Help me understand: When did David realize how the story would end?

Since the context is spoilery, I meant HIS story’s end.

Here’s my line of thinking after rewatching the show: It almost feels to me that David is a static character designed to show the tragedy that is unfolding in Night City. Once he is orphaned and taken in by Maine’s crew, he becomes a victim of his own mentality to follow others’ dreams through almost the entire story.

However, many argue here that he DOES change eventually by abandoning this mentality to save Lucy from the consequences that were going to lead to his own death. So my question is… when, especially before it WAS too late for him? I say this because of something that is constantly apparent throughout: He does not damn listen!!! His own girl is repeatedly telling him to cut out being a cyberpunk so he can avoid his own death. In addition, we have people such as Mike Pondsmith confirming that love and support is one of the better methods to prevent onset cyberpsychosis. Everybody was a node of support for David in Maine’s crew besides Kiwi, whose role in the plot will not be acknowledged here because Lucy would’ve been confronted by Arasaka even if David were to start running away. I would like to believe, of course, that this can be left up to speculation and not that both of them would’ve died lmao.

Anyways, going off of Mike Pondsmith’s point about cyberpsychosis, this makes me believe he was not falling down the rabbit hole of cyberpsychosis, (like an addiction) but rather that he had chosen the life of an Edgerunner that his father-like figure in his life, Maine, had brought to him as a dream. I believe he put loyalty for the crew above things such as love, as it was his gateway to not just escaping poverty—but becoming the most noticeable, handsome choom in town, even if it means he never changes at all (which isn’t lazy writing!!!)

My friend argued in favor of him dropping chasing others’ dreams as he had known Lucy’s dream couldn’t have been for him, and that he just wanted to protect someone he still cared about. If this was the case however, I’m pretty sure it would undermine their entire romance, as one thing I’m certain about is that love requires a shared dream… which he has decided against? I understand episode 9 was where he said they should separate and no other point after that was a romantic scene initiated by him, but did he genuinely give her up??

Anyways, this line of thinking makes it hard for me to see where he starts realizing that his survival was no longer guaranteed. Did he really know the Faraday job was a trap? The way he treats Lucy and, well, everyone else by episode 10 confirms it. But it appears to be a consequence of multiple other points in the story where he stood his ground on being an Edgerunner (it is also not where most people say it begins anyways.)

I’m still sad, and just wanna blame David for fumbling the coolest sidekick ever. What happened? Where did he realize it was all over? Let me know 😢😢