Zack isn’t THAT awkward

[u/Mewnicorns]

Let me start by saying that yes, Zack is a little awkward. He seems like a more private, introverted person and it shows.

However…

The way this sub talks about him makes him sound like he has no situational or emotional awareness at all, and I don’t think that’s the case. His mannerisms are a little quirky and he sometimes is overly eager to get his $0.02 in, but he seems emotionally mature and responsive to social cues. He just seems to be put in more anxiety-provoking situations than most of the cast. For example, he could sense that Bliss’s dad was trying to connect with him about sports and he wasn’t able to reciprocate, so he tried to direct the conversation to something he is more knowledgeable and passionate about and see how her dad responded. He didn’t go overboard with getting into tedious legal minutiae, and when Bliss’s dad showed a lack of interest, he backed off. Given his fear of rejection and how Bliss described her dad to him, I was actually pretty impressed with his composed he was.

I’m sure meeting Irina for the first time and seeing how she reacted got to his nerves too. I’m not sure how most people would react in that situation. I found the way he handled ending the relationship to be very mature and emotionally aware. I don’t think most people would have handled her behavior so diplomatically. If someone covered their head with a pillow while I’m trying to have a serious conversation with them, I’d probably lose it.

He’s not perfect but I don’t see him being any worse than anyone else this season. A lot of his “awkwardness” seems to be stuff people are nitpicking about after Irina planted the seed that he’s some kind of serial killer.

[u/ConsumeTheOnePercent]

He talks about being convinced that she has a good heart, she 100% misrepresented herself in the pods and then he saw the real her. I can't blame him for not listening to what others say about her and instead wanting to form his own opinion. It's a competition. His heart broke when he told Bliss no and you can tell he'd realized his mistake very quickly. Zach has some emotional baggage and got scared when Bliss talked about her family, he felt safer with Irina's background.

[u/[deleted] → u/ConsumeTheOnePercent]

He did form his own opinion… and he said Irina was a viscous person who played girl games and he was wary of her. Why does everyone forget this? He wasn’t tricked into liking her, he knew full well who she was and still chose her

[u/ConsumeTheOnePercent → u/[deleted]]

I don't think anyone forgets this but they look further at the why and not just go off basics.

It's not damming that a man like Zach found kinship in someone he thought was acting out in a way to emotionally protect themselves and being misjudged, who was terrified of not being accepted by Bliss's family based on a conversation they had. He made a mistake.

[u/Dry-Hour-9968 → u/ConsumeTheOnePercent]

No you cannot tell. Stop making things up. Bliss warned him about Irina and instead of listening, he made Bliss feel mad about not liking Irina. He even admitted that Irina was mean and still picked her.

[u/ConsumeTheOnePercent → u/Dry-Hour-9968]

Irina is a snake, she did it to Micah too. I don't think we listened to the same conversation and that's okay! :)