I Love You.

## Episode Guide

  – **Talula** making a joke about what happened on **Milo'**s twenty-second birthday.

**I Love You.** is the first episode of **Lover's Stadium** and the first episode of the **Lover's Stadium series**. It is also the start of the **"Classic" continuity**.

## **Plot**

On April 12th, **Milo** woke up to a text message from **Xiao**, who told him to meet him at Venture Coffee to hang out as they did not have class that day. Tired, Milo did reply but fell out of bed on accident after trying to see if he can stick to walls. After quickly showering and changing, Milo pet his dog, Anakin, and fed him, then left. However, unbeknownst to him, Milo accidentally left the door unlocked. Thinking he was supposed to follow Milo, Anakin opened the door and ran outside while Milo was already two blocks away. At Venture Coffee, Xiao and **Raymond** are waiting for Milo but discussing their plan for that afternoon. They were planning a secret surprise party for Milo, and Raymond wondered if everybody was invited, to which Xiao commented on how he already asked that three times.

Raymond retorted that he was just nervous because the last time they tried to throw a surprise party in March, Xiao somehow ended up three states away. Xiao attempted to defend himself, but they quickly went quiet as Milo appeared. Milo ordered a black coffee, and the barista commented that he wasn't wearing his hat that day, but Milo told her he couldn't find it and then sat down next to Xiao and Raymond. As Milo dapped everyone up, Xiao and Raymond told him a happy birthday, to which Milo forgot that it was his birthday, which made Xiao laugh. Raymond commented on how Milo would forget his own funeral.

The trio talked about graduation briefly before Raymond got a text and signaled Xiao that it was time. Milo, confused, was dragged out of Venture Coffee and taken to Raymond's car. As they drove away, Milo took the aux cord and began to play music, but when Xiao asked if he could play music, this led to a larger conversation about how they didn't want to listen to Slavic Black Metal at ten in the morning. However, Xiao managed to convince them that he wasn't going to play that, and when he got the aux cord, Xiao did, in fact, play Slavic Black Metal during the entire fifteen-minute drive. By the time they got to 95 Eleven, an arcade in Northern Las Vegas, Milo and Raymond wanted to blow their brains out while Xiao sang rather loudly to the music.

As they piled out of the car, Milo commented on how 95 Eleven wasn't open this early, and Xiao stated that they had recently gotten new hours. As they ushered Milo into the building, the lights came on, and all of Milo's friends screamed in surprise. Raymond, laughing, revealed that he had rented out 95 Eleven for his birthday party. At the time, **Talula**, Milo's girlfriend, kissed his cheek and told him happy birthday; thus, the party started. Bruno Mars and rap music filled the arcade as everyone played games, but Milo was, as usual, the champion of **Marvel vs. Capcom 2**, beating **Jasper** and **Jade** but lost to Raymond and Xiao at **Guitar Hero**. When asked by Milo how Xiao was so good, Xiao revealed that he plays guitar in his spare time sometimes, and Raymond stated that he mastered Guitar Hero during a bender.

As the party began to wind down and the group moved outside to play mini-golf, Talula brought Milo to the side and gave him her gift. It was a replica of Sir Francis Drake's ring on a necklace with the original inscription. Milo freaked out about it, and here, Talula told Milo, for the first time, that she loved him. Just as he put on the necklace and was about to say the same to her, Milo's hands burst with blinding light and energized particles. Not in pain but more confused, Milo threw a punch at the wall and it shattered, which confused everyone. However, they immediately begin to get excited and throw things at Milo for him to punch with his glowing hand. Sarah looks up instances of people getting powers to see if someone had a similar experience. All she found were lab experiments gone wrong that gave people abilities and people being born with them.

Regardless, the party ends on a high note, and as the group begins to leave, Milo tells Talula that he loves her, too. He invites her back to his place, but Talula says she has band practice with Jasper, Jade, and Sarah but tells him she will see him later. After a kiss, Talula leaves, and Milo gets back in the car with Xiao and Raymond, excited to see what else Milo can do, but they can't, as Milo and Xiao have class in the morning. Saddened, Raymond reluctantly drops Milo and Xiao off at their apartments, and Xiao tells Milo that he will get him for class in the morning. As the two depart, Milo runs up to his apartment only to find that he left the door unlocked and that Anakin is missing.

