In June, Netflix released a bevy of Emily In Paris promotional images, including this ^^^ exhibit, that made clear that Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) was not yet down for the count. This seems incredibly soapy, given that the third-season finale ended with more Alfie humiliation when Camille halted her wedding to Gabriel and mentioned that he and Emily are still smitten with each other. Of course, Camille is pregnant with Gabriel’s child, and man, Emily does not need to be going there. Still, you know that she will do so again, and Alfie is apparently still on the scene, too.
Why on earth hasn’t Alfie fled Paris? Your guess is as good as mine, and below, he is shown presumably boxing out his angst before he tells Emily, “I just need some more time.” (Notably, as well, Emily is seen wearing the above red-and-white striped suit while Samuel Arnold’s Julian tells Emily to stop meddling everywhere. Whoa.)
In other words, Alfie must show up in that scene, so dang it, they are going to become romantically involved again. Don’t do it, Alfie!
Why, exactly, does Alfie continue to torture himself this way? Surely, the show’s writers simply use his bad judgment as a tool to enforce the show’s enduring love quadrangle, but over the seasons, some interesting theories have developed. These do not seem like actual concoctions from the writer’s room, but that makes these hypotheticals no less entertaining. Theories are part of the fun of watching TV and hashing ideas out with Internet friends, after all, so no judgment there. And Alfie in particular seemed (especially early on) to be so poorly fleshed out as a character that people couldn’t resist hoping there was more to his motives than meets the eyes.
On Reddit, a relevant theory picked up some steam, even though a user submitted it as a “joke” while wondering if Alfie was actually hired by Camille’s mother to keep Emily away from Gabriel. They were totally (probably, maybe) kidding: “That’s all I think .. and he said that I’m a SPY as a Joke.. ofc not sent by government But Camille’s mother.” To which another user responded, “It’s a bit out there.”
End of story? Not quite. In a separate thread, another user felt more strongly on this theory perhaps being true:
“Maybe I’m just skeptical of everything and everyone. But something didn’t sit right with me. Obviously we know Camille’s mom had a plan to get Emily out of the picture. At what lengths would she ensure her daughter got the guy at the end and Emily was too distracted to notice.”
These theories, of course, run with the assumption that writers on Emily In Paris want to dive deep on these characters, but really, this is not that kind of show. It’s simply a fluffy, irresistible bingewatch, and nobody ever suffers consequences onscreen, especially not Emily. With that said, a newer thread predicted that Alfie was outta there:
“IMO, Alfie is getting the hell out of Paris, as far away from Emily as possible As he should. He had just barely admitted he stayed for Emily, after a whole previous season of making very explicitly clear and maturely that he wasn’t interested in being second fiddle to some other guy. Those were his parting words too to Emily-he’s nobody’s second choice. That’s powerful and I hope he stands by it.”
And as the above trailer shows, the guy isn’t done yet. Maybe he really is James Bond? Or perhaps that would be Emily in this fourth-season still:
Emily In Paris returns on August 15.