Masculine/Feminine
Emily begins episode 2 of Emily In Paris by heading out for a run. Still in France, she starts using audio tapes to brush up on her French language. Back in the apartment she opens the wrong door again and apologises to her neighbour Gabriel. Back at the office, she starts to give the banter back after everyone calls her Le Plouc. Emily speaks to Sylvie about De L’Heure and it’s clear they’re not seeing the bigger picture. With a party coming up that evening, Emily manages to talk her way into a work soiree. There, she engages with Paul and Sylvie, eventually meeting Antoine Lambert and his wife Catherine. She lavishes praise on him and his perfume before turning the attention back to the social media engagement of his product. While it goes over everyone’s heads, Antoine remains interested. Sylvie takes her aside though and reminds the girl not to speak about work at a party like this. That’s not to say Antoine doesn’t find her again though, and the two start to hit it off. Sylvie watches from afar, envious, and calls Emily out for it the next day. Emily admits that she finds him attractive but for now she’s forced off the case. As she soon finds out from Julien, Sylvie happens to be Antione’s mistress and is not happy about the pair getting closer together. Needing an outsider’s perspective, she calls up Mindy and heads out for dinner. There, they talk about the strange triangle going on between Antoine, Catherine and Sylvie. Eventually the attention turns to Mindy’s past and how she came to be in Paris. Midway through talking though, things take a turn for the awkward when she requests her meat to be cooked for longer. The chef takes offence and is called out to speak to her. Lo and behold that chef happens to be Gabriel. Biting her tongue she instead starts eating as he heads back to the kitchen. With Doug arriving in less than 24 hours, Emily receives some disastrous news when her boyfriend decides against joining her in Paris and breaks up with her. On the back of this, Emily throws herself into work but learns that the noun for the female sex organs in French are actually masculine not feminine. Enraged, she tweets this out to her followers before sitting with Mindy and wondering whether she should stay in Paris or not. At Elysee Palace, Emily’s tweet about the product gets all the way across to an influential woman who happens to be the CEO of the product she’s been promoting. Finally accepted into the group, Emily is allowed to join her work colleagues for afternoon drinks. The look Sylvie gives her however, clearly shows there’s more to come.
The Episode Review
Language is a funny thing really and inevitably the conversation turns to the whole masculine/feminine terms which are a mainstay in many European languages. While it’s understandable Emily took offence to this as an American, it’s no different than arguing that in Spanish the word for penis is actually feminine. It’s all to do with tonal affliction and this element feels shoe-horned in for the sake of drumming up issues where there are none. I do understand it’s been used to drive the narrative forward but these men and women should know better – especially Sylvie and the CEO for the product who retweeted “exactly!” Then again it’s just a TV show so maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Despite that though, the episode does well to deepen Emily’s characterization and strengthens her relationships with work colleagues. Hopefully this language non-issue is just a blip after a strong start last episode.