Shouting an exploitive, Milo runs outside to hunt Anakin down with his leash. However, it's here that Milo learns the complete totality of what he can do. Milo clears a car in a singular jump and runs three blocks without getting tired or sweating. While impressed and confused by this, Milo's mind is on Anakin. He runs past a few neighbors and asks if they've seen Anakin, and they tell him they saw him on Flamingo. Without missing a beat, Milo dashes to Flamingo, which should've been a fifteen-minute walk but was a four-minute run. When he gets onto Flamingo, Milo accidentally bumps into a guy on the street. Immediately, Milo apologizes and helps him back to his feet. Milo introduces himself, and the man introduces himself as Kevin DeWitt. When he asks where's the fire, Milo tells him that he is looking for his dog, and Kevin tells him that he saw a dog sitting in front of Blueberry Hill Restaurant. Thanking him, Milo runs away, and Kevin chuckles, watching him leave.

When Milo arrives, he finally sees Anakin and chuckles, telling him that Anakin doesn't need a walk today after this. Anakin licked his face and was happy to see his owner again after being unable to find him for hours. Milo leashed Anakin and began to walk him back to his apartment. Elsewhere, Xiao was drawing on his tablet in his room with his headphones on. However, suddenly, Xiao drops his Apple Pen. When he reached to get it, Xiao couldn't find it on the floor, and when he slowly looked up, he saw it hovering next to his face. Intrigued, Xiao took the pen, but that was when his computer suddenly turned on, and then his television turned on to an anime he was watching.

Deeply worried and scared, Xiao reached for his television remote, but before he touched it, the TV turned off, and then Xiao began to realize what was happening. He stared at the TV and thought of turning it on, which caused it to turn on, and then when he thought of turning it off, it turned off, and that night, Xiao gained superpowers. Just before he was about to call Milo, there was a knock at his apartment door, and when he answered it, Milo and Anakin were standing there. And hilariously, at the same time, Milo and Xiao said that they had something to tell each other.

That same night, Kevin DeWitt receives a call from a woman named Maleficent, who tells him that it is time. Kevin smiles sinisterly, looking at Milo's keychain that he stole from earlier.

## **Noteworthy Events**

### **Major Events**

* The introduction of **The Hyperlane**.
* Milo and Xiao gain their connection to The Hyperlane.
* Kevin DeWitt meets with Maleficent for the first time.
* Kevin DeWitt plans to take down the friend group.

### **Character Debuts**

* Milo
* Xiao
* Raymond
* Taulula
* Sarah
* Jade
* Jasper
* Anakin The Dog
* Kevin DeWitt
* Maleficent
* Venture Coffee Barista

## **Characters**

* Milo (Debut)
* Xiao (Debut)
* Raymond (Debut)
* Talula (Debut)
* Sarah (Debut)
* Jade (Debut)
* Jasper (Debut)
* Anakin The Dog (Debut)

### **Villains**

* Kevin DeWitt (Debut)
* Maleficent (Debut; voice only)

## **Pop Culture References**

* Milo's dog, Anakin, is a reference to the **Star Wars** character, **Anakin Skywalker**, otherwise known as Darth Vader.
* Venture Coffee is a reference to the **Adult Swim** television show, **The Venture Bros**.
* The title of the episode, *I Love You.* is a reference to **The Neighbourhood'**s first album of **the same name**.
* The energized particles that surrounded Milo when he got his powers and whenever he uses his abilities are a reference to the iconic **Kirby Krackle,** created by **Jack Kirby**.
* At Milo's birthday party, the group plays **Marvel vs. Capcom 2** and **Guitar Hero**. Both are references to abilities members of the group would either gain or utilize later. Milo with Marvel vs. Capcom and Xiao with his musicianship.
* The show that Xiao was watching on his television was **Neon Genesis Evangelion**.

## **Trivia**

* While later, it would be revealed that Xiao knew about The Hyperlane through his grandmother in *Meanwhile EP...*, it is not untrue that he is confused in this episode because The Hyperlane was called "**Uchū-tekina**," in Japanese.
* This episode reveals that Milo's birthday is April 12th. Side note, it also reveals that Xiao's birthday is sometime in March.
* While Xiao mentions that he plays guitar in this episode, it is not fulfilled until *Meanwhile EP...* and *MODERN JAM*.
* The events of this episode, specifically of Milo using his powers to jump around Vegas to find Anakin, are what spur Dexter on to investigate and eventually create Mysterion in *OK, Computer*.
* The Kirby Krackle is seemingly unique to only Milo and **Necro Milo** as Xiao doesn't have it. Later individuals also don't have it such as Kevin DeWitt, Haelie, and Jonathan West. This is the first appearance of Milo's signature Hyperlane visualization.

## **Creation Notes**

* While this is the first episode of the series, the real first episode when the creators of Lover's Stadium sat down to make it was Season 3's first episode, *Welcome to Forever*. This was changed as the creators felt as though there should be backstory for these character so they weren't overreliant on their favorite franchises to tell more stories.
* The episode was originally going to be called "The Wall," but these was chosen against as it didn't thematically work with anything that occurred within the episode.