I Love LA: Season 1 Episode 6 – Recap and Review

Tallulah finds herself getting unwanted attention, thanks to Maia, as Charlie briefly reunites with Andrew and a familiar face from Maia’s past shows up.

ByAmari Allah Hours Posted on Hours Updated on

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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Episode 6 “Game Night” Recap and Details

People Don’t Come Out Anymore Because It’s Embarrassing: Tessa, Tallulah, Maia

From Kia to now, Ritz crackers, Tallulah is getting consistent work with recognizable brands. However, what wasn’t expected with the most recent campaign was for her to be outted. Maia confirming to a Ritz representative that Tallulah has a girlfriend leads to a whole mural that Tallulah finds embarrassing.

Thankfully, Tessa doesn’t take it negatively. She doesn’t see Tallulah as just experimenting, an insecure baby gay, but just someone who doesn’t like her narrative being taken. So, to make Tallulah feel better, she shows Tallulah a video of her going on a cooking show, doing some kind of Hamilton rap, to show she understands what she is going through.

The Best Days Were Behind Us: Andrew, Charlie, Alani

Lukas’ death hits Charlie a bit, but surprisingly not as deeply as expected. There is no mention of losing the job; he gets upset when he can’t get into the main funeral and has to be in an extension, but then he sees Andrew. From what we learn, Andrew isn’t just some recent hookup that Charlie has made – they’ve known each other for years, even before they moved to Los Angeles.

Because of that, you get why Charlie feels a certain type of way about Andrew moving on, leaving LA, and this chance circumstance being the only reason he knows. But, surprisingly, rather than let him drag Andrew’s name through the mud, Alani holds Charlie accountable and presses him to move on. For Charlie, this means watching and saying he’ll destroy a sex tape, and ultimately setting aside the idea that he should have had first refusal and just accepting that he refused to step up.

You’re A Wolf Amongst Sheep: Ben, Maia, Alyssa, Dylan

Alyssa and Maia’s past gets brought up in this episode, and they have a polar opposite reaction. Alyssa’s past includes a possible #MeToo moment, which led to her creating Alyssa180, and just bringing it up leads her to veer off message. Thankfully, despite how awkward dinner was, Maia did end up joining her for the Forbes shoot and says just what the journalist needed to hear for a quote and to go away.

Following that, a message arrived from Ben, Maia’s former boss/ mentor in New York, who pushes the idea that Maia is a leader, the type to walk into a storm, and those like Alyssa are not. He sees something in her, and is smooth when he says it, to the point that as soon as their meeting is over, Maia needs Dylan to break in her back!

Unfortunately, he can’t do that immediately since he has company over and with one of the women there being around Maia’s age, she gets a bit jealous and shows out. This speeds up game night, and eventually, Maia gets what she wants, while fantasizing that Ben was having sex with her over Dylan sometimes. But the real kicker is, once she gets her fix, she is texting Tallulah about work like Dylan isn’t sweating and catching his breath.

New Characters in Episode 6

Ben (Colin Woodell)

  • Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
  • Character Summary: Ben is Maia’s mentor, whom she used to intern for back in New York, who honors, appreciates, and advocates for her ambition. Especially whenever it seems she is trying to make herself smaller to fit someone else’s dreams potentially.  

Review and Commentary

Highlights

Further Pushing Dylan Is Mr. Right Now [84/100]

The last episode pushed the idea that Dylan wasn’t right for Maia in the future because of her ambition; this episode pushed the idea that Dylan may not be right for Maia because of her insecurities. To me, Dylan knows who he is and is solid in that. Maia is still in a mode where, I feel like she has a vision, but is willing to take the long road if it means less adversity.

To me, this is what Ben was trying to call out regarding his comments about Alyssa. She had to be made uncomfortable by her boss touching her to start her business. Ben doesn’t want Maia to wait for someone to be the catalyst when she is already a brightly lit flame. However, I think one of the issues Maia is facing is that she doesn’t want to burn Dylan or cast a shadow on him. She wants him to step up, be on her level, even if it means being as dramatic as she sometimes is.

Now, is it sexy to her when he doesn’t cower to her whims? Yes. But, it doesn’t take away that, long term, she knows he likely won’t be there for some of her career highlights. So, the insecurity, the acting up around Dylan’s friends, it’s an immature way for her to try to express something is wrong, she doesn’t know how to communicate it yet, and she needs him to recognize things are off not only with her, but between them.  

Tallulah [83/100]

While Gen Z is more fluid about their sexuality, as much as past generations have established a wide range of labels, they don’t want to get stuck in the expectations that they didn’t set. As said, regarding Tallulah controlling her narrative, is she dating Tessa? Yes. But only Maia has defined that relationship at this point. On top of that, it isn’t clear what generation Tessa is from, but she clearly isn’t bothered by Tallulah having a little freak out about being seen as a lesbian.

To me, this is one of the things we love for as much as it was your usual Tallulah being lowkey dramatic, at the same time, it is understood that Tallulah is a young woman, in an unfamiliar place, and while, yes, she has Maia there, you can never remove the fact that money is at the center of their relationship. So, in Tallulah’s mind, who is to say that outing Tallulah, which was done by accident, to be clear, wasn’t to seal a deal?

Tallulah notes she did maybe three seconds of camera work, yet now she has a whole mural in a very public place. Granted, she defaced the mural with Tessa by her side, but you have to remember that Tallulah is far more vulnerable than given credit. Lest we forget, her coming to LA was a boon since she was damn near broke, didn’t have any prospects in NYC, and needed some kind of a comeback. So now having a girlfriend, a resurging career, and more, it’s hard to not take note of the layers there are to Tallulah’s situation and how reliant she is on Maia and her friend group.

Seeing Charlie’s Underbelly [82/100]

Between Lukas’ death and now Andrew exiting Charlie’s life in a notable way, I feel like we’re getting more opportunities to see him be vulnerable. Then, to great execution, Alani calling out his defense mechanism of talking mess, to pretend he doesn’t care, was so well done. I would even say it took Charlie off guard, lest we forget, it wasn’t long ago the group was talking mess about Tallulah when Maia was trying to get past that.

Yet, Alani doesn’t play that. See her as naïve, simple, often taken advantage of, but when it comes to her friend group, who she knows intimately, there is no playing down who she is at heart. And I think getting to learn Andrew and Charlie possibly moved to LA together, him having commitment issues, and pairing that with it seemingly being the norm, at one time, for him to be berated, it makes me hope so badly we get to deep dive on every character’s path to LA or back to LA, in Alani’s case.  

Overall

Our Overall Rating [83/100]

As we’re let in, little by little, to each character’s psyche, getting to see beyond the jokes and getting a sense of what some are trying to hide, it makes watching I Love LA better and better.

What To Check Out Next

TV Shows We’re Covering This Season

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Amari is the founder and head writer of Wherever-I-Look.com and has been reviewing media since 2010. He approaches each production with hope, rooting for every story to succeed, and believes criticism should come from unmet potential, while praise is reserved for work that meets or exceeds expectations.