🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐
By the Emily in Paris Season 3 finale, everything seems to be on track for two of the rom-com’s core young couples. Emily (Lily Collins) and Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) have rebounded after a rocky start to the season. Camille (Camille Razat) and Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) are engaged and celebrating their love with their nearest and dearest at the former’s posh family château. Emily and Gabriel may still be ignoring their longtime simmering feelings for one another — but everyone is valiantly ignoring that elephant in the room for the greater romantic good.
And then Camille blows everything up. In the middle of her impromptu vows to Gabriel, Camille reveals she can’t marry him because he and Emily have been in love since they first met. Ouch. Onlooker Alfie exits the chapel near tears, telling Emily he’s “no one’s second choice” — and definitely not “her man.” In fact, he says, “I don’t think I ever really was [your man].”
It’s a heartbreaking season ending for Alfie ahead of an already confirmed Season 4. But the man who portrays the well-suited banker, British actor Laviscount, and Emily in Paris creator Darren Star still sound cautiously hopeful about Alfie’s future.
“It’s a big rupture. Emily has already had some missteps with him. He’s probably very mistrustful of her and their relationship,” Star tells Tudum. “But Alfie still has a job in Paris.”
Alfie does spend Season 3 building out his life in Paris. He joins Antoine’s (William Abadie) high-end company Maison Lavaux as its chief financial officer, giving Alfie a direct connection to Antoine and his wife, Catherine (Charley Fouquet). Alfie becomes their expert problem solver, an invaluable skill.
“The respect is there and the vision’s there. Antoine has these big ideas and is no-holds-barred with what he does,” Laviscount tells Tudum. “From their first meeting … Alfie and Antoine have this mutual ground that’s written in luxury.”
Then there’s the fact that Alfie becomes closer with members of Emily’s social circle. Camille and Gabriel keep Alfie’s CFO job secret until he’s ready to tell his girlfriend. “I just want Gabriel and Alfie to be friends. They have a great dynamic,” Bravo, who plays Gabriel, tells Tudum. At the start of the season finale, it’s Alfie who informs Mindy that her new boyfriend Nicolas de Léon (Paul Forman) undermined Emily in the previous episode; Mindy trusts Alfie’s information without question.
Each Season 3 moment that deepens Alfie’s investment in Emily only makes his final scene more devastating. Desperate to know how Season 3 ended for his character, Laviscount read the Episode 10 script “back to front,” starting with Alfie and Emily’s breakup. Still, he waited for in-the-moment inspiration during filming.
“I just don’t think you can prepare for that,” Laviscount says. “The beautiful thing is dancing with Lily and seeing what comes off the page and how it feels.”
The feeling for viewers is likely shock — or the assumption every good feeling Alfie’s ever had for Emily has evaporated. Laviscount isn’t so sure. “I don’t think love ever leaves anyone. To be invested with anyone, I think you fall in love and you don’t fall out of love,” he says. “Your love just changes.”
While any embers Alfie might still have burning for Emily could send him running for London, Star reiterates his career is one powerful reason to remain in Paris. “I love Alfie. I love Lucien. So I think [that’s] all I can say for right now,” Star demures. Plus, there are other women in the City of Love — right?
“Yes, exactly,” he says.
Additional reporting by Ruth Kinane.
