Darren Star, Lily Collins, Ashley Park, and more explain the “messier and more emotional” new season.

American marketing executive Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) has been in the City of Lights for almost a year in Season 4 of Emily in Paris, and what started out as a fun adventure is getting pretty real. Season 4 “just feels like an evolution of her character,” creator Darren Star tells Tudum. “Characters can’t stay static. I feel like she has been growing and evolving, and this season she’s more confident, but also we dig a little bit more below the surface of some of the relationships. And so they get a little messier and more emotional.”

The moody nature of this season plays out visually through the glimpses we get of Paris in the wintertime, but also on-screen via tumultuous relationship upheavals experienced by nearly all of our favorite characters. Emily and Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) work out their differences following the Season 3 wedding cliff-hanger, but then immediately break up because they know they’re not in a place to be the right kind of partner for each other. Camille (Camille Razat) runs away after breaking off her engagement with Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), and when she returns she starts (and quickly ends) a relationship with Greek artist Sofia (Melia Kreiling) — all while still pregnant with Gabriel’s child (or so she thinks).

At Agence Grateau, Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) struggles with the decision to speak out in a Me Too–inspired exposé of JVMA boss Louis de Leon (Pierre Deny). She fears the repercussions against her husband, Laurent (Arnaud Binard), who’s opening a new nightclub with JVMA funding. Julien (Samuel Arnold) leaves for a new job at JVMA (and quickly returns), and Luc (Bruno Gouery) learns that he’s been lied to for years. The JVMA situation comes between Emily’s BFF, Mindy (Ashley Park), and Mindy’s boyfriend, Nico (Paul Forman), who also happens to be Louis de Leon’s son and heir apparent.

Naturally, there are plenty of lingering questions about all the drama that played out in Emily in Paris Season 4, Part 1, so read on for answers. Head back here for more when Part 2 debuts on Sept. 12.

Images: Stephanie Branchu/Netflix

Wait, Camille’s not pregnant?!

It’s true. It turns out that her positive test was a false pregnancy brought on by stress and medication. But Camille has a lot going on in her life — a broken engagement with Gabriel, a new relationship with Sofia, a breakup with Sofia — and she’s not quick to update Gabriel and Emily on the news.

When she does, however, the repercussions will reverberate throughout the friend group. “Emily just made a decision and now this [pregnancy news] is going to completely change the trajectory of her choice,” Collins tells Tudum. “How is that going to play out with everyone? What’s the communication going to be like? How [does she] now navigate this?”

Are Emily and Gabriel officially together?

Well, they finally admitted that they love each other, though that’s complicated by the fact that he still thinks he’s going to be a father with another woman. “Gabriel enters [Season 4] with the promise of a Michelin star, being a dad, and his love for Emily because they’re both finally single and they can be together,” Bravo tells Tudum. “So it’s only hope and only a bright future ahead of him.”

But the best-laid plans can always go awry — especially when Gabriel and Emily have so rarely been on the same page. “I think there’s something about the relationship between Gabriel and Emily that was a little surface-y,” Star says. “They didn’t know each other that well. It was a little bit of a fantasy for both of them. And I think this year, it gets a little bit more real in terms of who they are and taking off the rose-colored glasses about each other.”

Are Emily and Alfie really broken up for good?

Gabriel and Camille’s breakup means Alfie and Emily aren’t on as firm footing as they thought. After Camille called out Gabriel’s feelings for Emily in the Season 3 finale, Alfie’s confidence is shaken, “which is a rare thing for him,” Laviscount tells Tudum. “I think his heart and his head [have] been in balance most of the time. Whereas I think this season, his head and his heart are in different places, and he’s figuring out how to map that out and also what his friendships really are and relationships are.”

That’s why the heartbreaking moment on center court at Roland Garros stadium — which sees Emily and Alfie reunite for an emotionally charged breakup kiss in the middle of a crowded tennis match — is so cathartic for both characters.

“I think it’s actually very indicative of the respect they have for one another,” Collins tells Tudum. “They both care about each other so much, but Alfie also has to care about himself and take himself out of something he knows isn’t right for him. And Emily hears that and really respects that. It’s so sad, but it’s also beautiful to see two people acknowledging that about themselves. It’s sad that they aren’t together, but they also still care for each other and they want the best for each other, and they’re reading the room.”

What’s the deal with the LVMA brand closet?

Mindy and Nico seemed happy together — until she realized how much his father disapproved of their relationship. Nico apologizes with a trip to the JVMA brand closet, a magical room with fashion from all of the luxury conglomerate’s brands — but, as Mindy learns, there’s a catch: According to the JVMA whisper network, women shouldn’t enter the brand closet alone. One such whisperer is Sylvie, who had previously worked with Louis and is reluctant to raise her voice about a possibly traumatic time in her past.

