a new season of love is blind is upon us, and with it comes a new crop of hopeful couples and awkward losers who should never have left the pod phase.
In the latter category comes Irina Solomonova, an agent of chaos who appears to be driven entirely by her all-consuming desire to make other people miserable.
There was a time, not too long ago, when we considered Shake Chatterjee’s title to be the worst love is blind The villain will remain uncontested forever.
But Irina definitely gave Shaq a run for his money during her relatively short time on the show.
If you watched the first few episodes of the current season (if you didn’t proceed with caution — spoilers ahead!), then you know that Irina seemed happy with her role as the embodiment of evil.
Generally, most of the bonkers behavior on LiB is reserved for the phase where the couples return home and deal with real life together.
But Irina started acting up during the pod portion, teaming up with “best friend” Micah Lussier to bully her fellow contestants, some of whom were already struggling emotionally.
Irina focuses most of her strange, misguided rage on Bliss Poritezadi, with whom she competes for the affections of Zack Goitowski.
Solomonova won that fight, but she wasn’t very interested in reaping the rewards.
In fact, she seemed reluctant in Zack from the start, telling the criminal defense attorney that he looked like a “cartoon character”, and assuring Micah that Goytowski “gives [her] Sick.
Irina and Zach at least had the good sense to call it quits early, leaving him free for a second chance with Bliss.
These days Irina is reading the reactions to her crafty ways and realizes she needs to run some damage control.
“The first thing I want to say is that I personally apologize to the people I hurt and mistreated,” she said in an Instagram video earlier this week.
“Second, I wanted to say that I am, therefore, sorry to the people watching the show that I felt frustrated, angry, hurt by the way people were misbehaving on the show,” she continued.
“It was very immature and naive of me in those situations.”
Irina explained that she now realized how disappointing her behavior was, and vowed to grow and change as a result of her experiences at Lib.
“None of those people deserved to be treated the way I treated them. I know none of those things were okay, ”said Solomonova.
“I feel like being on the show was like putting a mirror in front of your face, in the sense of seeing yourself from a different perspective,” she continued.
“It opened up a lot for me and I’m still processing and going through what happened.”
Reaction from commenters was decidedly mixed, with some accusing Irina of just apologizing for her reputation.
“What? Sorry..I only heard ‘I’m posting this so I don’t get totally canceled and it’s all about me’ lolol,” wrote one person.
“No one wants any association with you and your business the way you treat people and laugh behind their backs,” said another, “I hope this is a real wake up call for you And get professional counseling and helping.”
Irina may have difficulty convincing people that she is sincere about her desire to be a better person.
But hey, at least she’s not completely floundering in her villainous arc the way Shake did!