In the second episode of the new season, professional setbacks and personal doubts converge on Emily Cooper, testing her new life in Rome.
The “Italian dream” Emily Cooper envisioned is already showing its first major cracks. Episode 2 of Emily in Paris Season 5, titled “Got to Be Real,” finds Lily Collins‘s character confronting a humiliating professional failure and spiraling doubts about her new romance, all while her friends and colleagues navigate their own mounting pressures in Rome. The episode, now streaming on Netflix, centers on the theme of authenticity as Emily grapples with what—and who—is real in her life.
A High-Stakes Meeting Goes Awry
The core professional crisis of the episode revolves around a pivotal meeting with the luxury fashion house Fendi. Eager to impress and secure the brand as a client for Agence Grateau’s Rome office, Emily brings a secret weapon: her grandmother’s cherished 1997 Fendi bag, which she has saved for a special occasion.
The meeting, held at the iconic Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (also known as the “Square Colosseum”), which serves as Fendi’s headquarters, quickly turns disastrous. The team arrives unprepared, offering weak ideas that fail to resonate. The situation worsens when the Fendi executive coolly points out that Emily’s sentimental handbag is a counterfeit. Emily’s attempt to spin the fake bag into a campaign concept about “real fakes” falls flat, leaving the team to walk away empty-handed.
“I thought I had something special, but it wasn’t real,” Emily laments later, drawing a direct line between the accessory and her growing personal anxieties.
The failure hits Emily hard, symbolizing a fear that the life she is building in Italy might be as inauthentic as the bag. Her boss, Sylvie, expresses deep disappointment in the team, intensifying the pressure on Emily to prove herself as the head of the new office.
Doubts Surface About Marcello
Parallel to her work troubles, Emily’s fledgling romance with Italian heir Marcello Muratori faces early tests. During a dinner out with Marcello and Mindy, they run into one of Marcello’s ex-girlfriends, Lucia. Lucia privately warns Emily not to trust him, leaving Emily unsettled. Although Mindy tries to calm her friend by noting Emily is also friends with her exes, the seed of doubt is planted.
This doubt grows at the lavish launch party for the Bavazza espresso martini, held at the La Posta Vecchia Hotel. Emily notices Marcello being physically affectionate with another woman, Celia, whom he introduces as a childhood friend. Later, the mysterious new consultant Gianna—who prefers the title Princess Jane—explicitly tells Emily that Marcello has a reputation in Italy as a “player” who is always seen with “leggy beauties”.
Overwhelmed, Emily leaves the party. Marcello follows her, assuring her his feelings are genuine and asking her on a proper date. In an emotional moment, Emily connects her professional and personal fears:
She tells Marcello that she fears he might be fake, too, just like her grandmother’s old bag, and that she is getting emotionally invested despite her doubts.
The next morning, Marcello takes Emily on a Vespa ride through Rome and offers to buy her a real Fendi bag to replace the fake one. She refuses the gift, but when he confesses his feelings, she kisses him, choosing—for the moment—to believe in their connection.
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Office Politics and Romantic Entanglements
Beyond Emily’s central storyline, Episode 2 sets several other subplots in motion. Sylvie faces strain in her long-distance marriage to Laurent. While she is distracted by a flirtation with director Giancarlo, Laurent grows suspicious. Their conflict erupts publicly at the Bavazza party when Laurent unexpectedly arrives and fights with Giancarlo on the beach, leading a furious Sylvie to speed away in a boat.
The episode also introduces Princess Jane, played by Minnie Driver, as a disruptive force. She arrives at the Rome office declaring herself the new “Senior Executive of Brand Relationships,” a move that sidelines Emily and is endorsed by Sylvie for Jane’s high-end connections.
Meanwhile, the secret spark between Mindy and Alfie continues to grow. Unaware Mindy has left for Rome, Alfie texts her to meet up in Paris. He later arrives in Italy for work and is in the audience for Mindy’s performance at the launch party. Their reunion is tense, and after her successful performance, Mindy is recruited for the Italian celebrity dance competition show Bailando! Bailando! Bailando!. Julien attempts to warn Mindy about getting involved with Alfie, hinting that office gossip is already spreading.
The Quest for What’s Real
By the end of Episode 2, the foundations of Emily’s Roman adventure are visibly shaking. A major client opportunity has been lost due to a deeply personal embarrassment, her authority in the new office is being undermined, and the man she’s falling for comes with a cloud of warnings. The episode uses the counterfeit Fendi bag as a central metaphor for Emily’s crisis of confidence, questioning whether the career, the romance, and the new life she is pursuing are authentically hers or just a convincing facade.
As the characters navigate glamorous locations like the Mercati di Traiano and the Aventine Keyhole, the drama underscores that even the most picturesque dream can start to fracture under the weight of reality.
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