Brit, you're right that Zach never openly admitted he was gay, but originally, he was indeed supposed to come out of the closet. The intention was to make Zach come to accept his homosexuality at the same time that Claire was coming to terms with her power, thus putting them in the same boat and giving both of them someone who could relate to their problems. However, when Thomas Dekker's agent found out that where the writers were taking his character, she immediately put up a fuss because she was afraid it would keep him from getting jobs in the future, so eventually they just wrote him out of the story.
And I agree...West is creepy, greasy, and pretty much ugly, lol
