2024-09-13 11:25:02
Photo: Giulia Parmigiani/Netflix
This season reminds me of an enduring Emily in Paris struggle: We eventually get fun plot lines on this show, but only after we’ve wasted several early-season episodes spinning our wheels over boring stuff. Why must we suffer so en route to the series we crave? This finale feels leagues above the episodes we were watching back in August. Funnier, snappier, more satisfying, more ACTION. More back-baring attire from Sylvie, as God intended!
Emily is aghast that Sylvie even has an appetite after her betrayal. Marcello won’t return her texts. I mean, it’s been about 30 minutes, Emily. Maybe give him an hour? Sylvie says, as if hers is the voice of all reason, that Marcello can’t sell out to JVMA. Emily says that’s Sylvie’s vendetta, not Emily’s. Considering Emily knows Sylvie was sexually harassed by her boss, that’s … certainly one approach! Emily is a feminist if being a feminist starts and ends with taking selfies with Brigitte Macron.
It is incredible to hear Emily, the queen of taking every personal, intimate moment and mining it for #content, declare, “I care about Marcello as a person. Not as a brand that needs saving!” I genuinely did not know if she would ever realize it was better to be a person than a brand and Sylvie is as surprised as I am to hear Emily’s disinterest in “mixing business with pleasure.” Emily announces her intention to follow Marcello to Solitano so she can explain herself. Meanwhile, Sylvie texts a suitor under the table, for Sylvie is an icon who has handsome men in every European city at her beck and call.
Emily jumps in what I assume is one of the priciest Ubers she’s ever taken and somehow finds it in her wounded heart to take pics of the green hills and post them with a comically stupid caption. (“PINE-ing for Italy.” Emily, what does that even MEAN?) En route, she gets a call from Mindy, who laments that she and Nico broke up and that, in a surprisingly strategic vindictive fit, Nico sold Benoit’s song (the sale of which, you may recall, was the reason Benoit and Mindy broke up in the first place; he wanted them to get into Eurovision) to that sunscreen commercial after all, which got the gang disqualified from Eurovision.
Emily swiftly finds a way to make this about her own problem, and Mindy, in return, finds a way to invite herself to Emily’s romantic getaway. It’s very funny to me that Emily thinks that all the men in her life are dumb-dumbs with absolutely no legal or professional counsel beyond their meddling almost-girlfriends.
At least Emily was already dressed for this adventure. I like her mary janes! Upon arrival, Emily meets Marcello’s mom, Antonia. Turns out Antonia has heard all about Emily, the girl Marcello can’t stop talking about. It seems extremely unlikely to me that this traditional Italian mother would be so over the moon about her precious son having fallen so hard for some American girl who doesn’t speak Italian. But Antonia has more important things to do than think critically about Marcello’s romantic choices: She is here to say, with as little subtlety as humanly possible, that the Muratori business is a family. They throw birthday parties for their employees not because the birthday is special but because the employee is special! Everyone who works here is special to them
Marcello arrives and seems pretty happy to see Emily, despite everything. He explains that his father, who died years ago, shared his success with the whole village, so everyone who lives here works for them, and every day at 1:00 p.m., they sit down to eat the most glorious lunch that you can possibly imagine.
During this magical lunch, Antonia tells Emily that she is not allowed to post on social media. As a sign of tremendous growth, Emily does not scream in terror and flee the scene. Instead she nods quietly as she is told that Muratori does no advertising. Then, Marcello shows Emily his family’s house and photos of generations of Italians who dwelled there before him. Emily tries to transition into a work conversation, and Marcello humors her for a minute. Still, Emily pushes it too far, not only advising him against aligning with JVMA but pitching Agence Grateau instead. I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize these two were fungible substitutes … isn’t one a multinational company and the other a boutique marketing agency? But Emily insists, and as you might expect, Marcello is not convinced that Emily’s motives are pure, so he sends her back to Rome. Woof, rough end to your dreamy date, Emily! But Antonia is listening in from the doorway and seems to be Team Emily. Again: Do I buy that the protective Italian mom, who hates social media, is charmed by this American influencer? No, but this is a fantasy, and that includes improbable parental energy.
