‘Emily in Paris’ Creator Darren Star Breaks Down Season 5’s Relationship Twists and Future Possibilities

Note: This story discusses spoilers for “Emily in Paris” Season 5.

Just as quickly as “Emily in Paris” saw Lily Collins’ Emily head to Italy to head up Agence Grateau’s Rome office and settle into her budding relationship with Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini), her Roman holiday comes to a halt by the Season 5 finale.

Not only has Agence Grateau lost most of its Italian clients, but Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) has learned that her business might also be forced to fold due to her husband’s debts — a reality she doesn’t bother to tell Emily, who now has an enticing offer to helm in-house marketing for Muratori as she works alongside Marcello and his mother. But as Emily considers the new gig, which would require her relocating to the charming yet quiet life in Solitano, she decides to break things off with Marcello and stick with her Agence Grateau team, which has more to do than the life she would have with Marcello rather than their relationship, itself, per creator Darren Star.

“I think it’s really about Marcello, I think it’s about the life she knows she would have to choose — living with Marcello was just not the life that she wanted,” Star told TheWrap. “Despite her feelings for him … the commitment would be to live in Solitano.”

But as one door closes, another one opens. Once Emily arrives back in Paris and Sylvie hears the news, she messages Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), who is looking more like his cheery Season 1 self again after a private yacht chef gig gave him a break from the drama in Paris. Gabriel shoots his shot with Emily with a postcard asking her to meet him in Greece.

Despite her recent breakup, Star noted that Gabriel and Emily are both on each others’ radar. “I think they have feelings for each other, and I think that Gabriel wouldn’t have asked Emily to meet him, obviously, if he if she knew he was that she was still involved, but I think that news really motivated him to reach out to her.”

With Season 5 leaving off with Gabriel sending out the postcard, it’s possible that Season 6, should the series get renewed by Netflix, could bring Emily to Greece, that is, if Emily accepts the invitation.

“I hope so,” Star said. “I hope Emily says, ‘yes’ — I’m not sure she will.”

Below, Star breaks down the season’s biggest moments, that Mindy and Alfie romance and whether some characters could return for Season 6.

TheWrap: The Alfie-Mindy pairing initially surprised me. When did you first start cooking up a romance between them and what makes them a good fit?

Darren Star: They’re a good fit and a bad fit, because they’re so similar to each other — they’re both such fiery personalities, and I wanted the chaos of seeing the two of them together. I believed it, and I also believed that it would be messy.

Mindy still falls back in a relationship with Nico despite her feelings for Alfie. Why did she say yes to Nico after he proposed?

I think in Mindy’s mind, it was her fantasy that she would be with him, so even if it wasn’t at that moment, I think she would always just say, “this is a fantasy I’ve always had,” and he really went to lengths to repair his relationship with her. And I think that it was a little impetuous on his part, but I think Mindy’s also somebody who is also impetuous in terms of, perhaps you would respond to that — she’d say yes first and think about it later.

What learning experience did Mindy have as she kept her relationship with Alfie a secret from Emily?

It takes people a while to learn a lesson, but I think she made a mistake … she didn’t make a mistake being with Alfie, she made a mistake, I guess, possibly thinking they could keep it a secret from Emily, or that it didn’t mean enough to talk to her about it. In the future, we’ll see how much she learned from that.

Sylvie had a flourishing love life this season, but was pretty burned by Laurent. How did that betrayal shake her and what are you hoping to explore in her next season?

This season, I really loved that we got to see more of Sylvie’s life, we got to see her with a friend from the past. We learned more about Sylvie and we see a more vulnerable side to [her] and we also see Sylvie in a little bit of trouble financially. She definitely had a strong reaction to what happened with Laurent. They’ve had a fractious relationship in the past. I think if we have the next season, she goes into the next season with just a lot of plates to spin, people to manage, but I think Sylvia is a character who … has a real fire in her belly for a lot, and still does.

Minnie Driver has been a fun addition to the cast. How can we expect she’ll shake things up at Agence Grateau? 

I loved having Minnie on the show. She was such a great addition … I love her chemistry with Sylvie. I think she just brings a big kind of unknown factor to Sylvie’s business. I think she will definitely complicate things … she doesn’t have the most wonderful relationship with Emily, and so … if there’s a Season 6, it’ll complicate things in a fun way.

This season was our first without Camille. Did you feel like her story was missing this season and are you hoping to bring her back next season?

I would not rule out seeing Camille again. She’s part of the world of the show. I love the character, I love the actress, but I do feel like … in Paris with that particular storyline at that moment, kind of came to an end and I don’t know that there was a story to keep telling with Camille.

We also got to see Gabriel go off on his own and find some more happiness outside of Paris, which I know was something Lucas Bravo had wanted. What did you think of his trajectory?

I think he did. I think his character was definitely like more like the Gabriel we’ve seen from before, and a lot of that’s just the circumstances of the story.

Genevieve seemed to have a bit of a shorter arc this season. Do you think she’ll be back in future seasons?

Everything’s on the table in terms of story. There’s definitely some fun stories to tell with Genevieve … if we have a Season 6, and if we have the time to tell them.

What are going to be some of the main challenges Emily might have to tackle next season?

If we have a Season 6, we’ve set up the complication of another business partner coming into Agence Grateau. Emily may have to be run interference, and also risk being pushed out. It’s interesting to see how Emily operates in that atmosphere of also Sylvie sort of being beholden to a business partner that may not be as excited about Emily as Sylvie is.

Do you have any ambitions to go elsewhere in Europe or the world or will Emily be staying in Paris for the future?

There are so many places I’d love to take this show, but it always has to be motivated by the story. Italy was definitely something I had wanted to do for a while, and I think we had a storyline that really took us there, kept us there for a while. Really it’s all about organically, where does the story take the characters, rather than thinking about a place first, but still, the show really is “Emily in Paris.”

It seems like we could be queuing up for Emily and Gabriel to finally get together. How long do you see the show going?

You know, let’s start with Season 6.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“Emily in Paris” Season 5 is now streaming on Netflix.

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