Chic wardrobe? Messy love triangles? Exciting plot twists? Oui, oui, and oui! That’s right, folks — Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) is returning to Paris and to our screens in August when Season 4 of Emily in Paris premieres on Netflix. Season 4 will be split into two five-episode parts, with the first dropping on August 15 and the second on September 12.
Created by Darren Star (who famously created Sex and the City), Emily in Paris is about a zealous marketing executive from Chicago who lands her dream job in France. While juggling romance, work, and friendships, Emily discovers new things about herself and the kind of life she wants to live. Despite its controversies, the comedy-drama series has remained popular amongst Netflix audiences since its Season 1 premiere in October 2020. Its bingeable episodes, irreverent tone, and unique fashion made for an addictive watch that always leave audiences wanting more. So what shenanigans did our eponymous American hero get into last season? Here’s everything that happened in Emily in Paris Saison Trois.
Where Did Season 2 Leave Off?
Season 2 ended with Madeline (Kate Walsh) showing up to Paris from Chicago since she had run Savior into the ground, resulting in Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) quitting and taking all the employees with her. Sylvie wanted Emily to join her new company, but Madeline wanted Emily to come back to Chicago. In other news, Emily decided to confess her feelings to Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) while she was still dating her British boyfriend, Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) but was too late. Upon knocking on his door, she saw Camille (Camille Razat) moving into his apartment, breaking the pact they made stating neither of them would be with Gabriel. Even though Emily was going to break the pact by telling Gabriel how she feels about him, this moment showed that Camille had never planned on keeping it in the first place. Since Camille had gotten back together with Gabriel and both Madeline and Sylvie wanted her, Emily was at a crossroads. Would she return to Chicago or stay in Paris?
Where Did Season 3 Pick Up?
Season 3 picked up with Emily still in Paris, resolving that Season 2 finale cliffhanger. She hadn’t told Sylvie or Madeline about each other and was struggling to juggle both jobs, hoping the other wouldn’t find out. Emily got an opportunity to pitch the “McBaguette” in an effort to market McDonald’s as more glamorous and pitched the idea to Sylvie. Unfortunately for her, Luc (Bruno Gouery) — unaware that Emily was working for both of them — told Madeline about Emily bringing in a huge client for Sylvie. A betrayed Madeline crashed the pitch meeting, which led to Sylvie finding out what was going on and firing Emily. Both companies lost the pitch but Madeline surprisingly didn’t fire Emily.
Marie Etchegoyen / Netflix
Drama at Savoir
Since Emily was working against Sylvie and trying to maintain the contracts they had, Sylvie aimed to poach all of her clients away from her. While she was trying to pull in new and existing clients based on the Savior repertoire, Madeline made it to all the meetings to tell Sylvie that due to non-compete clauses, she couldn’t poach away clients. Both women struggled because Madeline couldn’t get French clients to work for her since they respected Sylvie and Sylvie had a hard time starting from scratch with her team. Emily came up with the solution to have Madeline beg Sylvie to come back to Savior, but Sylvie declined.
Designer Pierre Cadault (Jean-Christophe Bouvet) was outside of the non-compete clause so Sylvie depended on him to save her company. But when Pierre announced that he was working for a new rival company JVMA, Sylvie realized she had zero clients and should have accepted Madeline’s offer. With zero clients and zero money, Luc and Julien (Samuel Arnold) were pissed at Sylvie for not consulting with them first before turning down Madeline. After a series of events, the parent company, the Gilbert Group, decided to shut down Savior since they had no clients and hadn’t found a replacement for Sylvie. They tried to send Emily back to Chicago along with Madeline, but Emily left the Gilbert Group to stay in Paris.
Emily (Unemployed) in Paris
An unemployed Emily lived her best life as an influencer, showing her massive following all the fun she had touring around Paris. She temporarily got a job as a server at Gabriel’s restaurant, L’esprit de Gigi, but quit after almost accidentally killing a customer due to a miscommunication. So once again, she was out a job. The last project Emily was working on with Madeline was a face filter app, in which she created a campaign based around the fact that a lot of people end up looking like their pets. Julien and Luc decided to use her pitch, which got them new clients and impressed Sylvie. After realizing Emily was an asset to her team, Sylvie offered her the chance to redeem herself and gave Emily her job back at her new company, a luxury marketing agency called Agence Grateau.
