Around the Table with the cast and creator of Emily in Paris: 'By the end of season 2, she's dizzy'

Emily is back in Paris!

Oui, the second season of Emily in Paris has arrived on Netflix, and with it comes plenty of messy love triangles (squares? pentagons?), outrageous fashion, and many an oh la la moment.

Starring Lily Collins as the titular Emily, the Netflix dramedy follows the eager young marketing executive, who relocated to the City of Light for her job in season 1, as she navigates Parisian life, contending with hot chefs (Lucas Bravo), prickly bosses (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) and a whole bunch of lost-in-translation miscommunication and cultural differences. Ahead of the season 2 premiere (Dec. 22), we gathered Collins and her fellow stars Ashley Park, Bravo, Leroy-Beaulieu, Camille Razat, Lucien Laviscount and creator Darren Star for an EW Around the Table to find out what's to come on the rom-com's second outing.

"We are right back into the very, very sticky situation," says Collins of where the second season picks up, after the season 1 finale saw Emily hook up with Gabriel (Bravo), who may or may not have still been dating Camille (Razat). "Emily is left very conflicted and we come back right into the thick of things."

She's not the only one. Camille also has to figure out why her boyfriend/maybe ex-boyfriend is still in town and what that means for their relationship. "She's trying to navigate [things] with Emily," says Razat. "She's trying to stay loyal to her, but she wants her man back, too, so it's obviously a really complicated situation."

Things might be messy on the romance front for Emily et al, but that doesn't mean she's shying away from other challenges. Season 2 sees the protagonist "immerse herself more in the French culture and in her surroundings," says Collins. "She becomes more confident within her place in the city, and it allows her to explore more characters that come into play and also her female friendships at work and her personal life. And we have new characters that she gets to meet, so the drama continues…"

Speaking of new characters, Emily crosses paths with English ex-pat Alfie (Laviscount) at French class and soon finds herself butting heads with the cocky Londoner. "Alfie gets dropped in Paris, not because he wants to be there, he's there because of work," explains the Katy Keene actor. "He has this whole perception of Paris where he doesn't buy into it whatsoever, and then he meets the lovely Emily Cooper and she opens his eyes to the whole world of love, romance and the beauty of life, really, and I think they go on a journey together, which is pretty special. They both need each other."

With a new attractive man on the scene, Emily's love triangle with Gabriel and Camille looks to become a square... or even a pentagon if we factor in a possible bromance between Gabriel and Alfie, who bond over soccer. "Everyone's asking about the conflict between us and I think it's not black and white," says Bravo. "Everyone thinks that France and England are pretty opposite, but we're the same, and I love that we had a new character that was antagonist to Emily that doesn't buy into the hype of Paris, that doesn't believe the magic of this open-air museum. That gives a new perspective and allows also Emily to connect to another side of her, a fun side, and it's such an addition. All the critics in France, Parisians especially, I think they're going to love Alfie because they needed that nuance."

Elsewhere, Emily's bestie Mindy (Park) is pursuing her singing career after quitting her nannying gig at the end of last season, which means we get to see Park singing a selection of hits from Broadway, K-Pop and Celine Dion on the streets of Paris. "I gave Darren my wishlist [of songs]," says the actress. "I remember he came up to me when we were filming the third or fourth episode and said, 'What about an original song?' I said, 'that would be awesome but I don't write music.' But we got Freddy Wexler — he was just grammy nominated for a song he wrote forJustin Bieber and Ariana Grande — and he wrote this song with us throughout the filming of season 2. I've never had a song written for me to sing, and it was written for Mindy to sing. It's such a bop. It was just really special." Adds Collins, "I remember when [she] played me one second of the song on her phone and I burst into tears!"

While Mindy is forging a new career for herself, Emily still has to contend with her impeccably-dressed but difficult boss, Sylvie, at her marketing firm, Savoir. "It's tough love," explains Leroy-Beaulieu of the tension between them. "Sylvie was a character who was going to make Emily grow up in season 1... and in season 2, it really comes to life when you can see that Sylvie is putting Emily through obstacles and trials just to make her grow as a person — not only to become more French, but also to grow. It's very maternal in a way, like a cat can be maternal. I love cats — they're fantastically loving but still kind of cruel."

So overall, seems like a pretty chill season 2 for Emily on all fronts? "We never want to make Emily's life simple and it definitely isn't this season," says Star. "We throw a lot at her and by the end of season 2, she's dizzy. She's just trying to navigate the mess that she's created."

Watch the full video above. Emily in Paris season 2 is available to stream on Netflix now.

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