The Challenge Theory IX: What is Wrong With Zach Nichols?

Ever since Zach Nichols became a presence on MTV in "Real World: Back to San Diego" (2012), I have always wanted to know the guy's secret. The guy was buff, had great hair, and all of the ladies were fawning over him. However, when he hit the Challenges starting in "Battle of the Seasons" (2012), he showed himself as merely a raging chauvinistic douchebag that actually wasn't so nice to women. Now while we didn't really see this during his relationship with challenge champ and former cast member, Ashley Kelsey, but we did see it with his other teammate and cast member Sam McGinn. When Sam was starring with Zach on "Battle of the Seasons" she was badly mistreated by Zach based on her performance and especially on "Back to San Diego" when he threatened to "beat the gay" out of her because the girl appeared to be doing a gender transition during the show.

Unfortunately, these two were not the only reality tv stars that Zach has used and abused on his time doing the challenges. On "Battle of the Seasons" he met Jonna, who was previously on "Real World: Cancun" (2009) and they actually struck up a romance on that season. Both Real Worlds San Diego and Cancun struck up an alliance with each other and Jonna also became good friends with Frank, who was also on Zach's season. At the end of the season, all was good until Zach just abruptly stopped talking to Jonna when he and her were living in LA. Jonna was forced to live with Frank after basically being destitute with no money and nowhere to live. Not to mention, they were on two more seasons with each other "Rivals II" (2013) and "Free Agents" (2014) where they were living in the same house, but hadn't said a word to each other.

It wasn't until "Battle of the Exes II" (2015) where they were forced to be partners that everything from their relationship began to spill out. Zach could be seen belittling Jonna at almost every pass as she was often brought to tears because she became an emotional person and Zach would say often times mean and abusive things behind her back. One thing that he was caught saying was that Jonna could be compared to Lenny from "Of Mice and Men", who was the mentally challenged character in the famous book written by John Steinbeck. Not to mention, she also had to be his partner while Zach fawned over his next girlfriend Jenna from "Real World: ExPlosion" (2014). So not only did she have to watch her ex boyfriend get friendly with another girl, she was also belittled by him at just about every pass. Even in their elimination with Jordan and Sarah, Jonna actually competed well and it was Zach who held the team back despite claiming to be a mythical being. It has been almost three years since that season and we haven't seen Jonna on the challenge since.

Which finally brings us to Jenna whom Zach only spent one challenge with, but actually became his girlfriend in real life. He even showed up to compete in a "cameo" elimination in "Bloodlines"
(2016) and we saw Jenna spend a few minutes with her boyfriend then. Then when we saw her on the reunion special, we found out that they were no longer together. Apparently one day Jenna called Zach and said "guess who?" and then Zach responded by asking "Brooke?" and Jenna responded by saying "who the hell is Brooke?" Zach since blocked her from his phone which is weird because Jenna claimed that they went out to look at rings for a possible engagement. Now we will all be watching this season of the challenge called "Invasion" (2017) where Jenna and Zach will be on separate teams and they will be forced to be civil in the "Oasis" in Thailand.

Now here is the big question, "what is wrong with Zach?" And the answer is I think he has some kind of mental disorder. I think that because of his physique he knows that he is bigger and better than just about any guy in the world and considers himself to have "alpha" male status. He probably gets girls wherever he goes and figures that if he lands a pretty girl like Ashley, Jonna, and Jenna, he could probably land someone better and more attractive. I think he is the kind of guy that needs to be alone in life because after the "honeymoon" stage of the relationship is over, he treats them horribly and very abusive. He also sometimes cannot control his mouth when it comes to women because on "Rivals 2" (2015), Zach once announced during a "Bro talking session" that "Women are inferior to men because they were created from men", he continues... "And we are supposed to honor them? But these aren't our wives. These are f*cking swamp donkeys, all of them!" So you can either tell that he is just super full of himself and on a power trip, or he just doesn't know how to treat women.

My unprofessional diagnosis is that Zach merely grew up in a Conservative family. I am not going to make any assumptions about his parents, but if I were to guess, his father was the head of the household and his mother was a submissive woman that took care of the family. I don't know if he ever saw verbal abuse between his parents, but it is very possible and that is where the "swamp donkeys" opinion came from as did the "women are inferior to men" comment originated. I don't know, however, I didn't grow up with the guy and thank god I didn't. He also of course had a very homophobic opinion when he first entered reality tv and also didn't want gays to be in the military. The guy suffers from many problems and I think that in the end, Jenna, Jonna, and Ashley are better off away from a guy like Zach and they deserve to be with a guy that loves them and won't abruptly leave them as Zach has. I think the guy has issues with people and issues with longterm relationships and has a huge problem with commitment. Again, I am not a professional, but that would be the conclusion that I have come to as a regular person. I hope he is able to move past this because if he doesn't, he will likely live his life alone, while the "swamp donkeys" move on and have families.