Warning: This post contains spoilers for Love Is Blind season 4.
In the Love Is Blind season 4 pods, Irina Solomonova made headlines for her outspoken nature — which seemed to rub several of her fellow contestants the wrong way, except for pod bestie Micah Lussier.
“I mean, you know what? So be it,” the marketing manager, 27, exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the season 4 premiere earlier this month. “What she did for me was make me laugh and reminded me who I am [and] that I like to laugh. I like to joke, like, this is a really serious situation, but I don’t have to be miserable. Like, I can enjoy myself a little bit and she gave me that, and for that, I don’t regret it.”
Micah continued: “I think there’s gonna be a lot that you don’t see on the show of amazing connections that I had with other girls and stuff, but you know what? [Irina] was what I needed at the time, and I think she’s a great person. I really do.”
Both Micah and Irina, 26, were cast as participants on the Netflix reality series, which premiered its fourth season on Friday, March 24. Within the first few episodes, they each found themselves in the center of a love triangle. Micah, for her part, was torn between Kwame Appiah and Paul Peden — who each struggled to pick between her and either Chelsea Griffin or Amber Wilder, respectively. Irina, meanwhile, quickly hit it off with criminal defense attorney Zack Goytowski despite his own challenges to choose between the Solo founder and fellow contestant Bliss Poureetezadi.
A rivalry between Irina and Bliss, 33, intensified as their respective feelings for Zack, 32, continued to grow in the pods. Things reached a boiling point when Irina seemed jealous that the senior program manager was baking cupcakes for Zack’s birthday — while she forgot what day it was. Both women even complained about one another to the Seattle resident, leaving him feeling torn about his final decision.
After going back and forth, the fitness enthusiast ultimately ended his romance with Bliss in favor of Irina, who he proposed to sight unseen.
“I think that no matter what choice I made, my heart was going to break, and it doesn’t mean that I’m not in love with Irina, it just means that I’m hurting from what I had to tell Bliss that I’d made up my mind,” Zack said during a confessional interview. “I chose Irina because she’s the one I trust the most.”
While the lawyer was overjoyed to eventually walk down the aisle with Irina, their post-pod connection hit a snag after his fiancée admittedly didn’t feel an in-person spark. The Russia native, however, did feel “so inspired” by her brief conversation with Paul, 29, who got engaged to Micah on the show. In a teaser for the upcoming episodes, Irina is seen confessing her feelings to her Love Is Blind pal, who did not have a chance to respond before the screen cut to black.
The first five episodes of Love Is Blind are currently streaming on Netflix. New episodes drop on Fridays.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
