The bleak 5th season of Emily in Paris graced our screens on December 18th. The show definitely seems to be taking a page out of old sitcoms with the number of seasons it’s dropping, trying to go the traditional route despite being an OTT show. The 5th season was meant to be about Emily moving on not only from Gabriel but also from her life in Paris too; instead, it seems like after all this time she’s locked in on the city even more than ever before. Season 5 begins in Rome, and just as we expected, the title track goes from Emily in Paris to “Emily In Rome,” making us feel like this might be a genuine change we need to get used to, but as you watch the episodes, you come to a realization that this was never meant to be, and the showrunners don’t even make an effort to hide the fact that everything is working towards bringing Emily back to Paris, even if that means a lot of what’s going on doesn’t fully make sense, you know? Anyway, soon enough, Emily is back home, and then there’s a small trip to Venice too, making us feel like everything is perfectly fine until the drama hits and everything that was worked for so precisely is completely ruined. So, with that said, let’s jump straight into this recap of season 5.
Spoiler Alert
What Happens With Muratori?
Season 5 begins with Emily spending time with Marcello’s family, only to learn that Antonia is looking for every excuse to fire them. Emily is meant to be the “boss” of the Rome office, but it becomes abundantly clear that, since the whole team is around, there’s really nothing different here. Even Sylvie’s right there. It doesn’t take long for the whole party to move to Rome, which includes Antoine and Alfie, too, because a baby perfume isn’t working even in the city of Paris. I guess the only thing Emily has under control is Sylvie not smoking (or vaping) at the office. So now, while Marcello takes Emily truffle hunting, Gabriel spends time with Sylvie because he’s there to see Emily, only to realize she’s actually happy with Marcello.
Anyway, Emily’s got her highest heels on, and Marcello hasn’t told her they’re going to be hiking up muddy terrain to find truffles (yikes). But she’s a good sport and ends up finding a stinkhorn instead (oop). Finally, while cooking, Emily confronts Antonia, and the latter says she’s just trying to squeeze out time in this situation, because she doesn’t want to sell to JVMA, but her son is determined to make this partnership happen. Emily’s basically been hired to do nothing, because even if there is a marketing campaign, Antonia can’t increase production of her premium luxury product.
At the same time, Sylvie meets her old friend, a British-born princess named Jane, who found her Italian prince after her 3rd marriage and now owns a palazzo. Jane and Sylvie catch up, and before you know it, she wants to be all in on the business. Anyway, despite Emily being in crisis, Sylvie’s optimistic because she’s trying to get more business for everybody. Meanwhile, back home, Alfie tells Gabriel that Antoine wants him to cut his budget, but Mindy interrupts, and a little evening snack turns into a full-blown dinner and more for her and Alfie. Also, Genevieve happens to spot the new romance before the two people in it even notice it’s happening.
Now, when Emily and Sylvie show up at the party at Jane’s palazzo, Emily gets Antoine to impress Antonia with a fragrance, the baby perfume! But now rebranded as the Muratori perfume, it’s easy to market as something to connect people to Muratori, even if they can’t afford the pieces (oh, you know, just a tale as old as time?). It doesn’t take Antoine long to impress Antonia, and she’s already into the perfume idea. Anyway, in the middle of all this, Jane joins Agence Grateau as a consultant and senior executive of brand relationships, and Emily can already feel like the ground beneath her feet is slipping away because at the Fendi meeting that Jane arranged (to secure her spot at Grateau), Emily is sidelined by Sylvie, and it’s also revealed that the bag she’s cherished for so long is a fake. However, when things get worse at the end of the day, and Emily sees Marcello with his Italian exes, all hot and concerned about the fact that he’s dating an American, she loses her grip altogether and decides to walk away from an event she helped plan. But Marcello makes everything alright by buying her a real Fendi this time around, making their relationship concrete. Though where the chemistry is, I do not know.
But while Sylvie tells Emily to stay in her lane, it turns out she’s exactly the same and gives Giancarlo (her lover and the videographer of the Muratori perfume ad) a hard time by interrupting at every step. More importantly, she decides to change the ending of the ad completely, and this makes Giancarlo mad enough to walk away, leaving Sylvie to handle the shoot and the edit herself. But miraculously, Sylvie manages to do a great job, and when she doesn’t want to show the video at the launch event, Emily pulls another crappy move, steals the video, and plays it anyway. For once, though, this is actually a good decision. But Solitano becomes a tourist trap after Jane, despite Emily’s warnings, decides to drop a pin on the location after a livestream, turning an understated event into a full-blown marketing debacle. On the other hand, Sylvie says tata to Giancarlo, who showed up despite not having done his work and took all the credit for her ad campaign. But, when he tells her she should become a director, she politely refuses and returns to her husband’s side, yet again. But all of this also leads Sylvie to decide to return to Paris because their clients aren’t happy there, and too much time has been spent on the expansion in Rome. However, everything falls apart when Marcello admits that he was still negotiating with JVMA, and that means all of Emily’s hard work was just a waste. So she breaks up with him and, since there are literally no clients left in Rome, packs her bags and heads back to Paris too.
Are Mindy and Alfie a thing?
