Zach Dempsey

"Clay: Wait it was you? Why the big mystery? Why couldn’t you just talk to me, tell me what’s going on? Zach: Because I’m a f-cking coward, and you’re not!"

- Zach admitting who he really is to Clay.

Zachary Shan-Yung Dempsey is one of the main characters from the 2007 novel 13 Reasons Why as well as it’s Netflix adaptation. He is the former catcher of Liberty High’s baseball team before he quit. He initially started as a major antagonist of the first season but became an anti-hero as the second season progressed. Zach is a part of Hannah Baker’s Baker's Dozen and the subject of Hannah Baker’s seventh tape from her list of reasons why she commits suicide. After Zach was rejected by Hannah he stole her encouragement notes from her bag, making her feel worthless and unwanted. Zach was remorseful for his actions but he refused to admit his wrongdoings and conspired with the rest of the Baker’s Dozen to prevent the tapes from being exposed.

By the second season, Zach has become much nicer and less of a bully than he initially was. He still sides with Bryce after everything but only does so, so he can bring Bryce to justice by sending Clay Jensen the polaroids of Bryce as well as most of the Liberty High athletes participating in hedonistic acts, including one of Bryce raping his own girlfriend.

He is portrayed by Ross Butler.

Personality
Zach is shown to be a kind hearted person and a good friend to those around him though he is also extremely cruel and uncaring to a degree. Like the other jocks at Liberty High, he is somewhat shown to be a bully and disrespectful towards girls as he himself admits during his deposition that he said insulting things about Hannah. He is physically aggressive to as he threatened Tyler he would break his arm if he didn't leave him and the others on the tapes alone at lunch and is shown to have a temper as seen after Hannah rejected him and his help. Zach is also inconsiderate of how his actions affect others. When he began bullying/slut shaming Hannah he may have seen it as all fun and games, but he did not take into consideration how Hannah may have felt due to the betrayal she suffered from Justin Foley, Jessica Davis, or Alex Standall.

In spite of the other jocks, Zach appears to shown concern for the feelings of others as he tried to cheer Hannah up after Marcus humiliated her on their valentines date though he himself insulted her while trying to tell her she was the valentine he himself hoped for and as result led him to cruelly torturing Hannah by stealing the positive notes that she strongly desired to get which ultimately broke her spirit. Zach is shown to be selfish like a majority of the others on Hannah's list and is willing to keep the tapes a secret to protect himself and even claims that Hannah was too much to deal with and that she screwed up her own life and even though he was well aware that Hannah was calling out for help after stealing her notes for weeks, he did nothing to help her. He is shown to be in agreement with the plans to keep Clay from ratting them all out to and participated in intimidating him along with Alex and Justin. However he is also one of the few people who is civil to Clay as after the latter took revenge against him after hearing his tape, he only forgave him and admitted the truth. In spite of this Zach is not completely heartless and Alex even once says to him that he is simply an entitled idiot who does cruel stupid things while on the inside has a decent heart. He even kept the note that Hannah personally wrote to him (despite her belief that he threw it out) and during his deposition admits that Hannah was indeed bullied at school and that he took part in it as well, possibly showing he is willing to admit the truth. Zach is a coward, which he admits himself, in that he was not willing to go the lengths Clay would out of fear of what Bryce, as well as all of Liberty High, would do against him, and jealous that Clay is not a coward like him but respects him for it nonetheless.