Zachary Nichols is a fictional character, portrayed by Jeff Goldblum, featured in the NBC–USA Network series . Nichols is a police detective with the NYPD Manhattan Major Case Squad. He was introduced in the shows' eighth season to replace Detective Mike Logan. During that season he and his partner Detective Megan Wheeler were featured in half the episodes shown, alternating with Robert Goren and Alexandra Eames ; the next year, during the show's ninth season, he and his new partner Serena Stevens were the only detectives featured. Neither Nichols nor Stevens returned for the tenth and final season of Law And OrderCriminal Intent however, their characters were not specifically written out or addressed in any way during the final season.
Career
Detective Nichols was once partnered with Captain Danny Ross in the NYPD's Anti-Crime task force. However, after the 9/11 attacks, 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. Detective Eames begins partnering with Nichols after Nichols' partner, Megan Wheeler, went into labor and gave birth. Together they investigateHenry Muller, a forensics scientist with the NYPD who murdered a teenage girl. Nichols' investigation of Muller, who has clout from within the department, puts Nichols’ career in jeopardy and causes 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 unconventional, risk-taking behavior. Nichols ultimately gets Muller to confess, however, getting himself and Ross back into the NYPD’s good graces. 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 |Loyalty". Both detectives work under the command of Captain Zoe Callas during this season, after Ross is killed while taking part in an FBIsting operation.
Nichols is the child of two psychiatrists, but shunned their profession; becoming a police officer was a form of rebellion. Nichols and his father, Dr. Theodore Nichols, 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. Nichols also mentions having an older brother although the character is not shown. Nichols attended a public grade school, but as a teenager went to Emerson Academy, an exclusive preparatory school. There, he learned to play piano. He also had a relationship with a young woman named Lenore Abrigaille that ended when she descended into mental illness.
Awards and decorations
The following are the medals and service awards worn by Detective Nichols.
