Ashley Park Was “So Nervous” About Emily In Paris Fan Reaction To Mindy’s Hookup With [Spoiler]

Minor spoilers for Emily in Paris Season 5 ahead. Emily In Paris is back for another season of champagne-fueled chaos, couture-level escapism, and questionable romantic decisions, all wrapped in a brightly-filtered fantasy where the stakes are low, the outfits are loud, and the drama is deliciously unserious. If you’ve been watching the show for four seasons, you know that it’s usually Emily (Lily Collins) in the midst of an ill-advised cobblestone alleyway makeout and while her bestie Mindy (Ashley Park) is no stranger to a love triangle, she’s usually the one dishing out advice for Emily on her messy entanglements instead of finding herself wrapped up in them herself. Not this season. 

Enter the scandal no one saw coming but everyone will have an opinion on: Alfie and Mindy. Yes, that Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) — Emily’s charming, handsome, British, jilted, (did I mention handsome?) ex — and Mindy, the glitter-soaked pop princess whose devotion to Emily is as strong as her impressive vocals. At the end of last season, Mindy was single, fresh off a breakup with Nico (Park’s real-life ex, Paul Forman), and moving on from Benoît (Kevin Dias) and her band after they got disqualified from Eurovision. This season, she flees to Rome to join Emily and outrun her problems, and runs straight into Alfie. Of course, drama is destined to ensue after you sleep with your best friend’s ex, and it would be easy to write this off as a Season 5 gimmick the writers threw in because they were searching for storylines, but the Alfie and Mindy hookup feels fresh. 

First of all, the chemistry between Park and Laviscount is surprisingly steamy considering they’ve interacted onscreen for seasons without even a hint of a spark. But this season, it’s electric. What begins as a “when in Rome” moment (sparked by boredom, champagne, and more champagne) detonates into the most deliciously messy hookup the series has ever served, threatening the fragile ecosystem of Emily’s inner circle. Like moving the series to Rome (temporarily), the new relationship has injected a much-needed jolt into a series that had been floundering under pretty clothes, quips about Parisian cliches, and not much else. This unsuspecting situationship is exactly what the show needed. 

I tell Park and Collins how much I’m feeling Alfie and Mindy together over Zoom during the show’s press junket. The real-life best friends are in Paris, naturally. “I've been so nervous how people are going to [react]!” Park says, relieved. Collins chimes in: “That’s great. We love that!”

When I ask for more of their thoughts on Alfie and Mindy and the ethics of hooking up with your best friend’s ex, Park has a lot to say. “The main thing in terms of girl code and your best friend's ex [is] first of all, Emily broke up with Alfie, there were a couple relationships [in between], there's time that's passed,” Park says. “I think that the hurt that is caused is because [Emily and Mindy] have always been each other's safe place, and they've always been nothing but honest with each other. And for Mindy to be leading her life out of fear and assuming and projecting that Emily's gonna feel a certain way towards it, and not giving her the opportunity to be happy for her, that's not friendship. It's the first time we see that tested.”  

As a viewer, the Alfie-Mindy situation feels both deeply wrong and impossibly right, raising thorny questions about loyalty, desire, and whether a friendship can withstand this kind of betrayal. But Park sees it differently: “It's not necessarily about, oh, you slept with my ex, it’s how could you not trust that I would be so happy for you? When we first heard about this might be a plot line, I really thought it was a joke, and I called [Lily], and I was like, 'Wait, what's going on'? But it's because I didn't see how the story was going to blossom and flourish and in the end really deepen their sisterhood. And I think that’s something we really enjoyed doing.”

Collins agrees, but when it comes to Emily’s love life, her advice for her character is to stay away from the drama. “It's okay to not have somebody that you're interested in. Like, you don't have to have somebody to be somebody,” Collins says. It’s a lesson that Emily is learning in real time this season as she starts a new romance with Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini) in Rome. But will Emily dive back into a serious relationship so soon after ending things with Gabriel (Lucas Bravo)? Collins teases that with a new gig and new city comes a new outlook for Emily: “This year, we get to see her just being okay and saying this isn't for me, and not being afraid of what the other person is going to say,” she says. “It's the first time she's been really honest with the person she's talking to in her romantic life. I love that because I think there's societal pressure for people who are single to want to be in a relationship. But there's such a beautiful thing about Emily being single and being like, here's my focus, and here I am. I think that's really cool.” 

It’s also cool that Emily (via Collins) has a new, sharp bob this season. Usually, when a female character comes back from a hiatus with shorter hair, it’s because she’s shedding layers after a breakup (Felicity from Felicity) or as a cruel punishment (Aria in Pretty Little Liars), mostly because of a man. Emily’s bob is barely even explained this season, and Collins loves that decision. “She didn't even need to explain it,” she says. “It was just like a life choice. She's like, Okay, I'm gonna change my hair. So what?” 

You’ll have to turn into Emily In Paris Season 5 to see if Emily is just as chill about Alfie and Mindy. This season dares us to decide if their hookup is a betrayal or the most honest thing either of them have done all series. I’m going with the latter. Both Alfie and Mindy have been done dirty in the romance department over the seasons and it’s time they get their happily ever after. I just hope it’s together. I also love seeing an interracial couple on mainstream TV that doesn’t involve a white person because that representation is still so rare. Let’s just forget that Alfie and Mindy’s pairing comes with a side of betrayal. Hey, we watch Emily in Paris for the escape, the eye-candy, the kissing, and the outfits. It’s a fantasy that thrives on us turning off our brains for a bit and sinking into the comforting belief that even the most unlikely connections can feel inevitable… especially in Paris! Or Rome? Or whatever European adventure the show wants to take us on next.

 Emily In Paris Season 5 is streaming now on Netflix.