Defeated, Emily returns to her hotel to find Mindy, eating red-sauce room service on top of their white sheets. I would’ve expected Mindy to already be out on the town — surely she’s got Italian hookups of her own from her Swiss boarding school days — but it takes Emily’s arrival to get them out on the streets. Mindy says she still loves Nico, and Emily says that being surrounded by ancient ruins puts all her problems into perspective. Personally if I were heartbroken and someone suggested I just take in the glory of the Colosseum or whatever, I would be a little annoyed. Instead, Mindy is struck with inspiration, instantly incorporating Emily’s “beautiful ruins” comment (which, fwiw, is not exactly an Emily original) into her original song, which she performs on the conveniently-located and perfectly-tuned street piano, drawing quite the crowd. By the morning, a video of this performance taken and posted to TikTok by a random tourist has blown up so much that the producers of Chinese Pop Star want Mindy back as a judge, and also to perform her new single, so Mindy is gone on the next flight to Paris.
Let’s get back to my hero, Sylvie. Sylvie is watching her Italian paramour shoot a commercial starring Debi Mazar!! (Fellow Darren Star Universe followers will remember her from Younger, and of course the real ones know she’s in our Italy episode as a wink to her breakout in Goodfellas.) Turns out Sylvie came to Rome to study filmmaking, though she dismisses this very cool detour as “a middle-aged fantasy.” She confesses that she gave Emily uncharacteristically bad advice “to sacrifice romance for my ambition.” But ever since she started her own agency, she says, her life is all about work. Mentioning her husband makes this guy nervous but she assures him that he’s the only man Laurent was ever jealous of. Anyway, when in Rome you can kiss your Italian lover!
In the morning, Marcello calls Emily to say that she got what she wanted: Antonia overheard their chat, and she wants a meeting with Agence Grateau tomorrow at the Rome office, which Emily pretends they have. I love the let’s-pull-off-a-heist spirit of this part of the episode. Sylvie abandons her initial (brilliant) plan of “wandering the city, eating pasta and making love” all day with a man who cleared his calendar for her; it’s time to find an office and get the gang together!
What a great dress on Sylvie, no? Rome looks very good on her. She’s so tan and glowy. Need to know the skin routine. Giorgio, whose design studio she plans to borrow, introduces her to the room as “the last woman I slept with before I started sleeping with men.” He agrees to loan her the space and contribute to her subterfuge. Meanwhile, Luc and Julien hop on a flight to Rome. By the time of the meeting, they still haven’t settled on a tagline — Luc’s terrible idea is “Italians do it better” — but they do, at least, have a sign for the door. As much as I enjoy the energy of the stunt, I can’t believe they really thought they’d get away with it. Do they think it’s not going to raise eyebrows that (for instance) their web presence does not mention this office and it’s not going to show up on Google maps as their address?
In the meeting, Sylvie promises they can have it all: a small, independent company that the world knows is there. Emily’s idea for a stealth marketing campaign — selling the lifestyle, which in turn will sell the clothes — is … actually pretty clever! Is Emily good at her job now? First, Sylvie and Co. are outed by their ally: Giorgio, who also tells Antonia that she was the last woman he slept with before he started sleeping with men (!). Alas, no one fell for Sylvie’s elaborate charade.
Despite all this sneaking around, Antonia confesses she knows they need money. Sylvie makes a hard sell: Give us six months and see what we can do. That is … not a lot of time. Then again, the laws of time don’t really apply in the Emilyverse. Maybe everything will be fine. The business gets a win, but it’s a personal loss for Emily; Marcello is furious.
That evening, to celebrate their success, Sylvie wears this stunning backless red dress with a sexy messy ponytail, a perfect look that inspires me, spiritually and sartorially, to be a better version of myself. Her earrings are also phenomenal. She generously calls Emily a “powerhouse woman” and, as she sends her off for her makeup kiss with Marcello who, what do you know, showed up at this party after all, gets a desperate text from Laurent who is back in Paris, missing her. The way she just texts him, “Back soon, darling,” while falling into the arms of her Rome fling!
Marcello tells Emily that he heard from his mom that Emily requested to have nothing to do with the account. Having proven her love is true, Emily gets to have it all. All the mother figures watch them kiss and give approving smiles from their respective sides of the party.
