“Emily in Paris” director breaks down twisty season 4 finale and why it 'breathed a lot of life' into show

Andrew Fleming, who is also an executive producer, talks about the major future implications of that final shocker.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Emily in Paris season 4, part 2.

Emily in Paris is now... Emily in Rome?

That's right: At least for now, Emily (Lily Collins) is living out her best Lizzie McGuire Movie fantasies in Italy's capital. The season ends with her moving to Rome to set up and run Agence Grateau's new office in the city, where she'll be working with her latest love interest, Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini).

A lot happens before that, though. Camille decides to adopt a child, and do things on her own. Sylvie's stepdaughter Genevieve (Thalia Besson) comes to stay in Paris and shake things up both at Agence Grateau and between Gabriel and Emily. Mindy and Nico break up when he destroys her and the band's chance at Eurovision, but ultimately things work out because Chinese Pop Star calls and wants Mindy to be a judge and sing her new song. Things also work out for Alfie, who by season's end, has a new girlfriend and ends up offering advice to newly Michelin-starred Gabriel, telling him to take his pride out of the equation, stop thinking and feeling, and fight to win Emily back. (Bon conseil, Alfie!)

The last we see of everyone, Gabriel is asking Mindy where in Rome Emily is, at the same time as Emily is seen happily jetting off on a Vespa with Marcello (cue: "What Dreams Are Made Of" by Hilary Duff).

Naturally, all of this has major implications for the show moving forward, so Entertainment Weekly chatted with director and executive producer Andrew Fleming to answer our burning questions about that finale, discuss how the season got "more adult, more complicated," and what it all means for the series' future.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How long did you guys consider this idea of having Emily out of Paris, and how did it develop over time?

ANDREW FLEMING: Well, we knew that there were places where we wanted to go in France. We wanted to go to the Alps, we wanted to go to the Côte d'Azur and Provence and Champagne, where Camille's family is. But Darren [Star, series creator] and I have been talking about this since the beginning, that Rome would be the next logical place just because it's sort of the yin to Paris' yang, it's the romantic city in Europe that isn't Paris. I mean, there are a lot of romantic cities in Europe, but it's the other big thing. And also Sylvie's character lived in Italy and speaks Italian and so does Luc (Bruno Gouery). So there was this organic way to kind of enter the culture that way.

Related: Emily in Paris showrunner answers burning questions about major season 4 plot twists — and that lube scene

Logistically, what was it like to have the production switch over to being in Rome when Paris has been home base for so long?

We finished Paris, and then the rest of the shoot was in Rome, which was sort of good. We really had to get out of Paris because the Olympics were ramping up and it was becoming more and more difficult to shoot there. Well, not difficult, but limited — there were places we couldn't shoot. And in fact, I think we were the last of any form of production to shoot there before the Olympics. We were the last ones.

The final two episodes especially utilize editing and different shooting techniques to really keep viewers on their toes. Why was that important to you?

There was a fair amount of cutting back and forth between Rome and Paris, and there's one sequence in episode 9 with the two parties — one going on in Paris, one going on in Rome. On the page, it was really just a couple of lines, but I really wanted to make it kind of spectacular. I love the idea of two different parties in different cities, but parallel things are happening to two characters. And I was really happy with the way that sequence came out. It was a lot of work. And then the finale, the very, very last couple of scenes are mostly in Rome, but there's this kind of trompe l'oeil — trick of the eye — where you're in between Paris and Rome for a moment there without giving anything away. Here's this sequence that takes place in Rome with Emily and Marcello, but we catch glimpses of what's happening with Gabriel, and that was fun. It was like a little bit of a trickery going on in terms of technique. I really like that this show, for a half-hour comedy, we get to be very cinematic. I get to play with the camera and technique and style. So it's a lot of fun for me. It's a challenge, but it's fun.

Related: Emily in Paris season 4 preview teases Emily's major choice between Gabriel and Alfie

For you as director, what was the heart of the final episodes that you were trying to get at?

I think what was really interesting about the script for episodes 9 and 10 was that they weren't typical Emily episodes. That there was this kind of languor, a little bit of maturity. When she gets to Rome, it isn't as hyperactive as it is in Paris. She kind of slows down, she takes a breath. There's a scene on the Spanish steps, and she just relaxes and says, I need to do this. I need to get off the treadmill of work events, sleep, work events, sleep, in Paris. In Rome, she just gets to be a tourist and she starts thinking about her life outside of work. And that's really what the season, especially the end of the season, is really about, her appreciating her life and not necessarily making work everything.

