“Love Is Blind” Season Four begins with a voiceover from an unknown contestant admitting he proposed to the wrong woman. By the start of Episode Four, it's obvious that the person behind the regretful confession was cast member Zack Goytowski.
While dating in the pods Zack, a 31-year-old lawyer, finds himself in an intense love triangle with Irina Solomonova and Bliss Poureetezadi. Although Bliss makes Zack cupcakes on his birthday (whereas Irina forgets about his special day) and has the same ideal wedding song as he does, Zack decides to break up with Bliss and propose to Irina instead.
When Irina and Zack meet face-to-face for the first time, the two lack physical chemistry, a fact they eventually express freely. Irina tells her fiancé he resembles “something out of a cartoon.” In one of the least shocking moments of the season, Irina and Zack acknowledge in Episode Five that their engagement had been a mistake.
They break up and Zack reunites with Bliss in Seattle. He explains to the 33-year-old program manager that he wants to give their relationship a second chance. She agrees and in Episode Eight, Zack asks Bliss to marry him. She says “yes,” but previews for the remaining episodes suggest the couple will face more obstacles before they reach the altar.
Now that viewers are halfway through the season, social media is flooded with opinions about their romance, including Zack’s acoustic serenade in the pods, and Bliss choosing to give the lawyer a second chance.
In an interview with TODAY.com, Bliss explains her decision and why she couldn’t resist the “intense chemistry” she felt for Zack after he returned from Mexico.
Bliss recalls her 1st post-pods meeting with Zack: 'This was my person'
The senior program manager, who says Season Four was filmed about a year ago, recalls seeing Zack for the first time a little over a week after he ended their relationship in the pods.
“I didn’t come into it with any sort of expectation,” she says. “I was willing to meet up with him because I felt like I could really trust this person.”
She says Zack was always honest with her, possibly to a fault, so she had faith that he had the best intentions when he reached out to her.
“I also really felt like I loved this person. I felt like this was my person and I’m always open and willing to hear people out,” Bliss explains.
She remembers trying to hold back her feelings when she saw Zack in person. “There was a very intense chemistry when we saw each other,” she says, adding the episode didn’t fully capture their immediate connection.
At that moment, her intuition told her that their love story was not over.
“I felt like he was making a mistake (in the pods),” she reveals. “I was never gonna say that to him because I’m not here to convince someone to be with me. But I knew that he was making a mistake.”
After she agreed to start dating again, Zack cooked her dinner and they danced in his apartment before he quickly popped the question while they were aboard a romantic yacht.
Bliss says their second courtship lasted only five days. “Pod-style quick,” she describes it.
She says criticism of Zack has been 'hard to hear'
While fans have generally been rooting for Bliss on social media since the beginning, they have been more critical of Zack.
Some of the other cast members made harsh comments about the lawyer on the show, too. During the couples’ trip to Mexico, Irina and Jackie Bonds criticize Zack and his mannerisms.
“That was definitely hard to see,” Bliss shares, referring to how Zack was treated in Mexico. “I think a lot of it was they only knew what Irina was sharing with them.”
She continues, “I can’t speak for (Irina). This is just my kind of take on it. There was a narrative that she was trying to press upon other people.” Bliss acknowledges that Zack initially choosing Irina over her played a role in how the other women interacted with him as well.
“I was really close with pretty much all the girls in the pods, except for a few people,” she says. “They didn’t know him.” She understands that some of the women were being protective of her and also trying to support Irina.
Yes, she heard Zack sing — and thinks it's 'beautiful'
Many social media users also playfully mocked Zack for the song he belts to Irina before proposing in the pods. Despite some viewers tweeting they were suffering from “the cringiest moment of secondhand embarrassment,” Bliss, who says she loves to sing, tells TODAY.com that she is a fan of Zack’s voice.
“Singing is fun for me. It doesn’t always have to be one of those things that, oh, you have to sound really good. It’s a way of expressing yourself,” she says. “I’ve seen the comments about it. People are always gonna have opinions about things. But, that’s just him being himself. What’s more beautiful than that?”
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