Emily in Paris recap: Episode 3, ‘Sexy or Sexist’

Emily voices her concerns over a risqué new ad campaign in Emily in Paris Episode 3 while juggling plumbing problems and rude co-workers.

It doesn’t appear like Emily’s time in Paris is getting much better at the beginning of Emily in Paris Episode 3. While taking a beautiful jog along the Seine River, Emily gets a call from Madeleine who is so envious of her life in Paris. She tells Emily she’s planning to send over the “office commandments” from Chicago so that she can teach them to her new coworkers. Emily isn’t thrilled to try and “tell” them anything.

At her apartment, the water cuts out while in the middle of a shower. The landlady thinks Emily is the one causing all of the issues — she just had a fuse blow last week. Gabriel tries to help mitigate matters between the two women, but the landlady is happy to tell Emily to use the bidet until the plumbing is fixed.

Social media update: [Picture of three fit women outside a cycling class smoking cigarettes] #FrenchWorkout #SmokinBodies

Once she’s finally clean and dressed for the day, Emily heads to her French class and aims to befriend her teacher Jacqueline. She either doesn’t catch the drift or has no interest in being pals with her pupil because all she does is offer her the 50 euros an hour rate outside of the office.

At the office, Sylvie wastes no time being rude to Emily, belittling her social media skills, and telling her to stop smiling or people will think she’s stupid. As for the corporate commandments from Chicago, no one is happy with them. Luc thinks she’s trying to drain them of everything that makes them French.

When the plumber finally shows up, he can’t seem to get the shower to work. Emily has to summon Gabriel out of bed to translate for her. Over coffee and croissants, Gabriel and the plumber chat. Unfortunately for Emily, he needs a special part that could take a few days, or a few weeks, to arrive. For now, she’ll have to use Gabriel’s shower. Fancy that.

Emily in Paris Episode 3 recap: Emily attends Antoine’s commercial shoot.

Next on the agenda is a commercial shoot with Antoine. They’re filming a commercial for his perfume brand and it doesn’t exactly pan out the way Emily anticipated. She starts chatting up the model for social media when she drops her trenchcoat and goes buck naked down the Pont Alexandre III. Is it sexy or sexist?

Emily tries her best to explain the male gaze to Antoine and Sylvie but Antoine doesn’t get it and Sylvie doesn’t care.

“I’m a woman, not a feminist.” Eye roll.

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Emily is concerned the commercial will be deemed politically incorrect and fail to translate to American audiences. Antoine doesn’t want to succumb to the “morality police.” Ultimately, they settle on this woman’s supposed dream of wearing the perfume naked and being desirable to men as “open to interpretation.”

Antoine plans to screen the commercial for the office and Sylvie recommends Emily keep her mouth shut this time since they supposedly wasted tons of time and money when she criticized it previously.

She wonders if Sylvie genuinely doesn’t like it or if she was just saying it to save face as she doesn’t want audiences to find the commercial tone-deaf. Sylvie dismisses Emily’s diminutive point-of-view, belittling her “American perspective.”

When they do finally watch the commercial — it doesn’t make any sense. Although according to Julien, it’s a perfume commercial, it’s not supposed to make sense. Emily tells Antoine he should let his audience decide if it’s sexy or sexist. Share it, slap a poll on it, and see what the results return. It’s a little controversial, but he likes the idea.

Madeline contacts Emily after the poll, which turns out to be a bit high. Buzzfeed and Jezebel link to it in the states but, as expected, a lot of people don’t like it. Emily asks Madeline whether she’s supposed to increase brand visibility or be liked? Madeline thinks she can do both and encourages her to get some of that “French D.”

Emily does just that, except her version is exacting a little revenge on Luc and Julien — one of them drew defaced her commandments with a penis — with a penis-shaped pastry.

When she gets to her office, she discovers a package from Antoine waiting for her. He thanks her for the poll idea and gifts her a black lacy bra from La Perla.

“Sexy or sexist?” He asks in his note.

Sylvie passes by the office to inform Emily of a meeting just as she picks up the bra.

“Whose that from?

“Nobody. Just a friend.”

Not sure Sylvie buys that.

Emily in Paris Episode 3 recap: The dinner party.

After the time she’s had between work and the shower drama, a vent session with Mindy is exactly what Emily needs. Even better, Mindy offers to throw her a dinner party at her employer’s house while they’re out of town and tells her to invite Sylvie. As expected, Sylvie is condescending and rude when invited.

She tells Emily they might work together, but they’ll never be friends because Emily treats Paris like an amusement park and after a year of wine and food she’ll go back to where she came from and leave them behind anyway. She’s a blip on the radar, for as far as Sylvie is concerned. Undeterred, Emily sends her the information for the party.

The party is a huge hit — for Mindy. Tons of people show up but none of them are interested in getting to know Emily, except one guy named Fabian. Emily leaves the party with him and the two start to hit it off until he says something degrading to her that makes her slam the brakes on the evening’s progression.

Instead, she slips into Gabriels’ café for a drink and a friendly face. He asks her how she’s enjoying Paris, just like everyone else in her life, and she tells him the truth. She likes Paris, but she’s not sure Paris likes her. She’s at the point of wanting to give up. But Gabriel says she can’t just yet because he likes her.

What did you think about Emily in Paris Episode 3? Sexy or sexist? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

All ten episodes of Emily in Paris Season 1 are now streaming on Netflix.