Zach Dempsey is a mess. Honestly, if you watched all four seasons of 13 Reasons Why, you know he’s arguably the most frustrating person at Liberty High. One minute he’s the "sweet jock" helping Alex Standall walk again, and the next, he’s making decisions so self-destructive you want to reach through the screen and shake him.
Most people remember him as the guy who stole Hannah Baker’s "bunny" notes. That was his Tape 4, Side A moment. But there is so much more to the Zach 13 Reasons Why legacy than just a high school prank gone wrong. He is the ultimate case study in what happens when a "good guy" is too much of a coward to actually be good.
The Secret Summer: The Zannah Twist
Season 2 dropped a massive bomb that changed how we look at Zach 13 Reasons Why. We found out that he and Hannah actually had a full-blown, secret summer romance. They spent their days at the library and the movies. They even lost their virginities to each other.
It was sweet. It was real. And it was totally absent from the tapes.
Why didn’t Hannah mention it? Probably because Zach asked her to keep it a secret. He was terrified of what Bryce Walker and the other jocks would think. That’s the core of Zach's character: he values his social standing more than the people he supposedly loves. He chose his "bro" reputation over Hannah's dignity. When she finally called him out on it, he went right back to being the bully he pretended he wasn't.
Why Zach Was Actually on the Tapes
In the first season, the reason for Zach being on the tapes seemed almost "minor" compared to what others did. He stole Hannah's encouragement notes from her paper bag in Peer Communications. He saw her world collapsing and took away the one thing giving her a tiny bit of hope.
But it wasn't just about the notes.
Hannah wrote him a letter. A raw, honest, "I’m hurting" letter. On the tapes, she says he threw it on the ground and stepped on it. In reality, we see Zach pull that same crumpled piece of paper out of his wallet months later. He kept it. He cared. But he was too scared to act. That's the tragedy of Zach 13 Reasons Why—he’s a "nice guy" who consistently fails to do the right thing when it actually matters.
The Downward Spiral of Season 4
By the time the final season rolled around, Zach was barely recognizable. After Bryce broke his knee—effectively killing his dreams of a D1 football scholarship—Zach gave up.
He started drinking. Heavily.
He spent most of Season 4 in a blurred state of "I don't care." He even let a clearly spiraling Clay Jensen drive his car, which resulted in a massive accident. The show tried to use his drunken antics for comic relief sometimes, but it was actually pretty dark. He was a guy who lost his identity. Without football, and with the weight of knowing what happened to Bryce on that pier (he beat him half to death before Alex finished the job), Zach was a ghost of himself.
Ross Butler and the "All-American" Jock
You can't talk about Zach without talking about Ross Butler. He intentionally played Zach as a subversion of the "dumb Asian nerd" trope. He wanted Zach to be the quintessential All-American jock who just happened to be Chinese-American.
Butler has been vocal about how he wanted Zach to "become a man" throughout the series. Whether the writers actually achieved that is up for debate. By the end of the show, Zach decides to pursue music rather than coaching, which felt like a last-minute pivot for a character who spent three years obsessing over sports.
Real-World Takeaways from Zach’s Arc
If we’re looking at what Zach 13 Reasons Why teaches us about real life, it’s not about being a "villain." Most of us aren't Bryce Walkers. But a lot of us might be Zach Dempseys.
- Cowardice is a choice. Zach wasn't "evil," but his silence and his need to fit in caused real harm. Being a "bystander" is often just as damaging as being the bully.
- Grief looks different on everyone. Zach’s reaction to his father’s death was a huge driver for his behavior. He felt he had to be the "man of the house" and keep it all together, which led to him exploding in private.
- The "Secret Relationship" Red Flag. If someone wants to be with you but doesn't want anyone to know they're with you, it's not a romance. It’s a power dynamic. Hannah deserved better than being Zach's "summer secret."
What to Watch Next
If you're still processing the ending of Liberty High, you might want to look into how the show handled its controversial "justice" themes.
Your next steps for a deeper look:
- Research the "bystander effect" in high school settings to see how Zach’s behavior matches real-world psychological patterns.
- Watch Ross Butler’s interviews on "unstereotyping" Asian American roles in Hollywood.
- Check out the original Jay Asher book to see how differently Zach was portrayed before the Netflix expansion—spoiler: he’s much less sympathetic in the pages.
