The first episode of "I Love LA" begins with a lively celebration as Maia shares her birthday revelry with her boyfriend, Dylan. As they indulge in their own private moment, Dylan casually chats about a photo while brushing his teeth, only to backtrack moments later to prevent a potential emotional outburst.
The next morning, Maia meets up with her friends Charlie and Alani to discuss Tallulah, a former acquaintance who's now making waves in New York. The trio agrees that Maia should continue to stay distant from Tallulah, with Charlie pushing for a complete block.
At work, Maia boldly asks her boss for a promotion, only to be met with a disinterested response. She tries to impress with her management experience working with influencer Tallulah Stiel, but her boss doesn't seem to be swayed.
When she finally gets home from a grueling day, Maia is surprised to find Tallulah waiting for her in her apartment. Dylan quickly excuses himself as Tallulah launches into a story about running into her ex-boyfriend, peppering her words with subtle digs. It turns out that Alani flew Tallulah out as a surprise for Maia's birthday, leaving Maia reluctantly joining the party.
As they queue at a bar, Maia bluffs about her "uber-connected" boss, prompting Tallulah to encourage her to use her name to cut the line. While Maia embarrassingly fails, Tallulah meets the owner who generously offers to open his tab for them. Despite her best intentions, Maia can't avoid the birthday shots and wakes up the next morning in a state of disarray.
Late to her rendezvous with friends for breakfast, Maia continued to fume over Tallulah's presence, her hangover lingering like an unwanted guest. As Tallulah and Charlie bristled at each other, Alani, the actor's daughter, found solace in the thought of leaving her cherished Balenciaga bag at the Palisades house. Alas, poor thing.
Eventually, they arrived at the birthday agenda, only for Tallulah to upend everything. Maia fled to a fabricated work emergency, while Alani and Tallulah hit the beach. In private, Alani insisted to Maia that she and Tallulah were bound by an inexplicable karmic thread.
After a day spent on hold, waiting for Tallulah to change the reservation time (to her liking), Maia emerged in a micro dress accompanied by Dylan. On their way to the 'birthday' table, Dylan lifted Maia's spirits with his chatter about how Tallulah's insecurities paled in comparison to Maia's innate wonder.
They found themselves in a private room instead of the dining room, courtesy of the ever-generous Tallulah, who even invited Maia's boss along for the ride. The only catch was that they had to sing "Happy Birthday" to Tallulah, given her fame and her cunningly co-opted birthday celebration. Maia stormed out, swiftly followed by Tallulah.
The air cleared with a minor explosion of emotions, revealing Maia's dishonest promotion facade in contrast to Tallulah's success. And Tallulah shared her plight: broke and homeless, kicked out by her ex-boyfriend. With that revelation, they patched things up when Tallulah offered to move to LA and picked up their original plan of living together, with Maia managing Tallulah's life.
Back at the party, a stripper was entertaining Maia's boss and the others with a lively show. Tallulah quickly noted that with Maia now her manager, her friend deserved a promotion. The boss agreed and sent the stripper over to Maia. But before long, Maia called out to Tallulah to join her, only to escape for a few pictures, making Tallulah center stage once again.
