Micah & Irina, The New Love Is Blind Villains, Said Their Behavior Was A "Coping Mechanism"

Each new season of Love Is Blind doesn’t just give fans new couples to root for, it also provides viewers with new villains who we love to hate. And Season 4 definitely delivered with Micah and Irina. The two instantly connected during the first few weeks of pod dating, but their barbed gossiping and giggling at the plight of the other women immediately turned fans off. They became the instant villains of the season, but Micah and Irina defended their actions as a “coping mechanism” for trying to add some levity to a hard, unfamiliar situation.

It didn’t take long for Love Is Blind viewers to pinpoint the villains of Season 4. Micah and Irina’s gossip sessions in the women’s lounge didn’t seem too nefarious at first, until they overheard fellow contestant Bliss crying after Zack dumped her in the pods. As Bliss poured her heart out to a few other women, Micah and Irina giggled in the corner, and Micah goaded Irina into sneaking closer to listen in and laugh even more. The scene rang callous and bratty to viewers, and Twitter lit up with fans calling out Micah and Irina’s “mean girl energy.”

While the two admitted they might not have handled things in the best way during a March 25 interview with Entertainment Weekly, they said there was more nuance to their actions than viewers may realize.

“For us, it was really helpful to have a little sense of normalcy,” Micah said. “Being able to laugh and make light and make jokes and, well, maybe sometimes the jokes didn't land or maybe it didn't look the best, but we needed that in that moment to feel like a normal person. Because you're a part of this experience that is so beyond words. To be able to make a little bit of light out of such a hard thing was really helpful.”

Irina added that she and Micah’s laughter was their way of coping with such a bizarre experience. “Everything was difficult. Everyone was experiencing the whole show in a different way,” Irina said. “Me and Micah's coping mechanism was laughing about it. And I honestly will say on the record, 100 percent, I did not intentionally ever want to hurt anyone. [Hearing] that I hurt people's feelings genuinely breaks my heart.”

“I was kind of zoned out and in my own thing of how I'm feeling, and I didn't really realize how that could affect other people,” Irina continued. “With Micah, we were laughing because, yes, it was very serious and it was very intense and it was very hard, so I don't want to brush it off and say that we weren't taking it seriously. It's just more our perspective, that's how we coped about it; we laughed and made the best out of it. We didn't intend to be mean or intentionally hurt anybody at all. That does honestly hurt me, hearing that, and I hope I can have some conversations to fix that later.”

New episodes of Love Is Blind Season 4 drop Fridays on Netflix.