Zack Nichols

Zachary "Zack" Nichols is a fictional character, portrayed by Jeff Goldblum, featured in the NBC-USA Network series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Nichols is a police detective with the NYPD Major Case Squad. He was introduced in the series' eighth season to replace Mike Logan (Chris Noth). During that season he and his partner Megan Wheeler (Julianne Nicholson) were featured in half the episodes shown, alternating with Robert Goren (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe); the next year, during the show's ninth season, he and his new partner Serena Stevens (Saffron Burrows) were the only detectives featured. Neither Nichols nor Stevens returned for the tenth and final season of Criminal Intent, however, their characters were not specifically written out or addressed in any way during that season.

Career

Detective Nichols was once partnered with Captain Danny Ross (Eric Bogosian) in Anti-Crime. However, after September 11, 2001, Nichols left the police force for seven years. Ross remarked that during this period, his only clue to Nichols' whereabouts was a postcard from Cleveland.^[1]

Detective Eames began partnering with Nichols after Nichols' regular partner, Megan Wheeler, went into labor and gave birth. Together they investigate Henry Muller, a forensics scientist with the NYPD, and Nichols' suspicions of the man cause conflict between him and Ross, who comments that he himself risked being suspended almost every month while he and Nichols were partners due to the latter's behavior.^[2]

Nichols becomes full-time partners with Detective Serena Stevens, who is introduced in the second part of the two-part Season 9 premiere episode "Loyalty". Both detectives work under the command of Captain Zoe Callas (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) during this season, after Ross is killed while taking part in an FBI sting operation.^[3]

Personal and family life

Nichols is the child of two psychiatrists, but shunned their profession; becoming a police officer was a form of rebellion.^[4] Nichols and his father, Dr. Theodore Nichols (F. Murray Abraham), do not speak for years afterward. They reconcile when Nichols asks his father for assistance with a murder investigation involving a suspect with dissociative identity disorder, which happens to be the elder Nichols' specialty.^[5] Nichols also mentions having an older brother although the character is not shown.^[6]

Nichols attended a public grade school,^[7] but as a teenager went to preparatory school named "Emerson Academy". There, he learned to play piano.^[8] He also had a relationship with a young woman named Lenore Abrigaille (Mili Avital) that ended when she descended into mental illness.^[7]

Awards and decorations

The following are the medals and service awards fictionally worn by Detective Nichols.

	American Flag Breast Bar
	World Trade Center Breast Bar
	NYPD Excellent Police Duty
	NYPD Unit Citation

References