Forget Emily in Paris — say ciao to Emily in Italy! Yes, that long-awaited setting switch-up finally happens in Emily in Paris season 4 episode 9, with Signora Cooper (Lily Collins) trading the City of Lights for the Eternal City.
After all of the grief that Paris and its residents have been giving Emily of late, from Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) in her personal life to Geneviève (Thalia Besson) in her professional one, we can't blame the mademoiselle for wanting to say a brief goodbye to Paris' arrondissements for a little Roman holiday.
As you might've guessed, Emily's new flirty Italian friend Marcello Muratori (Eugenio Franceschini) might be part of what brings her to Italy's capital city. And while her visit is bellissima, it's not without its fair share of drama. Here's what went down.
To Roma! Or, uh, Kraków?
Between the persistent texts from Marcello, the encouragement from Mindy (Ashley Park) and the fact Emily has a new unwanted neighbor — yes, apparently Gabriel spilled the news about Camille's empty apartment during the Bavazza party and Geneviève oh-so-conveniently snapped the unit up — Em decides to go against her nature and ask Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) for a few vacation days. (Speaking of Camille, Emily finally runs into her during a client meeting at the office. Camille updates her that she has found a new apartment: one with room for an art studio and a nursery, as she's planning to adopt a baby. Though both are regretful about the mess with Gabriel, Emily is truly happy for her.)
Back to Italy: rather than admit she's going to Roma to visit Marcello, whom Sylvie is clearly desperate to court as a new client, Emily lies and say she's heading to Kraków, Poland, which hilariously just happens to be Luc's favorite city in all of Europe.
Emily nearly gets away with the white lie, too, immediately hopping on the back of Marcello's Vespa to enjoy all of the ancient sights, meet his old friends like Gianni (Flavio Furno), romantically throw coins into the Trevi Fountain and feast on bowls of pasta and Aperol spritzes. It's going so well that Marcello invites her to come meet his mother and sisters at their home in Solitano the next day.
However, the jig is up when Emily runs into one of the Bavazza reps while she and Marcello are canoodling on the Spanish Steps. The rep posts an Instagram of the three of them, which Geneviève tells the Agence Grateau team about (all while making herself plenty comfortable at Emily's desk, mind you). Sylvie is upset Emily didn't tell her that she'd be with Marcello, even more so when Julien (Samuel Arnold) spills that JVMA was courting Umberto Muratori for an acquisition while he was working there. Seething, Sylvie storms back to her office to strategize.
When in Rome, party!
Marcello invites Emily to a party thrown by his friends, which ends up being a rooftop rager. ("Just a few friends getting together, huh?" Emily jokes.) As they dance and kiss, those scenes are intercut with ones of Gabriel attending a housewarming party for Geneviève, whom he helped with moving boxes earlier.
Gen's fête is full of young people smoking and playing beer pong, in which the hostess encourages Gabriel to participate. A little liquored up, she plants a bisou on the French chef — but based on his surprised smile, he doesn't seem to mind.
Au revoir to Mindy and Nico?
Between the scandal involving his father and his aims at the CEO desk at JVMA, Nicolas de Léon (Paul Forman) has had a stressful fourth season. And things get even worse when a gossipy new Paris Match article drops surrounding the supposed hot-and-heavy relationship between Mindy and her bandmate Benoît (Kevin Dias). Though he assures his older brother that he's close to securing Umberto Muratori, and therefore should be promoted to JVMA's head honcho, his bro says he should never have allowed the family name to get wrapped up in the Mindy and Benoît fiasco.
Later, at dinner with Mindy, he's clearly upset about the article. "It just could not be at a worse time for me," he tells her. "All anyone can talk about is my girlfriend and some loser in Paris Match or singing naked at the Crazy Horse." He says her actions are damaging his career and believes it's only going to get worse when Eurovision begins.
Nico tells her he wants her to drop out of the song competition, assuring her he'll hook her up with his friends in the entertainment industry instead, but Mindy is devastated. "You sound just like him... my father," she says in tears. "He didn't give a sh*t about what I wanted." When he asks her to choose between him or her music career, she tearfully gets up and leaves him at the table.
Sylvie makes a surprise cameo
The morning that Emily is supposed to meet with Marcello to take off for Solitano, she gets an unexpected visitor outside her hotel: Sylvie. When Marcello arrives, Sylvie tells him she wants to discuss what a marketing firm could do for his company. He's instantly upset: "Is this why you came to Rome? You wanted a meeting?" he asks Emily, incredulous. Emily proclaims she knew nothing about it but when Sylvie says they should all discuss it over breakfast, Marcello leaves.
Heartbroken, Emily asks why Sylvie would just turn up and ruin things for her. "This is bigger than you Emily. We need to talk, you don't know the whole story," Sylvie warns. "If you care about him, you'll listen to me." Cliffhanger!
All episodes of Emily in Paris season 4 are now available to stream on Netflix.
