1 thing Emily in Paris can't miss in season 4 (and 1 thing it can)

During the agonizing wait for Emily in Paris season 4, it's natural for fans to start reflecting on what has happened in the past three seasons and what we hope will happen in the forthcoming season. For the first time since the show's premiere on Netflix, we won't be getting a new season at the end of the 2023, which has been an annual Christmas tradition for the past two years.

Even though the holiday season won't have season 4 as one of our stocking stuffers, we don't have to have a totally Emily-less Christmas. There's still plenty of time to dream about what we want from the fourth season, especially after the bombshell revelation and cliffhanger at the end of season 3. There's one thing that really needs to happen, but there's another that needs to be avoided at all costs.

Since the first season — the first episode honestly — Emily has been down bad for Gabriel. Who can blame her? She arrived in Paris fresh off of a breakup looking for new beginnings, and she found just that with her impossibly handsome French chef neighbor. Other dates and relationships have come and gone, but at the end of the day, it's always been Gabriel for Emily.

As mentioned before, the season 3 finale ended at Gabriel and Camille's wedding, where both Emily and Gabriel's relationships went up in flames. Alfie realized Emily still has feelings for Gabriel and broke up with her, not wanting to be her second choice. Camille, too, understood that the pact she had made with Emily was been broken and called off the wedding. The kicker? Gabriel later told Emily that Camille is pregnant. Another roadblock!

Emily and Gabriel need to finally get together

You might disagree, but Camille's pregnancy doesn't have to be a dealbreaker for Emily and Gabriel to be together. Sure, it will be a challenging dynamic to navigate, with Gabriel becoming a father and likely being super involved and supportive throughout Camille's pregnancy. But the attraction and connection between him and Emily will be strong enough to withstand whatever might come their way. At this point in the series, it has to be.

We have watched them pine for each other, deny their feelings for each other, run circles around each other since day one. Considering Netflix's track record of canceling shows around season 4, especially comedies, Emily in Paris could now be inching toward its final season. If season 4 isn't going to be retroactively announced as the final run, there could be a fifth and final season. I want nothing more than to be wrong, but with the clock ticking, it's not the time to leave loose romantic ends.

Then again, Emily and Gabriel are both coming out of bad breakups. It's not the most optimal time to rush into a new relationship right away, no matter how fated they might be. (And they are. They're fated. I don't make the rules, I just abide by them.) The irony of being single at the same time while their personal lives just blew up in their faces shouldn't negate the fact that it's time for them to get together.

What season 4 needs more than anything is Emily and Gabriel in an actual romantic relationship. No more teasing. It's been touch-and-go, will-they-or-won't-they for far too long, and we need the payoff, or at least a payoff of some sort. If they try to be together in the beginning of season 4 but can't make it work in the midst of the pregnancy and give it another shot later, that's also fine. As long as fans get to witness the relationship that has so clearly been endgame in a real way.

No new love interests for Emily please!

However, in the run-up to making Emily and Gabriel an official item, there shouldn't be any additional love interests thrown into the mix. Emily's two-season relationship with Alfie, which was worth shipping in its own right, was enough of a pit stop on the way to Gabriel. I might be speaking for myself here, but attempting to add another love triangle situation as a speed bump would simply feel as though they're continuing to delay the inevitable.

It's frustrating when you're waiting for the couple you're cheering on to get together, and the show maintains its position to doing anything in its power to keep them apart. As a romantic comedy series, another major love interest for Emily could be interesting, but for it to work, he needs to be better than Gabriel and better than Alfie. A real contender for endgame, not just an apparent detour.

Lily Collins first announced at TUDUM that Emily would be having a Roman holiday in season 4, and it's been confirmed that part of season 4 will film in Italy. What's a better setting for a whirlwind romance than Rome? If she's not headed to Italy with Gabriel, I can see Emily becoming classically torn between two men. But again, any new man would have to have something Gabriel and Alfie don't. Personally, Emily would have to date a prince and have the possibility of being an American princess for another love triangle to be worth my emotional investment.

Otherwise, keep a new love interested contained to a single episode and focus on putting the puzzle pieces of Emily and Gabriel's complicated romance together. We have been waiting long enough, don't you think?!