Eventually, Molly confronted him and asked him to make a choice, to which David responded with a classic playboy move of playing hot and cold. Frustrated with the lack of clarity, Molly bowed out, and David ended up proposing to Lauren. Apart from toying with both women from the onset of the season, David has been displaying blazing red flags like gaslighting and age shaming. It also seems like David’s sister has an uncomfortable level of interference in his life, which he seems to accept.
David Bettenburg’s Idea of Flirting Is Incredibly Distasteful
Right off the bat, viewers are introduced to David through a montage of him asking women, “What’s wrong with you?” While humor and sarcasm are normalized approaches to flirting, tone and setting play a major factor in having the gags land. David’s attempt at being sarcastic was in poor taste and simply made him come across as cocky and entitled. There was a moment when he made a snide remark about Lauren’s age, which was appalling, even though he laughed it off by saying it was a joke. If one has to save face by justifying that what they said is a joke, chances are — humor isn’t their strong suit.
In his confessional, David said that he was wildly superficial in his approach to dating in the real world, and he wasn’t necessarily able to hide that in the pods either. Moreover, there was an instance where he told Molly that he’d cheated in his last relationship and played it off like it wasn’t a big deal. This was an instant red flag as he seemed to normalize infidelity and didn’t appear to be remorseful in the slightest.
Manipulation Was at the Helm of David Bettenburg’s Approach
While Love Is Blind is all about making connections by dating multiple people at once, when a contestant gets deeper into the experiment, they need to start doubling down on their choices. David was stringing Lauren and Molly for an unacceptable amount of time. Moreover, he told Molly she was his number one choice right after he’d told Lauren that he could see himself proposing to her.
To make matters infinitely worse, when Lauren confronted him about it, he flipped the script and said Molly was lying. Molly eventually realized that David was playing a nasty game of he-said-she-said and swiftly ended things with him. David also kept Lauren invested in their connection by trauma-dumping about his mother’s death and using that as leverage to justify his problematic personality.
David Bettenburg’s Dynamic With His Sister Sparks Concern
Above the manipulation, lies, distasteful humor, and trauma dumping, what really cements David as the season’s red flag guy is his concerning dynamic with his sister. From the get-go, he shares that he has a close relationship with his sister and revealed she wasn’t too thrilled about his participation in the Netflix reality show. David shared this information with all his dates, fellow male contestants, and a couple of times in his confessional interview. In fact, he’d even had multiple conversations about it with Lauren, who told him that while David could hear his sister out, he needed to realize that he was an adult with the freedom to make choices about his life and marriage.
The sneak peek for the upcoming episodes teases that David’s sister could possibly prove to be a hindrance in their relationship. But at the end of the day, if a grown adult needs permission from his sister to make important life decisions, Lauren is better off not having to deal with a manchild for the rest of her life. Throw in David’s red flags, and there’s an array of reasons that point toward the fact that he’s not ready for a long-term commitment like marriage.
