Emily in Paris season 4 episode 4 recap: The Grey Area

As we near the end of Emily in Paris season 4 part 1, relationships begin to be tested in new ways and the fallout of both Emily’s choice at the masquerade and Sylvie’s interview begin to be felt! 

Warning: The following post contains spoilers from Emily in Paris season 4! 

After choosing Gabriel at the masquerade ball, Emily and Gabriel can’t keep their hands off one another but the only issue is that they just can’t seem to find a place to be alone together. 

The happy couple attempts to sneak off into Emily’s apartment to enjoy some alone time since Camille and Sofia are still staying with Gabriel, but their attempt for some fun is brought to a halt when they find a distraught Mindy under the covers crying after a fight with Nicolas. It turns out that Nicolas asked Mindy to come to a function with him so that she and he could be photographed together with his dad, but when she said doing so would be complicit things got heated. 

Speaking of Louis, after Sylvie gave the interview exposing him for his wrongdoings, he pulls JVMA’s funding of Laurent’s club. However, Laurent isn’t angry at all and tells Sylvie how proud he is of her for taking a stand. If only others shared that same sentiment as it seems many of her clients have begun canceling meetings due to the article, sans a beauty company that is looking to market a luxury shampoo for older women. 

After their meeting, Sylvie shifts her attention back to helping Laurent and calls her mom Heloise, aka the queen of the night who used to own one of the most famous nightclubs in Paris, to see about salvaging Laurent’s dreams by investing in the club. Heloise agrees, but under unspecified conditions. Sylvie later brings Emily along with Laurent to meet with Heloise to check out the space that was once home to her club and Emily gets the idea of bringing the beach to the club. 

Three’s company, four’s a crowd

Emily meets up with Gabriel thinking it’s going to just be the two of them, but is surprised to see he’s also invited Camille and Sofia for what turns out to be a dessert sampling. They all love the desserts, but Camille says they’ve had better and she and Gabriel start reflecting on a memory of the past making Emily and Sofia feel a little awkward. 

While Gabriel apologizes for not telling Emily about the others joining, she admits she wishes they had a place to get together as just the two of them. Taking that to mind, Gabriel takes her to the building roof for a candlelight picnic with a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower as their backdrop. One thing leads to another and the candlelight date turns into sex on the roof.

Emily’s night with Gabriel ends up inspiring the campaign for the shampoo brand as Emily pitches the idea of using living in the gray area as their theme. After the pitch. Sylvie says she’s surprised that Emily is embracing the grey area as Americans aren’t used to ambiguity, Emily says she’s trying but we can see she’s clearly struggling with her current situation. 

That struggle only intensifies when Emily returns home and Camille and Sofia tell her about their apartment search leading to nowhere. Annoyed with the fact that Camille doesn’t seem to have any urge to find a place of her own, Emily rushes to see the landlady to tell her that three people are living in Gabriel’s apartment which is against their lease. 

Laurent’s club preview is a hit but comes with a few surprises

After putting a lot of effort into things, the vision of bringing the beach to the club comes together better than anyone expected and Laurent’s club preview turns into one of the biggest events of the season, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some surprises along the way to keep things interesting. 

The first big surprise comes when Julien shows up and warns Sylvie that Louis is planning to retaliate against her and is looking for some dirt he can use which prompts him to quit. He then brings a little surprise in the form of Grégory Elliott Duprée, who arrives to show off his new collection of - ahem - penis pants which was inspired by Louis and the concept that men can’t keep it in their pants. This was the very fashion line that JVMA tried to shut down earlier in the episode, and Julien decides to bring them to the club knowing the photographs will be all over the papers and make Louis furious. 

Of course, you also can’t have a club opening without some music and we get treated to a performance by Mindy and the band singing “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” As Luc observes that Mindy and Benoit are such a cute couple, the pair almost end their performance with a kiss, and it’s a good thing for Mindy that they did not as Nicolas surprises her at the party after she gets off stage. 

He tells her that he has informed the board he cannot work for JVMA as long as his father remains in charge and that to his surprise they want Louis to step down so that Nicolas can take over. 

As our episode ends, Gabriel arrives and Emily finally comes clean that she’s not made to live in the grey area, telling him that their rooftop sex was a one-time thing. She needs boundaries and order, which is why she informs him of her decision to tell the landlady about there being three people in his apartment. Turns out, he did the same which should have been good news but this is Emily in Paris. 

In telling the landlady about there being three people in the apartment, she informed Camille of a vacant apartment between Emily and Gabriel’s apartments and they’ve taken it… much to the disappointment of Sofia as well, who tells Emily she isn’t surprised at all that Camille didn’t want to move away from Gabriel. Its clear Sofia is starting to feel like the third wheel in her own relationship and we have a feeling Emily might soon be feeling the same – not that she’s not already questioning things.

Emily in Paris season 4 part 1 is streaming now on Netflix!