isn’t far off — albeit one with it’s on-again, off-again periods.
By Season 5, the two are just friends, which is tested by Alfie’s familiar new love interest.
In Season 4, Emily travels to snowy Megève with visions of a romantic Christmas with Gabriel dancing in her head. But once she hits the slopes, it’s Marcello who becomes her knight in shining ski wear. The Roman mystery man appears with a charming smile and an offer to help the cellphone-less Emily down a treacherous mountain after Gabriel abandons her in pursuit of Camille. Despite the icy temperatures in the French Alps, the heat between Marcello and Emily is undeniable.
Still, this duo can’t act on their chemistry until later in the season. Marcello and Emily meet once again at an Episode 8 polo match, and within days, they’re traipsing around Rome on Marcello’s vespa. He even invites her to meet his very private family. By the end of Emily’s visit, she’s agreed to move to the Eternal City. Technically, Miss Cooper is staying in Rome for work, but the promise of a dreamy Italian boyfriend — who’s also the heir to a chic cashmere fortune — doesn’t hurt.
But of course, it’s never that easy to mix work and pleasure, and the couple face a few bumps in the road during Season 5. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
A fellow Midwesterner in Paris, Jake spots Emily perched over a foamy Pabst Blue Ribbon. He does what any American would do, and recruits Emily to his Friends trivia team. While communication was always a sore point in Gabriel and Emily’s relationship, Emily finds that she and Jake immediately speak the same language — one of niche sitcom references, watery beer, and Michigan geography.
Jake works for the US embassy in Paris, where he invites Emily to a Fourth of July party. Worker bee Emily initially demurs, but, after Sylvie disses her dating history during a marketing pitch, the Chicagoan accepts Jake’s offer… and his access to blue-and-red dyed baked goods to assuage her homesickness. Sound-tracked by Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA,” Emily plays cornhole and takes a break from the fish-out-of-water stress of Paris. In a final grand romantic gesture, Jake even shows Emily the ambassador’s secret bounty of American snack foods — where she gorges on Reese’s Pieces, Goldfish, Easy Mac, and more.
But, when the night ends, Emily politely tells Jake she’s not in a place to start a new relationship with all that’s going on in her life — personally and professionally. After all, its unclear whether Emily actually had eyes for Jake, or just the homegrown processed foods to which he held the keys.
We never learn the backstory of Emily and her Chicago (ex-)boyfriend, Doug. But considering all the evidence here, it seems likely that Doug spotted Emily across some crowded Chicago sports bar, fell in love with one of her eye-catching ensembles, and the rest was history.
