Emily in Paris Video: Stars Talk Emily’s Gabriel vs. Alfie Choice (Which Left One Cast Member ‘Kind Of Pissed’)

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Emily in Paris Season 4, Part 1. Proceed at your own risk!

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The heart wants what the heart wants, and Emily in Paris’ heart wants a handsome Frenchman.

Our titular gal was as torn as ever between her ex-boyfriend Alfie and her would-be love Gabriel as the Netflix comedy returned for Season 4. Even though he broke up with her, Emily still found herself being drawn to Alfie, who started to reconsider their split after learning from Cami that Emily and Gabriel were not a couple. But Emily also couldn’t deny her connection to Gabriel, who confessed that his feelings for her haven’t changed.

“I really thought that I could move on from them, but they both mean so much to me for different reasons,” Emily bemoaned to her friend Mindy.

During a masquerade party in Episode 3, Emily finally made her choice between the two men and left the event with Gabriel after they shared a romantic slow dance.

“Emily is with no one at this point, and I think she felt like, in a way, that the way was clear for [her] and Gabriel,” showrunner Darren Star tells TVLine of Emily’s pick. “I think the masquerade allows them, ironically, to drop their masks with each other, even though they’re wearing a mask. It allows them just a moment, one moment that we haven’t seen in the series for so long, just for the two of them to sort of, like, disappear and come together. We have that amazing moment while they’re dancing, where the world around them just disappears, symbolizing how they finally find their way back to each other at that masquerade ball.”

Leading lady Lily Collins believes Gabriel is the right guy for her character at this time because “there’s more cards on the table, there’s been more honesty and more communication than ever,” the actress says. “Emily’s starting to, I think, really lean into thinking less and feeling more, and making a choice and being OK with there being consequences as opposed to trying to plan out every scenario and exit strategy. So I enjoyed playing her this year, being a bit more decisive and then vulnerable at the same time.”

Adds Lucas Bravo, who plays Gabriel: “Their connection is beyond what’s reasonable or what’s intellectual. It’s chemical from the second Gabriel opened the door. So sometimes you can’t fight what’s organic.”

After three seasons of will-they-or-won’t-they sexual tension from the moment that aforementioned door swung open in the series premiere, playing Emily and Gabriel in an actual relationship has been a welcome change of pace for both Bravo and Collins.

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“It felt really nice, because it takes us, like, four to five months to shoot the show, and so when you’re in character for that long in a heartbreak, at the end of the season, you feel like you’ve been through a heartbreak,” Bravo shares. “So it felt nice to reconnect to that proactive, energetic, positive side of their relationship.”

Collins admits that she was constantly asking Star, “‘When are they gonna make a choice? What’s gonna happen? How’s it gonna happen?'” she says. With Emily and Gabriel now officially a couple, at long last, “what I like is that it’s not like the typical relationship, because there’s still this kind of Romeo and Juliet of it all, where they can be, but they can’t be because of logistics,” like his ex-fiancée Camille’s pregnancy and her new love, Sophia.

“There’s a lot of players at play, and so it makes it tricky, but it makes it comical, it makes it romantic, and it makes it an ongoing love triangle of sorts,” Collins continues, “because she does still have feelings in existence for Alfie, but she’s making the choice to be with Gabriel. So there’s just a lot of things happening at one time. But it was nice to play them in a new way, being able to actually have conversations that they haven’t had before, [which] was important.”

As for Alfie, he accidentally kissed and confessed to the wrong woman (who was sporting the same elaborate masquerade costume as Emily) that he never should have let Emily go, and then the poor fella saw Emily leave the party with Gabriel. Although Alfie isn’t seen in the next two episodes, he will be back in the second half of Season 4 (premiering Thursday, Sept. 12), and his portrayer Lucien Laviscount assures us that Alfie is “on the mend.”

“I think when you lead with your heart, you lead with your head, I think it leaves space for a little bit of confusion here and there,” Laviscount says about Emily’s decision. “But did she make the right choice? I think she made the choice that was right for her at the time.”

But his co-star Ashley Park (aka Mindy) wasn’t as on board with Emily’s pick: “I was actually kind of pissed when I saw that,” the actress cuts in with a laugh. “I’m so Team Whatever Feels Right For the Moment, but… [Alfie] could have really just left her high and dry, and I just think that was a quick turnaround. For me, watching it as a viewer, I was like, ‘Really?'”

Press PLAY above to watch TVLine’s interview with the Emily in Paris cast, then hit the comments with your thoughts on Emily’s choice!

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