(Emily In Paris spoilers will definitely be found below.)
Netflix’s Emily In Paris (which hails from primetime soap-opera king Darren Star) remains frustratingly watchable, and to its credit, Season 3 went several places than relationship territory. Emily Cooper is now firmly entrenched with French life, and she’s learning the language and making actual professional strides. However! There’s no avoiding the fact that the show’s bread and butter happens to be Emily’s will-they-or-won’t-they dynamic with Chef Gabriel.
Amazingly, the show has been able to keep that question alive despite the fact that Emily and Gabriel already slept together in the Season 1 finale. From there, they both moved onto others because, for whatever reason, both parties thought it would be best if Gabriel kept stringing Camille along. Likewise, Emily decided to screw with Alfie’s heart, and this season, and Camille pulled a Daphne From The White Lotus and had her own affair. Also, Gabriel got sloppy drunk and revealed that he’s still super hung up on Emily. But! Gabriel suddenly decided to propose to Camille, and all of this was just so very dumb, but in the Season 3 finale, Camille left Gabriel at the altar. She did so while delivering a speech about how he’s obsessed with Emily, and then Alfie got mad and left the building. Good for him.
In other words, there’a a lotta broken hearts to mend in Season 4. The real surprise, though, was that Emily and Gabriel had a quiet moment when they seemed to accept their that (as with the Borg) resistance is futile… which led to Gabriel revealing that (and this is certainly why he proposed) Camille is pregnant.
[Cue cliffhanger face.]
What could possibly come next? Season 4 is definitely happening, and Camille knows everything. Granted, she should have already known what was up from that dirty skillet discovery, but yeah, girlfriend was willfully blind. It happens, but it’s a little rage-inducing how Gabriel and Emily wouldn’t break up with their respective significant others.
So, Season 4 will likely pick up with Gabriel attempting to juggle the out-in-the-open status of his love for Emily with his impending (or newfound) fatherly duties. Camille’s family has money, so they could really rake him over the legal grills, but I can’t see the show getting that dark and heavy. And I don’t know how much longer the writers can possibly draw out the love triangle/quartet, but viewers hadn’t yet tired of it before this season, so who knows?
The real question here is this: how Gabriel can remain so appealing despite being a terribly written character. He’s not even slightly tortured or nuanced and doesn’t compare to Carmy from The Bear in terms of having an intense drive for his work. Camille lands like the ultimate pushover, and now, there’s going to be a child involved in this mess, and Emily somehow remains likable despite screwing over her so-called friend and being a pretty bad friend to Mindy, too. The show’s inherent addictive nature, however, is a testament to the sleight of hand that this show performs, and you can bet that people will be waiting for and wondering about Season 4.
Emily In Paris Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.
