We asked the Emily In Paris cast about this season's most controversial moment.

This article contains no major plot spoilers for Emily In Paris Season 5.

Whimsical adventures, impeccable fashion and all the wrong romantic decisions: Emily In Paris is back with another glorious, cringe-filled season that is sure to delight fans.

Season 5 of the Netflix hit picks up with Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) in Rome — au revoir for now, Paris — where she is establishing the Italian stomping ground for marketing firm Agence Grateau. She's also settling in to her new romance with yet another work acquaintance, Marcello Muratori (Eugenio Franceschini). 

As for Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), he's a thing of the past this season with Darren Star telling Mamamia it was time to step outside the iconic love triangle that has been the driving force of Emily In Paris for four seasons. To give the audience time to miss him, and give the character space to grow.

"Stepping back from that gave this season a lot of new energy, and it doesn't mean we've lost Gabriel as a character, but it pushed Emily in a different direction. For me, it re-energised the series," Star told us.

As a result, Gabriel is just about the only main character who remains in Paris as we make our way to Italy at the top of the season. 

While Emily thought she'd be in Rome on her own, she finds herself joined by almost her entire professional team, including Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu), Luc (Bruno Gouery) and Julian (Samuel Arnold). She's also joined at points by her best friend Mindy (Ashley Park) and Alfie (Lucien Laviscount). 

It's the latter that became the biggest talking point of the season, before it had even dropped.

The internet was sent into a wild frenzy when the trailer revealed romance was on the cards for Mindy and Alfie in Season 5. Above all the noise, fans had one resounding opinion: Mindy just broke the girl code. 

Image: Netflix.

Now, "the girl code" is an arbitrary concept beholden to a list of ever-changing rules and offences. But one that remains constant amongst those who shout about it, is that it goes against the girl code to kiss or date or even romantically entertain your friend's ex. Lest you be given the terrifying label of "not being a girls' girl."

When it comes to Emily In Paris, the relationship between Mindy and Emily is actually the real love story propelling us forward.

Their friendship is built on trust, mutual respect, and genuine connection free from competitive feuding or petty jealousies. The idea of that very wonderful portrayal of a female friendship imploding over a man was simply too much for fans to handle. 

So, when I had the chance to speak with Collins and Park about this central storyline they share this season, I had to get their take on the fandom's grave concerns.

"There's a scene where Mindy asks Emily, like, 'you're cool [with Alfie], you guys are all OK, right?' And it's like, Emily genuinely is okay with him," Lily told us. "At this point, Alfie is less of an ex and more of a co-worker, friend. He's not an immediate ex, and they have a respect for each other in the workplace now, and Emily's like, cool, they're cool.

"And so, I think it's all about the communication. No spoilers, but the communication between Mindy and Emily is what ultimately is the most hurtful, not what happens," she continued.

"And so, I think everyone's going to have different boundaries in their relationships with their friends, but I think what's key is making sure that you speak with honesty, with truth, with empathy, with love and the communication [stays open]."

Image: Netflix.

As for Park, she spoke about the impending fallout.

"I think that, as both of these girls in particular have been having different kinds of identity crises as we've seen across five seasons, the one thing that has been steadfast is that they're each other's safe place and they're each other's kind of home. And I think that it shakes them to the core when they're not able to be that for each other," Park said of Mindy and Emily's dynamic throughout this storyline.

She also took the opportunity to remind fans to allow space for these characters to mess up. To be human.

"You know what I'll say in standby is that, I think what's most realistic and genuine is not being perfect, right? It's something that we've talked about that we, as women and also in terms of female friendships, like to have that pressure of being perfect or else it's not a good thing and not a great thing," she said.

"[That pressure] is not great. So I think that it's really good to bring that kind of realistic texture of like overcoming something together, when you felt like you had to be apart. I'm really proud of [that]." 

Now, this author is a huge fan of unlikeable female characters (perhaps because I am one). If anything, we need more complex women on our screens.

Women make mistakes! Female friendships can continue to grow and evolve as they face obstacles! We don't have to rip them to shreds or write think pieces about how much we hate them for being slightly more realistic (looking at you, every single author who has ripped Carrie Bradshaw to shreds)! 

That being said, my personal feeling about this story arc for these two women, was that I didn't expect this route — and I'm not sure the creative team always handled the subject matter in a way I truly enjoyed as a long-time fan.

If you've already binge-watched, you'll likely know exactly what I mean. You can check out The Spill's Watch Party podcast for my unfiltered and spoiler-filled thoughts.

But I'm happy to report Emily In Paris has managed to recapture the magic of Emily and Mindy's friendship — even if they took us on a bumpy journey this time around. And despite it all, I'm now rooting for Alfie and Mindy to be the series end-game.

I'm just hopeful we can look at creating complex layers for these female characters that don't involve love triangles next season.

Feature Image: Netflix.