Trouble in Paradise…
Emily might have gotten her job back but that didn’t mean it was blue skies ahead just yet. Her relationship with Alfie was going well, except for the fact that he hadn’t yet told his parents about her. This concerned Emily, but Alfie explained that because he’d been hurt in the past, he didn’t want to introduce a girl to his family unless he was sure. Meanwhile, Camille was upset that Gabriel was working all the time and didn’t put in effort to go on dates since they lived together. Gabriel stated that it was his goal for his restaurant to receive a Michelin Star, which was why he’d been working so hard. However, he still managed to make time to hang out with Emily as “just friends.” Feeling unwanted, Camille began an affair with a woman from an art exhibit she was running, Sofia (Melia Kreiling). Emily caught them making out but kept it to herself because Mindy (Ashley Park) told her to mind her business.
Courtesy of Netflix
The Fall of JVMA
Meanwhile, Mindy’s singing career was on the rise as she and her boyfriend/bandmate Benoît (Kevin Dias) gained more fans throughout the season by singing at local jazz bars. Everything went well until she reconnected with an old crush from her boarding school, Nicolas (Paul Forman), who happened to be the son of the owner of JVMA, the company that stole Pierre from Sylvie at the beginning of the season. Nicolas wanted Mindy and Benoît to sell the love song he wrote for Mindy to JVMA for an advertisement. Mindy wanted to, but Benoît didn’t. Benoît became jealous of Nicolas due to Mindy’s past with him, causing their relationship to fall apart and Mindy to start dating Nicolas.
Also, Pierre went back to Sylvie’s company since he was so unhappy at JVMA. They didn’t like the way he ran his brand and asked for Agence Grateau’s help. They thought it was great that JVMA wanted their help until they realized JVMA’s plan to remove Pierre from the brand altogether and replace him with a younger designer, Grégory (Jeremy O. Harris). Agence Grateau didn’t want to tell Pierre that he was being replaced but JVMA did. So Sylvie and Emily sabotaged the announcement at the Grand Opening by spreading rumors implying that he died. This allowed Pierre to make his grand re-entry, disproving rumors of his demise while preventing JVMA from making the announcement of Pierre’s departure.
Secrets Were Revealed
As Season 3 progressed, Julien slowly began resenting Emily for repeatedly jumping in on his pitches to clients and overshadowing him. Sylvie told Julien that she’d talk to Emily but didn’t fix it. Julien was later seen accepting an offer to another company that wasn’t revealed. Many viewers guess that company is JVMA since they’re rivals with Agence Grateau, but we will have to wait until Season 4 to find out.
One night after Camille went to Greece with Sofia unbeknownst to Gabriel, he got drunk and hung out with Emily because he thought Camille was cheating on him. Emily didn’t confirm his suspicions and continued to keep her knowledge of Camille’s infidelity to herself. To Emily’s surprise, Gabriel revealed he loved Emily and Camille. The next day, a sober Gabriel forgot everything he told Emily, Camille returned from Greece, and Gabriel told Alfie and Emily that he was planning on proposing to Camille. Alfie was happy for him, but Emily was shocked. However, she still didn’t tell Gabriel about Camille’s cheating. In an unexpected turn of events, Camille beat Gabriel to the punch and proposed to him. Emily tried to get Camille to tell Gabriel about her affair with Sofia, but she simply said it was nothing and it was over. Emily let it go and reaffirmed her commitment to Alfie so he could feel secure about introducing her to his family.
How Did Season 3 End?
In the Season 3 finale, Gabriel and Camille threw their engagement party at Camille’s family chateau. Mindy attended with Nicolas but ran into her ex, Benoît, who told her the love song he wrote for her got into Eurovision. In the meantime, Emily reassured an anxious Gabriel that as long as his restaurant’s food quality was consistently high, he would get a Michelin Star. Camille was jealous after seeing this interaction. After talking to Emily, Gabriel decided he wanted to marry Camille that night so their engagement party turned into their wedding. However, in the middle of exchanging their vows, Camille revealed to Gabriel in front of their friends and family that she and Emily made a pact stating neither of them would be with Gabriel but that she broke it because she knew that Gabriel loved Emily. She told him, “You and Emily have been in love with each other since the moment you met. I can see it in your eyes.” She then left him at the altar.
After listening to Camille’s speech, Alfie realized that he was most likely Emily’s second choice and broke up with her. Emily tried to tell him that he was her man, but Alfie told her, “No, I’m not. And I don’t think I ever really was,” before walking away. Emily talked to Gabriel, who told her the truth about why they wanted to get married so quickly: Camille was pregnant!
Courtesy of Netflix
That is everything that happened in Emily in Paris Season 3. Who was Julien emailing? What will happen to Alfie now that he’s not with Emily? Will Emily and Gabriel finally become a couple? All of these questions and more will be answered when Emily in Paris Season 4 returns next month. Au revoir!
Emily in Paris, Season 4, Part 1 Premiere, Thursday, August 15, Netflix
Emily in Paris, Season 4, Part 2 Premiere, Thursday, September 12, Netflix