The most shocking reveal of season 5 happened before the show aired, and that’s Alfie and Emily’s best friend Mindy getting together. As Mindy describes it, their Venn diagrams have never overlapped before, so this is unusual, and she doesn’t want to go behind Emily’s back. The little romance began on that one night dining at Gabriel’s, but things heated up when Mindy needed help with Italian Dancing with the Stars, and Alfie suddenly showed up looking like a professionally trained dancer. Not only does he lift her for the lift in the dance, but they end up kissing after nailing it, meaning they’re now a thing. But Mindy’s under the impression that what happens in Rome stays in Rome, until Nico shows up. Now, the night Mindy was meant to tell Emily about Alfie and her, she realizes Nico has changed, and he’s left his company too, but when she brings this up to Alfie, he gets furious and tells her that they might as well pretend that THEY never really happened.
Now, in the middle of all of this, Marcello makes a return to Paris because it turns out the two nepo babies want to make a name for themselves together, so they’ve quit their family businesses and want to start a fashion label of their own. But of course, nobody wants to work with them, and Emily is the only one who is willing to. Turns out, Marcello has a designer in him, and he’s the one who made the initial sketches, but they got Emily to get a designer for them anyway. However, when Marcello’s mother serves him a lawsuit, he has no choice but to admit the designs were his own. This leads to Emily getting him to step up as a designer and do what he’s actually good at. They fight after he gets imposter syndrome, but ultimately, he tells her he loves her, and he didn’t mean the hurtful things he said, because she was right the whole time. They do a fashion show in Venice as his first event, but Antonia’s there, and she’s so impressed by her son’s work that she makes him the new head of Muratori. Everything is resolved. But I bring up all this here because Venice is where Emily found a ring in Marcello’s bag and thought it was hers, but when the power quad of Emily, Marcello, Mindy, and Nico are enjoying a Venetian boat ride, it turns out the ring was actually for Nico the whole time. However, it doesn’t take Emily long to mess it all up by saying no to Marcello, making him realize she won’t leave her whole life behind and move to his small Italian town for him. Anyway, on the other hand, Mindy says yes to Nico instinctively, because she really believes he’s changed, but she’s thinking about Alfie in the back of her mind. Alfie, who called her and told her to meet him when she’s back in Paris so that they can talk about their situation. However, the final attack comes when Alfie ends up seeing the ring on Mindy’s hand, and he can’t even congratulate her. This is when Emily realizes this is way more serious than it looks.
Oh, not to mention, Mindy’s also the bigger earner in this “power” couple, because Nicolas doesn’t have much after he left JVMA, and she’s now a voice in Mouline “Rat,” an animated rat version of “Mouline Rouge.” The choice is clear to me.
Why Does Genevieve Get Fired?
In the middle of all of this, nepo baby Genevieve can’t seem to get anything right and really messes up with Thomas Heatherton because his chef doesn’t have a European visa, and she has no idea what Brexit is. This leads to Heatherton not having a chef for his grand Parisian event, but Emily saves the day yet again by bringing Gabriel in. Now, Genevieve’s desperately jealous of Emily, yet it never shows in her work. As in, she never manages to do a good enough job to be compared to Emily. But when she starts putting her own caps in brand gift bags, Sylvie decides it’s time to let her go and forces Emily to be the hangman. Emily tells Genevieve she’s fired, but a bitter Gen tells Emily that Mindy and Alfie are a thing because, apparently, acting petty is all you need to feel better about losing your job. Emily and Mindy have a huge fight, but it doesn’t take Emily long to realize that Mindy is her only true root in Paris; she needs her best friend, and she apologizes for ruining things for them. But when the power quad is formed, Emily does notice some tension between Mindy and Alfie, and finally, we’re left with no answers except for Mindy’s realization that she’s made a mistake. Maybe there’s a chance Genevieve will come back as a real villain?
Who Is Beau?
Sylvie’s outside office affairs are always the talk of the town, because she really is quite a romantic. But the ultimate joke of this season was when it turned out Sylvie was sleeping with her old friend Yvette’s son! Yes, I said, son; she already did the husband thing too, by the way, which would mean she’s slept with both father and son (yikes). But I do hope they can still be friends, you know? Sylvie definitely needs female friends.
What is Jane’s Role At Agence Grateau?
In the ending of Emily in Paris season 5, Emily is ready to move back to Paris, but Sylvie thought she had things sorted out because she had Marcello. Turns out her husband, whom she finally wants a divorce from, stole from her mother. Moreover, though she finally wants a divorce, she can’t get rid of his debts anyway, and she will have to repay them. This means no more Agence Grateau either. However, at the last moment, it’s Princess Jane who comes to the rescue. Now freshly a widow, she’s got a Palazzo all to herself, and Four Seasons is eyeing it, which means she can happily be a partner at the agency and save it from financial ruin (Sylvie too). So now Emily doesn’t have one headache, i.e., Sylvie; she has two, thanks to Jane.
What Happens With Gabriel?
Gabriel spends most of this season out of sight because after becoming the chef for Heatherton’s event, he got a job on his cruise-yacht-boat thing, travelling the world. Gabriel leaps at the opportunity, leaving Antoine to find a new chef who will listen to his every whim and fancy. I really don’t understand how he would leave the restaurant so easily after receiving the Michelin star, but I guess the whole thing was quite a headache with Antoine, so maybe it was for the best. It seems Gabriel does genuinely enjoy being at sea, but he’s forgotten his knives in a rush and asks Emily to bring them for him. When she does, they fall back into old rhythms, and for a moment, you think it would’ve been nice if they were back together. And then, the show ends with Emily having broken up with Marcello, giving Gabriel the perfect opportunity to strike again. This time he’s in Greece and on holiday, so it’s easy for him to write her a postcard, as she requested, asking her to join him in Greece.
