Warning: This post contains spoilers for Season 5 of Emily in Paris.
Once again, a new season concludes with a cliffhanger centered on the “will-they-won’t-they” dynamic.
The fifth season of Darren Star’s escapist romantic comedy, now available on Netflix, tracks Emily (Lily Collins) as she journeys from Rome to the fictional Italian village of Solitano, then to Paris, Venice, and back to Paris, navigating the complexities of her career and personal life.
The season begins with a temporary title card reading “Emily in Rome,” showing Emily residing in the Eternal City with her boyfriend, Italian fashion heir Marcello Muratori (Eugenio Franceschini), while managing Agence Grateau’s new Italian office. When Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), Emily’s on-again-off-again love interest from Paris, arrives in Rome to rekindle their romance—as hinted in the Season 4 finale—he witnesses her closeness with Marcello and departs without a word. A string of mishaps later forces Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) to close the Rome branch, bringing the team back to Paris and causing Emily and Gabriel’s lives to cross paths again.
Aside from a short separation, Emily devotes most of the 10-episode season to developing her relationship with Marcello. Concurrently, Gabriel is hired by billionaire Thomas Heatherton (Jonathan Cake) to serve as his private chef on a yacht, traveling globally. However, in Episode 9, Gabriel makes an afternoon trip to Paris and shares a lunch with Emily that appears crafted to fuel hope among supporters of their pairing. Although their meeting concludes with Gabriel confessing he followed her to Rome and wishing her happiness with Marcello, the romantic chemistry between them remains palpable. This is accentuated by Mindy (Ashley Park) performing a powerful version of the classic Moulin Rouge love song “Come What May.” Despite this charged moment, the episode ends with Marcello and Emily exchanging “I love you” for the first time, suggesting Emily might be permanently moving on with Gabriel out of the picture.
Adding to the uncertainty, Lucas Bravo expressed doubts in October 2024 about returning for Season 5, citing dissatisfaction with Gabriel’s character arc. “The ‘sexy chef’ was very much part of me in Season 1 and we grew apart season after season because of the choices he makes and because of the direction they make him take. I’ve never been so far away from him,” he stated. “In Season 1, there was a lot of me in him. But as they made him kind of unaware of his surroundings, of the dynamic, always victimizing and always being completely lost in translation and oblivious to anything that is happening around him and being manipulated by everyone, it kind of became not fun for me to shoot or to see a character I love so much and brought me so much, being slowly turned into guacamole. I really grew apart from him.”
Ultimately, Bravo did return for the season, with Star later suggesting the actor’s remarks were a miscommunication. “I think he was never intending not to come back,” he said.
Even so, Gabriel sailing away while Emily built a life with Marcello could have been a fitting end for the “sexy chef’s” narrative. However, the finale’s final moments indicate otherwise. During a trip to Venice, Emily discovers an engagement ring in Marcello’s luggage and panics at the thought of marrying him, moving to Solitano, and abandoning Paris, effectively ruining a potential gondola proposal. After she loudly declares she cannot marry him, Marcello explains the ring belongs to Nico (Paul Forman), who then proposes to Mindy amidst the profound awkwardness.
Emily’s outburst essentially ends her relationship with Marcello, and she goes back to Paris by herself. However, upon learning of the breakup, Sylvie texts Gabriel—who has coincidentally just been given a few weeks off in Greece—to inform him Emily is single again. He promptly writes her a postcard saying he feels “at sea” without her and invites her to meet him in Greece.
Given these developments, it is difficult to imagine that Emily and Gabriel will not find a way to be together, regardless of how many seasons it requires. Perhaps Season 6 will bring us “Emily in Athens.”
