Emily in Paris Season 5 Episode 2 recap: Emily’s Italian dream starts to crack under pressure

Emily in Paris Season 5 dropped on Netflix on December 18, 2025. Emily is back at it, juggling her life between Paris and Rome. Episode 2, 'Got to Be Real,' throws her into the chaos of Rome as she runs Agence Grateau’s new office.

This Episode centers on Emily majorly botching a fashion situation, and spiraling into an existential crisis about what’s real, what’s fake, and whether she actually got her life together or just pretending. Meanwhile, Mindy, her ride-or-die, gets into a cocktail-garnishing stunt that’s as extra as you would expect from this show.

Emily is drowning in work, schmoozing fancy clients and getting all flustered over her Italian boyfriend, Marcello Muratori. You can see her brain short-circuiting while she tries to keep her career and her love life from going downhill. And while she is out here getting grilled by her boss and romancing Marcello, the rest of the crew isn’t exactly living their best lives.

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Emily in Paris Season 5 Episode 2 recap: Got to Be Real

In Emily in Paris Season 5 Episode 2, Emily and the Agence Grateau crew are knee-deep in their Italian adventure, juggling all the usual chaos: Big dreams, love, and, of course, everyone questioning what’s really “authentic” anyway.

So, we begin with Emily, Julien, and Luc meeting up with Bianca Bavazza. They are hashing out the final details for a huge Bavazza espresso martini launch, and everyone is hyped. They need this event to pop. It is their shot to show Rome that Agence Grateau isn’t just a Parisian side hustle.

Meanwhile, Mindy is set to sing at the launch, which makes the campaign feel way more personal for Emily. Fast forward a bit, and Mindy lands in Italy, and there is a big, happy reunion with Emily. But nothing is ever smooth for long. Back in Paris, Alfie texts Mindy to grab lunch, completely clueless that she has already flown off to Rome. The text seems harmless, but it’s just teeing up some good old-fashioned drama. Mindy and Alfie are clearly getting closer, but Emily is unaware of that.

Emily has a big-deal meeting lined up with Antoine and the Muratoris in Emily in Paris Season 5 Episode 2. Things start rolling, and Sylvie drops Giancarlo’s name as the perfect director for the Muratori ad film. Antonia Muratori jumps right on board. Meanwhile, Marcello’s face looks like ‘wait, what?!’ when he realizes that Emily talked Antonia into launching a social media account for their old-school cashmere brand.

Antoine suddenly finds himself invited to hang around Solitano way longer than planned. He rings up Alfie to tag in, making sure their work-life boundaries are just a myth at this point in Emily in Paris Season 5.

Back at the office, Julien hears from Genevieve that Alfie and Mindy were spotted together. He tries to tip off Luc, but gets derailed when Gianna shows up, announcing herself as Agence Grateau’s new consultant. This is news to Emily, who actually runs the Rome office, but apparently nobody thought to loop her in. Sylvie brushes off Emily’s protests, insisting Gianna’s industry connections, including ties to Fendi, are too valuable to pass up.

Later that night, Marcello and Emily drag Mindy out for dinner, only for the whole vibe to get torpedoed when Marcello’s ex, Lucia, shows up. Lucia corners Emily and drops a classic ex warning: “Don’t trust Marcello.” Emily is now rattled. The next morning, she shares this with Mindy, who reminds her that she is friends with her exes, too. This helps put the brakes on Emily’s panic, at least for now.

Emily’s nerves finally settle as she grabs her grandma’s old Fendi bag, marching into a big-deal meeting with the actual Fendi folks. But things go south. The top exec glances at her purse and calls her out for carrying a fake. He doesn’t even try to hide his disinterest in her pitch, just gives her a limp thumbs-up and moves on. The damage is done.

Later, in Emily in Paris Season 5 Episode 2, Sylvie tells the team that she is not mad, just disappointed, and lets everyone know they blew it. But for Emily, it is not just about losing the account. She is spiraling, second-guessing herself, wondering if anything about her is legit, not just the bag. That evening, she drags herself to Bavazza’s espresso martini launch with Mindy.

The lavish occasion presents a massive martini glass that is to be a performance prop as well, but Mindy does not want to dive into it, thus causing a last-minute crisis. Emily seeks Gianna's assistance while Sylvie is having a heated argument with Laurent on the phone. Emily in Paris, Season 5, Episode 2, reveals the widening rifts in their long-distance marriage.

Next day, another Bavazza bash. Emily tries to patch things up with Sylvie with apologies and awkwardness about the Fendi fiasco. But then she spots Marcello getting close to some woman named Celia. Now she has trust issues on top of everything else. Meanwhile, Sylvie plays matchmaker, introducing Giancarlo to Marcello to seal some business deal, but personal drama is still bubbling right below the surface.

In Emily in Paris Season 5 Episode 2, Mindy shows up, and as she is about to perform, who does she spot in the crowd? Alfie. She pulls it together, nails her set, but afterward, there’s an awkward reunion with Alfie, and just as things get interesting, Emily strolls over, blissfully clueless about the Mindy-Alfie situation.

Suddenly, Mindy gets hit with an offer: A spot on some Italian celebrity dance show, Bailando! Bailando! Bailando! She heads off to change, and Julien swoops in, trying to warn her about Alfie.

Meanwhile, Marcello introduces Celia as his “childhood friend.” Emily pretends she is cool with it, but she can’t shake off that weird feeling. Out on the sand, Sylvie and Giancarlo sneak off for a little alone time, but get totally busted when Laurent shows up out of nowhere. Next thing you know, the two men get into a fight, and Sylvie bolts off in a speedboat, looking totally rattled.

So, later that night, Gianna drops a bomb on Emily. Apparently, Marcello has a “legendary womanizer” rep back in Italy. Emily leaves the party, totally overwhelmed. Marcello chases after her, swearing up and down he would never mess with her heart. And that’s when Emily just cracks. She says how life has gone completely off-script.

Then comes an honest moment when she compares her trust issues with Marcello to her grandma’s knockoff Fendi bag. She is terrified of caring about something fake. Marcello, to his credit, just listens and actually gets it. Then he asks her out on a real date.

The next morning, Marcello is waiting for her downstairs. He takes her on a super cliché but adorable bike ride through Rome. At one point, he even offers to buy her an actual Fendi bag, but Emily is not having it. Eventually, Marcello confesses how he feels. Emily finally lets herself fall a bit and kisses him. Emily in Paris Season 5 Episode 2 ends on a ‘maybe it will work, maybe it will crash’ vibe.

By the end of Emily in Paris Season 5 Episode 2, Emily is having an identity crisis, Mindy and Alfie are barely holding it together, Sylvie’s marriage is in shambles, and Emily is leaping back into romance.