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?) Because I’m a f**king coward, and you’re not!"

- Zach admitting who he really is to Clay. Zachary Shan-Yung Dempsey is one of the main protagonists 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 wrong doings 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 poloroids 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.

History
He is Justin’s friend, they were walking together on Hannah’s lawn when she first saw Justin. Feeling sorry for Hannah after Marcus tried to use her, Zach tried to comfort her, but she ignored him. The next day, Zach said that he wished he had gotten matched with Hannah for the Dollar Valentine survey. Not believing him, Hannah yelled at him until he finally left. Zach's friends teased him for trying to talk to Hannah, but it is implied that his intentions were pure and he really liked Hannah.

After being humiliated by Hannah, Zach got revenge on her by stealing and throwing away all of Hannah’s notes in the Brown Paper Bag Program, notes that she desperately needed to gain comfort and confidence.

Hannah figures out that Zach was the one who took her notes, so she writes him a note in order to confront him. In her tapes, she claimed that he read her note and threw it on the ground, however, it is revealed that Zach still keeps the note in his wallet.

Zach helps Alex by carrying his book bag and also helps him with his PT. He tries to distance himself from Bryce but still has to see him because they play baseball together. He is the 6th person to testify in Hannah's trial. He reveals that during the summer before she committed suicide they'd spent a lot of time together. He tells the court that he and Hannah had a summer romance and had taken each other's virginities, but ended it after Zach was too scared to bring their relationship public which made Hannah believe he was ashamed or embarrassed of their relationship.

We learn that he is the one who had been giving Clay the Polaroids. Clay asked him why he didn't just come and talk to him about what was going on in the Clubhouse. Zach told him that it's because he's a coward. After the lawsuit against the school was dismissed and Bryce Walker was granted probation rather than a jail sentence, Zach was in attendance of Hannah Baker’s funeral as well as her wake. He later attended the prom with Clay, Justin, Alex, Jessica, Tony, Ryan, Courtney, as they all join in a group slow dance to the song Hannah and Clay danced to together the previous year at junior prom as a way to quietly mourn for their friend.

Appearance
Zach is a tall and athletic Asian-American with short-cut dark hair and dark eyes. He is typically seen in sporty wear like varsity jackets, jeans, sneakers, and snapbacks. He is also often found in his basketball uniform.

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 effect others. When he began bullying/slut shaming Hannah he may have see 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 getting 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.

Trivia

 * Zach seems to be the only person out of the group that seems to actually consider Hannah's feelings and tries to think twice before doing something stupid. Although this is proved controversial because Zach steals things out of Hannah's bag of what is supposed to be people saying nice things to her and takes them so that she doesn't find them, this is only after being verbally rejected by Hannah.
 * Zach kept the letter Hannah put in her own bag to see if he was doing what she thought he was, although Hannah stated on the tapes that he threw the letter away.
 * Zach is currently the only person on Hannah's list to actually prove that she lied about something on her tapes, in this case she accused him of throwing out the personal note she wrote to him after discovering he was stealing her positive notes out of revenge though in reality he kept it and still has it in his wallet.
 * Zach's mother mentions that he wants to become a marine biologist.
 * Zach and Hannah lost their virginities to each other the summer before she committed suicide.
 * Zach was the one sending Clay the incriminating polaroids, two of Bryce raping an unconscious Chlöe, and multiples of other jocks sexually assaulting girls. Zachs explanation for doing this was because he is a coward but Clay isn't. This means that Clay has the ability to expose Bryce and the jocks and get justice for the girls who have been assaulted.
 * According to a video posted on 13 Reasons Why's Instagram account his iPhone password is 4278.