I Love LA season 1 episode 3 ending explained: What did Alani find about Paulena?

HBO's I Love LA is a comedy series, created by and starring Rachel Sennott as driven talent manager Maia Simsbury, which premiered on November 2, 2025. It peels back the layers of a fractured friend group chasing clout amid personal chaos. 

The cast features Odessa A'zion as unpredictable influencer Tallulah Stiel, True Whitaker as privileged Alani Marcus, Jordan Firstman as jaded stylist Charlie, and Josh Hutcherson as Maia's grounded boyfriend Dylan. Leighton Meester adds bite as crisis handler Alyssa.

In Episode 3 titled "Girls Girl," which premiered on November 16, Alani uncovers Paulena's hidden past: a shared high school class at Crossroads reveals her full name as Paulena Grace ‘Rikers’, evoking New York's notorious prison, and whispers of her father, who fled abroad after shady business dealings involving chemical weapons. 

The show tracks these twenty-somethings as ambition erodes their bonds in a city obsessed with image. Episode 2, "Roger & Munchy," builds the feud when Paulena (Annalisa Cochrane), a vengeful rival, claims Tallulah stole her Balenciaga bag during a public blowup at a cafe.

Maia and Dylan host a tense house party laced with cocaine to mend fences, but it backfires: Tallulah admits her old ketamine struggles, Paulena eavesdrops on Maia's snide jewellery jab, and exits fuming with threats of charges. 

Charlie navigates backlash in LA's cutthroat service world after a wild night, while Alani glides through her father's production company on nepotism alone. The cliffhanger lands on Paulena scheming her online assault, priming the pump for Episode 3's digital battlefield.

I Love LA season 1 episode 3 ending explained: Paulena's real name and the group’s counter-attack

Episode 3 opens with Paulena's savage TikTok detonating: she labels Tallulah a desperate thief and addict, twisting the Balenciaga bag theft into a feminist crusade. Views skyrocket, burying Tallulah's comments in hate. During an at-home IV drip with Alani, Tallulah learns mid-needle, yanking it out in a bloody frenzy and firing off deranged retorts like calls for Paulena to perform absurd acts.

Alani, buzzed on edibles, intervenes by drowning Tallulah's phone in a vase for a forced digital break. Charlie, exiled from his go-to coffee line after Episode 2's antics, gripes about isolation in LA's gay networking scene, reduced to bribing waitstaff for scraps of inclusion. 

Maia, consulting her lawyer father on lawsuit risks, meets Alyssa for damage control, who issues a grovelling apology to salvage Tallulah's TRESemmé campaign, spinning the feud as intra-white drama. 

Parallel threads sharpen the satire. At her kid's bake sale, Maia witnesses feral mom competitiveness, where one parent praises her daughter's ruthlessness as anti-"beta" training—a lightbulb for Maia's own cutthroat pivot. 

Paulena escalates, memeing Dylan as "Coke Larry" from the party mishap. The crew attempts refuge at a sleek eatery helmed by a stern chef (Moses Ingram), but ketamine digs sour the air. Bonding over fury, Maia says- "Should we take this bitch down? ".

Over restaurant plotting, Alani recalls Spanish class at elite Crossroads with Paulena Grace Rikers—the surname a blatant nod to Rikers Island's grim legacy. Paulena scrubbed her last name off for her clean influencer facade, but her dad's shady business involving chemical weapons forced an overseas escape, hinting at embezzlement or graver scandals.

In LA's whisper network, this is dynamite. Tallulah crafts a slick video feigning remorse while gutting Paulena's "nepo-prison" hypocrisy and deadbeat lineage, dropping at midnight. It ignites the social media, and followers swarm Paulena's profile with memes and death threats; her sponsorships teeter. 

Dawn breaks with the quartet at their Silver Lake spot, high-fiving under palm shade as schadenfreude flows. "Like the ocean, beautiful but deadly," Alani muses on the web's tide. Charlie toasts the karma, but clocks Alani flashing Paulena's unreturned $400 pineapple necklace from the heist, landing a deadpan "You're a bad person."

Maia's victory sours fast as a text from Alyssa confirms TRESemmé's bailout over the retaliation. Yet Tallulah's DMs ping with Balenciaga asking for her address, probably to send her a bag.

What to expect from episode 4 of I Love LA season 1

Tallulah's brand flirtation might blindside Maia, already sidelined at the agency for the deal flop. Charlie's outcast status could spark reckless alliances in his styling hustle, while Alani's easy shield frays under questions of her own pilfered perks. 

Paulena's silence screams setup, maybe subpoenaing Dylan's coke meme into court. The triumph's glow dims, probing if vengeance cements or corrodes their pact as spotlights intensify. Expect sharper agency intrigue and fresh chaos to fan the flames.

Watch I Love LA season 1 exclusively on HBO Max and Disney+. New episodes air on Sundays.

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