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Emily Makes A Big Move In The Emily In Paris Season 4 Finale

Spoilers below.

Every Darren Star show features a will-they-won’t-they couple: Carrie and Big in Sex and the City, Kelly and Brandon in Beverly Hills 90210, Liza and Charles in Younger, and Emily and Gabriel in Emily in Paris. When we last saw Emily a month ago at the end of the first half of season 4, she was blissfully in love with Gabriel, the chef she’s been circling for the entire series. They were finally single at the same time and ready to give their relationship a proper chance, even if Gabriel’s ex-fiancée Camille was still around with a fake pregnancy.

However, Emily and Gabriel spend much of the second half of the season, now streaming on Netflix, apart. Emily unceremoniously ends things with Gabriel when he abandons her at the top of a mountain during a Christmas skiing trip with Camille’s family. Later, Gabriel also shows his irritation at always having to speak English around her (the French are never letting go of that stereotype). But Emily quickly moves on: She’s swept off her feet by Marcello, an Italian fashion heir, who invites her to Rome for a holiday.

In what might be her first use of PTO since moving to Paris, Emily decides to go. To everyone’s surprise, she is happy to be in the moment and not think about work, but Sylvie has other plans for her. Marcello’s family is considering hiring JVMA to handle their marketing—something they’ve never entrusted to an external company before—and Sylvie is determined to secure the business for Agence Grateau by any means necessary. This includes sabotaging Emily’s romantic getaway.

Emily in Paris often pokes fun at American work culture, so it’s genuinely refreshing when Emily initially rebuffs Sylvie’s demands. She travels to the town where the Muratori family resides to make amends with Marcello, and he reluctantly shows her around. The company’s philosophy revolves around honouring each other and a simple way of life, and Emily is treated to an extravagant lunch in honour of one of the long-serving employees. However, Emily’s marketing instincts take over, and she suggests ways to expand the Muratori brand’s appeal, using the lunch as a launchpad for the brand’s identity. Once again, Marcello believes she’s there for the wrong reasons and asks her to leave.

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Marcello’s mother, Antonia, receives Emily’s advances more openly and agrees to at least consider what Grateau has to offer—but only at their Rome office. The team scrambles, and Sylvie pulls some strings to stage their presentation at one of her former flings’ offices. Emily successfully pitches her vision of marketing the way of life rather than just the clothing, but it comes at the expense of her budding relationship with Marcello. He accuses her of being there for the business rather than for him, and honestly, who can blame him? To make matters worse, Antonia sees right through their ruse about the Rome office, recognising it as the same one lent by the mutual friend from whom Sylvie borrowed it.

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Sylvie, who is the real cause of Emily’s relationship troubles, appears only marginally remorseful for interfering in her employee’s personal life. She admits to a former lover, a dashing Italian film director from whom she took classes years ago, that it was wrong to use Emily’s blossoming romance to advance her own career. She also voices some concerns about how Emily’s ambitions might be jeopardising her happiness. However, Sylvie doesn’t exactly regret exploiting Emily, especially when she secures the coveted meeting.

Things aren’t going well for Mindy in the relationship department either. She and Nico have broken up for good after she realised she could never fit the trophy wife mould he was seeking. Nico turns out to be a vengeful ex: He uses one of Mindy’s songs for a commercial without her permission, violating Eurovision rules and disqualifying them from the competition. To mend her broken heart, she flies to Rome to visit Emily. With gelato in hand, they stroll the streets, and something Emily says inspires a lyric for one of Mindy’s unfinished songs. She takes over a piano in a piazza and performs an original song, “Beautiful Ruins,” lamenting the end of the relationship but still finding beauty in the memories and love shared.

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Emily and tourists alike record Mindy’s performance and upload the video to social media. Even though Emily is a supposed influencer in the world of the show, it’s a tourist’s TikTok that goes viral and prompts a Chinese pop star to invite Mindy back to be a judge and perform the new song. If anyone can turn lemons into lemonade, it’s Mindy.

Back in Paris, Geneviève, Sylvie’s step-daughter and new employee, receives word that Gabriel has finally been awarded a Michelin star—for real this time. She rushes to deliver the news, and Gabriel’s first reaction is that Emily should be here to celebrate with them. Geneviève doesn’t let this deter her; at the celebration party later that night, she throws herself at Gabriel in front of Anton and Alfie. Gabriel draws the line and tells her he’d like to keep things professional. Still missing Emily, Gabriel leaves her a voicemail with the good news and expresses his gratitude. Emily returns the favour, leaving a congratulatory message for him in French, a nod to their break-up argument.

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But unfortunately for Gabriel, the message is only an olive branch for friendship. In Rome, Emily is a little preoccupied: her pitch is good enough to win over Antonia for a six-month contract, and at the party thrown in honour of the partnership, she and Marcello make up. He’s encouraged by her insistence on not being involved with the account, taking it as a sign that she genuinely wants to prioritise their relationship.

That situation is immediately complicated when Sylvie announces she’s officially opening a Rome office, which Emily will run. She’ll be intimately involved with the Muratori account, but this is a detail that Emily in Paris glosses over—it seems her gesture to remain uninvolved was enough for Marcello. She’s accommodated in a beautiful villa with a stunning view of the city and takes a selfie to document her new life.

Mindy informs Gabriel of the news, and Alfie encourages him to go after her. “Don’t let your pride and misunderstandings get in the way of the greatest girl in the world. We both did,” Alfie says. This advice seems somewhat implausible coming from him, given how their relationship ended, but it’s the motivation Gabriel needs to ask Mindy where Emily is in Rome.

Meanwhile, Emily is busy posting her selfie on Instagram and considering changing her handle, contemplating dropping Paris from her name but not quite committing to @EmilyInRome. When Marcello knocks on her door, she leaves her phone behind (a first!) to hop on the back of his Vespa and start a new chapter in her life.

Netflix hasn’t officially renewed the series for a fifth season, but it seems likely the hit show will return: guest roles were auctioned off at an amfAR event at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this summer. When it does return, fans will once again debate whether they’re rooting for Gabriel and Emily or if they have room in their hearts for someone (and somewhere) new.

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Read the original article in ELLE USA.

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