“It’s something that Sylvie really didn’t want to recognize, but the events of the story made it front and center in her mind and forced her to engage,” Star says.

It also forces Mindy to have a conversation with Nico about how the accusations against his father might be true. She sees a parallel between the controlling Louis and her own high-profile, image-conscious father.

“This is the first time she had to explain the pressures of what it means to come from a family with that kind of [profile],” Park tells Tudum. “She ran away from it, and it’s obviously something she doesn’t have closure with. So I think that watching someone that she is dating and loves have to deal with a father who is not proud of what he’s doing or who he is adds an extra layer [of complication]. I like that she puts him on the spot and says, ‘You better choose the right side.’ And he does. To me, the fact that he listens speaks volumes.”

Why does Sylvie go public about Louis de Leon?

There are many reasons why Sylvie hesitates before participating in a journalist’s exposé. “First of all, she thinks she’s going to jeopardize her husband’s project,” Leroy-Beaulieu tells Tudum. “She doesn’t want to do that. Also, it’s an old story that she kind of buried in her subconscious that she doesn’t want to bring up because it is obviously painful. She knows the moment she’s going to talk about it, pain is going to come back.”

The thing that brings her around, however, is a sense of responsibility to speak out on behalf of younger women who might not be in the same position of power she now holds. “Younger women know that they have to talk, and they talk, but Sylvie feels that she has a responsibility to give the example that, ‘Guys, we don’t need to cope with those things.’ That’s why she does it. She’s still kind of hesitant. When the article comes out, she has this moment where she’s like, ‘Whoa, I did it, and what about my husband?’ But he’s obviously very supportive until he says, ‘I need to go back to Saint-Tropez.’ And she’s like, ‘No, no, no. Stay here. I’m going to save your day.’ ”

Who is Sylvie’s mom?

It turns out that the woman who brought the world such a powerful marketing maven is something of an impresario herself: Sylvie’s mère Héloïse (Liliane Rovère) was a nightclub owner in the ’60s and ’70s, and offered an old, shuttered club of hers to Sylvie’s husband, Laurent, after JVMA fell out with Sylvie and pulled funding.

The character of Héloïse is based on the real-life French club pioneer Reginé, who created the world’s first discotheque. She’s played by an equally storied Paris fixture. “I love that actress,” Leroy-Beaulieu says of Rovère. “I worked with her in Call My Agent, and she’s amazing. In real life, she dated Chet Baker and people like that, so she’s totally the character too. She had that past that is wonderful.”

Why did Julien leave Agence Grateau?

Arnold tells Tudum that Julien felt underappreciated and wanted to find a new job where he could “show others that they should respect him more. He’s putting his foot down, like, ‘Hey, I am here. I exist. And if you don’t want to acknowledge that, I’m going to go where they do acknowledge it.’ But what I love about it is that they still highlight his sense of loyalty, and that comes before anything else.”

The fact that Julien doesn’t let professional issues affect his friendships is a much more American trait than a French one, Arnold says. So although Emily has frustrated him at work, she’s also rubbed off on him. “French people are very known to — if they’re offended professionally, you’re going to feel it in the personal space too. But Julien got offended professionally, and that made him change his job. That doesn’t mean that his colleagues are not his friends and that he won’t be there to help them. And there’s nothing personal about that. It’s just, ‘I need to put me first,’ basically.”

Is Luc’s girlfriend a Michelin star judge or not?

Listen, Marianne (Laurence Gormezano) was never technically lying about her job. All along, she said she worked for Michelin as a tire inspector, and all along, that was true. People believed “tire inspector” was a euphemism for a different kind of Michelin inspector — but no, she’s actually a literal tire inspector, not a wink wink, nudge nudge tire inspector. Sometimes people just hear what they want to hear! That said, she did leave out the fact that she no longer works for Michelin because she got busted for “insider dining.”

Thankfully, Marianne’s reveal as a fraud turns out to be a freeing moment for Gabriel, who’s able to stop chasing her approval. He fires his snooty pastry chef and is able to refocus on making his really good food. For Luc, however, the consequences might be bigger: That relationship might be over.

Gouery tells Tudum, “With the character of Luc, I think the writers want to always, even in this love story, give something more funny, comical, humorous. [Gormezano], who plays Marianne, she’s got a lot of fantasy, a lot of skills, very comical. I have a great time with her.” But now that Marianne has lied to Luc — a lie of omission, but a lie no less — it might be time for Luc to move on. Big decisions are looming over the rooftops of Paris for everyone.

Emily in Paris Season 4, Part 1 is now streaming on Netflix.