Emily in Paris – Season 4 Episode 4 “The Grey Area” Recap & Review

The Grey Area

Episode 4 of Emily in Paris season 4 starts with Emily and Gabriel trying to look for a place to hook up. Since Camille and Sofia are living with Gabriel, they try to use Emily’s apartment. However, they find that Mindy is moping in the apartment after Nicolas refused to interact with her after the article about her dad. Emily asks Gabriel for a rain check and comforts Mindy.

Mindy talks to Emily about how Nicolas and his family were trying to save Louis’ reputation after the article. The next morning, the landlady shows up at Gabriel’s apartment and warns Camille about illegally housing 3 people in one apartment. Camille diffuses the situation somehow. Meanwhile, Sylvie learns that Louis has pulled out of financing the yacht club.

Laurent states that the opening of the club, which was slated to happen in a few days, needed to be cancelled. He tells Sylvie that he was there to support her in everything she does because they were spouses.

At work, Emily and Luc notice how Sylvie is pissed that the opening was cancelled. In her cabin, Sylvie tries to find a solution to her problem and reaches out to her mother for help. At the same time, Luc realised that a lot of their Parisian clients were backing out of working with them because of the article.

Emily tells him that they still had one meeting that day. During the meeting, the client told Emily and the team that they were trying to market shampoo for Grey hair. The team is not able to meet the client’s expectations with their ideas. Sylvie asks the client to give them a few days.

Sylvie’s mother shows up at the office and Emily is shocked to learn about the legendary woman. During their lunch, Sylvie tells her mother all about the mess she was in due to the article. She asks for her mother to help her one more time and the woman agrees to let Sylvie and Laurent use her place for the opening party of their club.

Meanwhile, Designer Gregory Dupree shows up at the JVMA office with his new menswear designs. He states that Louis’ scandal inspired him to work on the pieces where the men had phallic shapes on the outside of their pant crotch.

He states that since men like Louis could not “keep it in their pants”, they might as well wear it as an accessory. Julien is shocked by the comment while Nicolas is offended. He refuses to market the collection to the designer which makes the designer furious.

Nicolas asks Julien to meet Louis to chat about Sylvie. Sylvie shows up at the office after her lunch with her mother and asks Emily to visit the nightclub where they are going to host their opening party. Emily suggests that they transform the nightclub into an indoor beach and the team gets working.

When Emily arrives at Gabriel’s restaurant that night, she finds him there with Sofia and Camille. The two couples share an awkward interaction but Gabriel mentions that he had hired a pastry chef with Marianne’s advice. The three women are impressed with the deserts. Gabriel and Camille share a memory of the dessert in French while making Sofia and Emily feel left out.

Gabriel notices Emily’s awkward reaction to Camille and Sofia’s presence and asks her to meet him in the kitchen in private. He asks her to get ready for their getaway. An hour later, Gabriel picks up Emily from her apartment and takes her to the building rooftop where he had prepared a candle-light sleepover for them.

The two make love on the open rooftop and Emily goes back to her apartment the next morning. Mindy is shocked to learn about Emily’s new sex adventure and the latter claims that she was trying to live in this new adventurous grey area in her romantic life.

At work, Emily pitches the grey area campaign for the shampoo brand and the idea is a hit with the client. She explains how when people embrace their adventurous side and their vulnerability, they will be open to embracing their grey hair. Sylvie also is happy about the pitch and praises Emily for the change in her perspective over the years.

On the night of the opening party, Julien shows up to meet Sylvie and tells her that he had quit his job at JVMA after Louis tried to get him to snitch on Sylvie. Sylvie is happy about Julien’s loyalty to her and takes him back in. Mindy calls Nicolas to invite him to the opening party as she is performing there with her band. Nicolas tells Mindy that he could not show up there as it could hamper his loyalty towards his father.

Mindy states that she was asking Nicolas to be there for her as her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Emily gets home from work to get dressed for the party when she runs into Camille and Sofia. She learns that Sofia is tired of apartment hunting because Camille does not like any of the listings.

Camille shared that she wanted to live in Paris and would not move somewhere else. Emily loses her mind about this and makes a complaint to the landlady about Sophia illegally living in Gabriel’s apartment.

The opening party takes place in full swing and Julien asks Gregory to bring his menswear collection there. Sylvie is shocked by the idea and praises Julien for making the event popular with the media. Mindy and her bandmates perform on stage.

Luc points out that the chemistry between Mindy and Benoît is palpable which makes Emily think about her feelings for him. Sylvie’s mother tells Sylvie and Luc that she is willing to let him rent her club instead of a share of the profit.

Nicolas shows up after Mindy’s performance and tells her that he is going to take over his father’s business. He adds that Louis was being let go and the board was going to have him take over the company.

In the meantime, Mindy is contemplating about her feelings for Nicolas and Benoît. She kisses Nicolas at the party and Benoît sees them and feels heartbroken. Gabriel shows up to the party and Emily talks to him about their relationship. She shares that she was not okay with Camille living with him and reveals that she had snitched and told the landlady about it.

Gabriel tells Emily that he also was tired of this and has also spoken to the landlady. Gabriel then goes to get them some drinks when Camille shows up and tells Emily that she is going to move into the apartment beside Gabriel. Sofia tells Emily that Camille and Gabriel will always be in each other’s lives because she has his baby in her womb as the episode ends.

The Episode Review

This episode did not have anything significant happening other than Emily getting upset about their living arrangement. While it is right for Gabriel to be attached to Camille because she is pregnant with his child, it is not right for him to drag Emily into his mess.

Emily has spent quite some time in Paris and should have learned how to speak in French but it is not right that Gabriel and Camille are speaking in a language that their partners do not understand while they are seated at the same table. 

With the way things have ended in this episode, there is another love triangle between Mindy, Nicolas and Benoît. I am not happy about that as I am not sure who is right for Mindy.

On the other hand, we also see that Sylvie’s mother will have some control over Laurents club. I wonder if this can cause issues in his relationship with Sylvie in the future. I am glad that Julien is back but I also wish Sylvie did not forgive him so easily after he quit his job over a minor inconvenience.