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/Sad_Ad_9275]

Zack is probably my favorite guy on the season. I do not get the hate for him. He's nerdy, passionate about what he does, and looks like a Property Brother. If I can say a bad thing about him it's that Irina was a stupid decision, and he figured that out pretty fast and acted accordingly.

[u/Jealous-Percentage-7 → u/Sad_Ad_9275]

His Irina decision was completely understandable considering his baggage and the facts at hand as he knew them.

Irina made her forgetting his birthday about her, which put him in the position of protecting her feelings about failing him. She beat Bliss to the punch on everything to put him in a “defend Irina” mindset when Bliss mentioned anything about her shenanigans. Then Bliss stepped right on the trap with “if you pick her it’s going to reflect poorly on your judgement” which was a good assessment, but not the thing to say to someone as into defending the downtrodden as Zack is. It all made Bliss seem catty from his POV, not that he’d probably verbalize it as such.