Let's talk about Mindy. Were you disappointed not to do Eurovision, and will this mean we get to see Chinese Pop Star?

It's possible — we're set up for it. I was wondering how we were going to do [Eurovision], and we kept wondering about that. And then I got distracted by this other thing, which was doing a musical number at Crazy Horse, and that was my musical number quotient for the end of this season. [Laughs.] And that was a lot of fun. That was very challenging. It was a huge endeavor. We're working with all the people from Crazy Horse, who were so great and so collaborative and creative, but it was complicated because we used their choreographer, we used our choreographer, we used their lighting designer, we used our lighting designer, and we used their dancers. And so it took a long time, but I love the way it came out. And there's the jazzy version of [Britney Spears'] "Oops!...I Did It Again."

In the course of the final episodes, Gabriel fights with Emily in French, and laments the fact they always used her language in their relationship and she never tried to meet him halfway. So at the end, when Emily calls Gabriel to congratulate him on the Michelin star, she does it in French. Are we to interpret that as her way of saying she's not really done with Gabriel? Is that how he's interpreting it?

I think when he said that thing in French to Genevieve about how there was a communication problem in the relationship, and maybe it was that she never really tried to speak his language, I think when he said that, when Emily heard it in translation, it really hit home. And she has been picking up the language and she's getting better at it. And I think it was an admission that he was probably right about that. I think that's what that means. As to where it goes in terms of their relationship in the future, I don't think anybody knows. I know that it's not over between them because they have to work together and they're friends and they're emotionally entangled. But for the moment, she's with Marcello.

Related: Emily in Paris star Lucas Bravo says the series should end in a 'threesome,' 'a throuple'

And what about Alfie? Given that he has a girlfriend and really seems to have moved on and is giving advice to Gabriel, can we consider his part in the love triangle to be fini?

Well, I don't think Emily's love life has been a triangle for a long time. I think it's more like a truncated icosahedron. It's got a lot of angles, and I know that one thing for sure, mathematically, her personal life will only get more complicated. But I love the character Alfie and I love [actor] Lucien Laviscount, and... I certainly hope his story is not over. I mean, we have great designs for him.

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To that end, can you share any plans for season 5? Is there any news to share on that front?

Well, I have no news to share. Nobody does. I think we feel hopeful that there'll be more. I mean, it's really in Netflix's hand at the moment. I certainly hope so.

More importantly, should we change the name to Emily in Rome?

[Laughs.] Well, she's in Rome for the present. I don't think we're never going back to Paris, but for the present future, she's in Rome.

When you look back on the season, what aspect are you most proud of?

I am really pleased with how this season, the show grew up and I think Emily grew up. She matured and the season got more adult and more complicated and a little darker. I've been using this term, Chiaroscuro, an Italian term for light and dark. And in fact, because we shot in Paris in the winter, the show was darker and we changed DPs to this guy, Seamus Tierney, and he uses more contrast. So there was literally more shadow in this season. It has a different texture to it, and that really reflected what was going on with her, that she's kind of growing up and taking Gabriel seriously, taking her life more seriously, and not being so rash and youthfully, how shall I say, spontaneous. She's maturing as a character and the show is, too. I mean, she's still Emily, she's going to make a few blunders, but we had conversations with Lily about that, about how it was just time for [Emily] to grow up a little bit.

Related: Emily in Paris showrunner breaks down season 3 twists and Eurovision hopes for season 4

A lot happens in part 2 that's going to get tongues wagging, I think. What aspect are you most curious to see fans react to?

I think I'm really curious to see what people think about Rome, because for us, it felt like this breath of fresh air. It was sort of putting wind in our sails for the crew who came here. It was exciting just to have this new architecture and this new color palette and this new culture. It just sort of breathed a lot of life into the show. And I think at its core, the DNA of the show is this idea, and it's a fantasy, but it's also just this kind of human hope, which is that I could always pick up and go to a new place and start a new job and have a new life. I think everybody thinks that or holds onto that on some level, and Emily embodies that, and her coming to Rome and then basically being forced into creating a new life for herself here — it's a fun way to put a new spin on that.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Emily in Paris season 4, parts 1 and 2 are now streaming on Netflix.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.