When Emily in Paris debuted in 2020, it was the vibrant, escapist comedy series fans needed in a year of shutdowns and travel restrictions. Five years later, Season 5 is soon to hit Netflix, and the show has become an annual European getaway for viewers. But as much time as we’ve spent in her world, does anyone really know how long Emily has been in Paris?
Breaking Down The Emily In Paris Timeline
Emily in Paris fan Sam Geiger did the hard work of investigating the show’s complicated timeline. Posting a detailed video breakdown on Dec. 1, he examined all four seasons to date, laying out time references to establish when different episodes are supposed to take place. What he found was a mess of inconsistencies and the occasional “spring reset” bringing Emily (Lily Collins) and crew back to late spring or early summer, regardless of proper chronology.
Looking just at the timing of the events in early Season 1 and the end of Season 4, Geiger says, “you can assume that Emily’s been in Paris for about 10 to 11 months.” The show tells us she arrived around August in Season 1, and then ended Season 4 around spring or summer, celebrating one Christmas in between. However, that means “just accepting all of the spring resets and all of the weirdness as canon,” Geiger cautions.
Diving Deeper
The show starts with Emily in Chicago. The Cubs are in the playoffs, so Geiger notes that it must be late September or early October. However, when the show gives us a “hard date” in Season 1, Episode 4, the timeline is already disrupted. She tries to make a dinner reservation for Aug. 11, meaning we’ve somehow moved back in time. As Geiger warns, “Inconsistencies like this are going to happen all the time and we’re not going to get any explanation to them.”
We see it again in Season 2, which seemingly starts right after Paris Fashion Week. In the real world, the event happens in late September. However, in Season 2, Episode 7, there’s somehow a heat wave in Paris, with temperatures reaching 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Geiger argues it should be at least October at this point, but the weather and a storyline about an upcoming fall launch seem to jump back to July or August.
It doesn’t get less chaotic from there. In Season 3, Episode 1, Emily’s boss Madeline (Kate Walsh) gives birth. She discovered her pregnancy in Season 1, Episode 1, so Geiger notes that it’s been eight or nine months since the start of the series. Strangely, Emily has seen no winter or holidays at this point, despite arriving in Paris as early as summer.
By Season 3, Episode 2, we find out it’s the solstice, aka June 21. Despite later clues suggesting the season ends around late summer and Season 4 picking up mere days later, there’s another spring reset when they attend Roland-Garros, a tennis tournament held annually in late May or early June. “Every so often when the show decides that it’s convenient, it resets the timeline to late spring, early summer,” Geiger explains.
Seeing Christmas in Season 4, Episode 6 was incredibly jarring for Geiger and many other fans. He notes it implies Emily has spent “well under a year” in Paris because she hasn’t experienced the colder months, and yet we know she has been there for the length of a pregnancy and then some. Later, Geiger notes yet another return to spring before Emily heads to Rome, where we’ll pick up in Season 5.
“A Disaster”
Geiger argues that Emily and crew have lived “about two years of events” through the series so far. “Emily’s world exists in a Groundhog Day-style of unstable chronology that will flash back to late spring, early summer at any time,” he says, later adding, “All of this is a disaster.”
And he’s not wrong. If Emily has been in Paris for under a year, it’s hard to imagine fitting in all that she’s done. Not only has she fallen in love with Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), Alfie (Lucien Laviscount), and Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini) — with breakups and reconciliations strewn in at different points — she’s also managed to make major moves in other areas of her life. She adjusted to life in Paris, made friends, earned her colleagues’ respect, quit her original job, and then started at Agence Grateau, leading to her temporary move to Rome. That’s not to say it’s not possible; it’s just a lot for a short time.
Illogical timeline or not, though, fans are looking forward to more of Emily’s adventures. Creator Darren Star has teased that relocating to Rome has allowed them to “stay ahead of the audience and take them to unexpected places,” so look forward to new locales, likely paired with more returns to spring.
