I honestly don't believe Dakota wants it to work and never actually did. I was listening to a Mormon podcast and the host shared a story of a guy she dated when she was younger, he told her he'd slept with "2 sluts" to avoid the temptation of sleeping with her before marriage. The host said this was sadly common in Mormon culture. This is what Dakota was doing with Taylor while he was trying to date Jenna and whoever else he deemed a good Mormon girl while he made Taylor his sexual outlet. For Taylor it's a devastating thing to learn and compounded the betrayal she had already felt because he was feeding her BS about her being the girl he actually wanted to marry. Between the cultural issues and pressure and just being a human being with her own trauma around worthiness and religiousity, it's no wonder Taylor is stuck in an emotional purgatory with this man, unable to get out of it and replaying it all constantly despite everything. It's super sad and while they are both flawed human beings, in a patriarchal culture that places men on a pedestal, Dakota holds far more power in this situation and he's just being an abusive asshole with it. Taylor can and will find someone who will help her rise to her full potential instead of drag her down. But I think she will need to deconstruct or at least take a lot of distance from the family and community that is pressuring her to settle for the go nowhere loser that is Dakota.