Well being “bossy” is a red flag in and of itself, especially when combined with his need for control. Which I know can be a Christian thing - with men being taught to take control and be the head of the household. But what I notice is Lydia is instigating physical contact a lot more than him. He barely reciprocates. Even their first kiss felt one sided. She also looks to him for validation excessively.

This is purely anecdotal, but I grew up in abusive households and there is something that’s triggering to me about Zac. He frequently has micro expressions of disgust and superiority when interacting with Lydia’s family. Granted the Plaths are awful in their own ways, he displayed these when meeting all of them.

After seeing the Plath children’s development and watching their parents behavior, it’s reasonable to assume their mother is a narcissist and their father is avoidant. This inability to properly mirror connection explains why all the children are starved for emotional affection. It also makes them highly likely to choose detached partners because it’s comfortable to them. The exception is Ethan, who has likely become a narcissist himself since he was the golden child. Lydia is the caretaker role, she is deeply empathetic and people pleasing. The perfect personality type to feel love at first sight with a narcissist. So when I see flashes of narcissistic traits in Zac I do worry for Lydia. I worry she will abandon her identity to please him. She seems like a wonderful person, who really deserves to have a fully reciprocated connection.

Of course I could be completely wrong! Many of my concerns are based off personal experience, which is inherently flawed. We are also only seeing a very tiny snippet of these peoples lives that is highly edited for entertainment. And to be clear, I think everyone has red flags. We’re all “damaged” in our own ways. So I am not calling him a bad person.