When we left Emily Cooper at the end of season 2 of the hit Netflix series Emily in Paris, her life had just blown up. She was about to make a huge decision between sticking with Madeline and Savoir or joining Sylvie and her new yet-to-be-named company. She had a burgeoning new relationship with Alfie, and her best friend, Mindy, was over the moon, busking on the streets with her new partner.
Filled with even more colorful and cutting-edge fashion, drama, and love triangles, season 3 of the Emmy-nominated show continued to take fans on a romanticized Parisian journey alongside the Gen-Z marketing genius.
Note: this article feature spoilers for Emily in Paris season 3.
Emily at work
The answer to the cliffhanger ending about Emily’s future career was immediately answered: Emily had chosen her new Parisian mentor. But there’s one small problem: she couldn’t bring herself to break the news to the very pregnant, stressed Madeline.
Thanks to Luc’s loose lips, however, a dinner meeting with executives from McDonald’s looking to launch the McBaguette (really) in France leads to a showdown between the two female mentors and their rising Gen-Z star marketing executive. If it weren’t for Madeline’s water breaking, Emily might actually have been forced to explain herself. Now, however, there was a more pressing issue at hand.
Sylvie, who remains as fashionable as ever with stunning, often daring outfits through every episode, promptly fired Emily for not resigning from Savoir. But Madeline, fueled with post-birth adrenaline, forgives Emily for the betrayal and the pair continue working together. That is, until the higher-ups decides it’s time to cut ties with Paris and Savoir and bring the team back home. Emily realizes she has no desire to head back to Chicago. Paris is now her home.
Unemployment lasts barely long enough for Emily to chronicle her every waking moment on Instagram, going on an adrenaline-fueled tour across the city in ever-colorful outfits, gobbling down massive desserts at a café, riding a Segway and bumper cars with Mindy, and even moonlighting as a waitress to help a short-staffed Gabriel.
Meanwhile, she is secretly handing campaign ideas she had cooked up before getting the boot to Luc and Julian. When Sylvie finds out the ideas, which of course every client loves, are coming from Emily, the new business owner comes to terms with the fact that Emily’s Gen-Z style, clever out-of-the-box thinking, and knack for social media is too good a talent to pass up. She swallows her pride and asks Emily to work with her once again.
Emily’s co-workers and friends make changes
Everyone surrounding Emily had some interesting moments in the third season as well.
Mindy managed to get a short-lived residency at a jazz club, but a reunion with an old boarding school friend, Nicholas, brings out a spark of jealously in her boyfriend, Benoit, who abruptly ends things. Mindy then becomes romantically linked with Nicholas, who also happens to be running one of the biggest fashion houses in Paris. When Benoit shows up at her doorstep, however, and tells her he secretly entered the song he wrote for her into the Eurovision competition and they were accepted, it’s clear there’s both excitement and heartbreak in Mindy’s future.
Gabriel is ready to take his life and career to the next level and pushes for more money from Antoine. Thanks to Alfie’s help (he’s now working as Antoine’s CFO), he ends up with a stake in the restaurant and the opportunity to do with it as he wishes, with Antoine becoming only a silent partner. The restaurant is now named Gigi’s after his grandmother. It’s also on track for a Michelin star thanks to Luc, who reconnects with an old flame who happens to be a Michelin Star inspector. He casually brings her there for dinner, and of course, she’s blown away.
Sylvie continues to be, well, Sylvie. She’s now running her own agency called Agence Grateau. Erik, her much younger photographer boyfriend, eventually leaves her after feeling insecure about all the former flames in Sylvie’s life. That includes Laurent, her husband (on paper), with whom she reconnects. It seems the two might be ready to give the whole marriage thing a go once again.
Julien, meanwhile, has always been a vocal supporter of Emily. But he’s clearly getting annoyed at how she always, often unintentionally steals the spotlight and brings up ideas in meetings with his clients. He is seen in his office replying to an e-mail about what appears to be a potential job offer, indicating that he might be looking to leave Agence Grateau and work for a competitor.
Emily in love
Emily’s life has always been about two things: work and love. Like her career, Emily’s love story took so many twists and turns in season 3, as it had in seasons 1 and 2 as well. While she was seemingly madly in love with Alfie, there was something lacking between the two. Meanwhile, the electric chemistry was still clear as day between she and Gabriel. But Gabriel was back in a committed relationship with Camille, and she swore never to date him again.
Alfie, meanwhile, ended up staying in Paris, taking a job as CFO with Antoine after impressing him with his deep knowledge of finance and tax laws. Despite being “just friends,” Emily and Gabriel keep finding themselves in romanticized situations, from a walk through a bubble museum (and a dunk or two in a massive adult ball pit) to lunch at a Michelin star restaurant. The friendship was clearly meant to be much more.
Camille was busy anyway, focused on her gallery and setting up for a new show with a sultry woman from Greece. After some flirting, the two end up having a romantic tryst. But when Camille returns from her trip, she and Gabriel decide to take the next step and get engaged.
At their engagement party, however, which turns into an impromptu wedding, Camille finally tells the truth: she was only with Gabriel because of the pact she made with Emily for neither of them to date him. She simply wanted to win, but she knew all along that he was in love with Emily and she with him. “I see it in the way you look at her and the way she looks at you,” she says standing at the altar in front of all the guests.
Not surprisingly, Alfie is less than enthused to hear this assessment about his girlfriend and close mate and leaves. Now awkwardly sitting together, Emily and Gabriel discuss the mess they now find themselves in. Gabriel admits something massive to Emily (besides his earlier drunken moment when he said he was in love with both she and Camille): that he lied about why Camille came back early from Greece. It wasn’t to revive their relationship. She came back to reveal that she was pregnant. It seems there’s plenty more mess for the two to deal with, and plenty of story teed up for the already renewed season 4.
Watch all three seasons of Emily in Paris on Netflix
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