Back at the office, where Gen is probably bored to fuckin’ TEARS, a phone call comes in: Gabriel got that Michelin star after all. She sprints to the restaurant and somehow thinks it will be meaningful for Gabriel to get this news from her, a woman he met a week ago. All he wants to do is talk to Emily about it. Thus begins the part of the episode that made me want to scream forever.
Genevieve says Gabriel must have a party and celebrate the star so they throw one at the restaurant. Business partners Alfie and Antoine are here. Gabriel claims it’s all empty without Emily. If you ask ME, Gabriel is just realizing that both of the women he took for granted and treated poorly have finally moved on. His pangs of regret have nothing to do with an actual relationship (e.g. the specifics of who Emily is as a person and any real feelings for her) and more to do with his dawning horror that, for the first time since he and Camille got together, he is genuinely single, with no woman to promote from the back burner. Genevieve (whose hair and makeup looks fantastic) is doing drunk girlfriend arm around Gabriel’s neck and so he must pry her off him to say that they are only “friends, neighbors and coworkers.” Her little mischief face suggests she won’t take that lying down.
Gabriel leaves Emily a voicemail about the star, which Emily hears after spending the night with Marcello (!) and promising to make their relationship all about the things that matter: “You and me and pasta.” She jets to a meeting with Sylvie, Luc, and Julien, who (thankfully) have no interest in discussing Gabriel. More important matters are on the table: They need to open an office in Rome. I, for one, was dying to see how they would swing putting Emily in there, seeing as she does not speak the language. Somehow, Sylvie spins this as a positive. “Look at how well Emily did without speaking French in Paris” is the case she makes, though if a person were to look at Emily’s actual professional track record, I think you’d find you could punch some big holes in that argument!
It is Sylvie who will be the one heading up this new outpost, with Emily as her right-hand woman. So much for Luc and Julien’s dreams! (Loved that Julien interned for one of Valentino’s pugs. “Three months of glamour and debasement.”) Antonia closed the deal on the condition that Emily be in residence, so send for your bags, Emily! Time to get set up in a gorgeous apartment you did not have to find for yourself. Mindy promises to join Emily in this perfect housing situation as soon as she’s back from Shanghai. Let’s get some passport stamps, if you know what she means. God, some girls have all the luck.
After this phone call, Mindy passes Gabriel’s restaurant, where Gabriel, Alfie, and Antoine are still coming down from their night of partying. (Sidebar: Has anyone ever been more divorced than Antoine? Out all night with these much younger guys, buying frozen food for dinner, chasing after Sylvie with such unvarnished desperation. Hasn’t he lived in France all his life? Did he lose all his friends to his ex?) The men are talking about expanding Gigi to another city, and Mindy suggests Rome, and I scream NO, MINDY, NO, DO NOT BRING THESE LOSERS WITH YOU. Gabriel is horrified that Emily is leaving.
One could say it’s very big of Alfie to ask Gabriel if he is okay. And then for Alfie to refer to Emily, the woman who couldn’t commit to him, who humiliated him via hot air balloon-slash-billboard advertising in front of not just his family but all the world, as “the greatest girl in the world”?!? WHAT. Buddy, you have a girlfriend now! The one who spent Christmas and Boxing Day with you?! IN WHAT WORLD?
Then Alfie encourages Gabriel to go get Emily back?! WHYYYYY. Gabriel, as usual, is speaking in this sort of dead monotone as if he has never had a feeling in all his life. Does Alfie not know about the abandonment on the mountain that precipitated this breakup? Alfie’s whole deal here is just a sign that the between-scene lobotomizing has been continuing apace for the men of Emily in Paris. If this show wants me to believe that this asshole and Emily (who is no Sylvie but still deserves better than Gabriel) are endgame I will lose what is left of my fragile, tender sanity!!
Emily returns Gabriel’s message with a voicemail in stilted French congratulating him on the star. To me, this was a sign of maturity and grace. To Gabriel, it is a sign that he must return to her. While Gabriel, with the intensity of a serial killer, demands Mindy tell him, “where exactly in Rome is she?” (Mindy be a friend and keep that intel to yourself), Emily settles into her sun-drenched new digs. Very cute callback here to the series premiere with the flung-open shutters and the selfie in the window. Is she officially changing her Instagram handle? Is she officially changing her entire identity?! When this new Emily goes out on the town with Marcello, she leaves her phone behind.
