Spoilers below.
“Trompe l’oeil,” the title of the midseason finale of Emily in Paris’ fourth season, is a French term that refers to a realistic optical illusion. It’s fitting that the episode begins with Gabriel’s new pastry chef trying to pull off a high-end version of Is It Cake? But the theme of illusions also extends to the various threads of the season thus far, from the false sense of security at JVMH that was undone by sexual harassment allegations against Nicholas’ father; to where Emily, Alfie, Gabriel, and Camille’s hearts really lie; and even to the truth about Luc’s girlfriend’s occupation.
While Emily and Gabriel finally say “I love you” in this episode, he is in quite an entanglement: His ex-fiancée Camille is pregnant with his baby, and she and her new girlfriend Sofia have moved into his apartment while they search for their own. When they finally find a place across the hall in this episode, the truth becomes clear—it’s not Emily or Gabriel getting in the way, but rather Camille’s own feelings. A fight between her and Sofia at a flea market over how to decorate a bedroom (Camille says it has to be a nursery; Sofia doesn’t understand why it has to be a nursery now) escalates until Sofia packs her bags.
Sofia has witnessed the lasting love between Gabriel and Camille, including a long embrace after Gabriel tells her to keep her engagement ring that once belonged to his grandmother, and realizes that three’s company. There’s no room for her not just in the apartment, but in Camille’s life. Sofia offers for Camille to join her in Athens, but knows it’s an empty gesture: Camille can’t be more than two blocks, let alone 2,000 kilometers away from Gabriel.
Camille realizes it too. A trip to her doctor reveals that she’s not pregnant—and never was, tricked by a false positive from her medication and a stress-related missed period. Now without Sofia, she latches onto the promise and illusion of a family with Gabriel and opts not to tell him the truth, even after witnessing his public displays of affection with Emily, whom he is very obviously in love with.
In a lighter B-plot, Sylvie and Luc share screen time when Sylvie asks him to pull some strings to secure a hard-to-get restaurant reservation for her husband’s birthday via his Michelin star inspector girlfriend Marianne. Luc and Marianne agree with the intention of inviting themselves along in order to get Luc a raise. A hairbrained scheme, everything comes falling down when Marianne is outed by a fellow inspector that claims she was fired from the job last year for “insider dining,” a.k.a. trading free meals for the promise of Michelin stars, as she’s doing with Gabriel’s restaurant.
Sylvie picks up the check after Luc almost faints seeing the total, but shuts down any conversations about his raise. Marianne, meanwhile, doesn’t really see any repercussions: Luc asks her what her real job is and accepts her back without question, and Gabriel’s Michelin star vanishes without issue—in fact, he throws a party to celebrate his relief.
It’s not Emily in Paris without a client activation, and this time Emily brings in Mindy’s friend Li’s face cream, which is looking for distribution. Sylvie uses her connection at a posh department store to host a sampling event before Julien discovers that Li’s product is actually a lubricant. Of course, Emily swoops in to save the day just as Sylvie was going to come clean to an investor, suggesting that they raise the price instead based on the glowing feedback the product was receiving.
The only throughline of the season that doesn’t appear in the finale is the sexual misconduct allegations against Nicholas’ father, head honcho at JVMA, which was arguably the most impactful storyline of the season. For a show as light and fizzy as Emily in Paris, tackling a topic as serious and prescient as harassment in the workplace can pack a big punch—especially as it mirrors a real life lawsuit against French fashion house LVMH, which attributed the alleged misconduct to “being an attractive woman at a company with French culture” for the misconduct and denied the accusations. The arc was wrapped up (for now) in the two previous episodes when Sylvie reluctantly agreed to be quoted in the exposé. Her major concerns about its effect on her husband’s new club were assuaged by her mother, but there’s sure to be more fallout within the back half of the season.
And that can be said about all of the other threads of the season too—it won’t be long before Camille’s feelings and the truth about her pregnancy come to the surface, or Luc decides he’s being undervalued at the company (echoing Julien’s moves earlier this season). After all, at some point, all illusions must be broken.
Radhika Menon is a freelance entertainment writer, with a focus on TV and film. Her writing can be found on Vulture, Teen Vogue, Bustle, and more.