i always debated with myself if nelson was this cruel pre-syntec or not:
what makes the most sense to me is that the manipulative and calculating traits he displays in 863 were always there, but the power that being an owner of an up and coming successful biotech company gave him an outlet for his inner feelings to truly come out.
he and wesley went to harvard together (i’m pretty sure it was just them i don’t think deb went?) and came off as very close - you don’t just offer to start a company with a random person. yet wesley always seemed to have a very positive view of him despite what he actually was like.
i believe that either nelson hid his personality well, or wesley looked at him with rose-coloured glasses. it took an awful long time for wes to actually believe deb about what his true intentions with syntec were even when deb said that nelson literally handed her a gun and told her to kill him.
in general he comes off as very pretentious and thinks of himself as the best person in the room even when he is actively losing like at the end of season 3. this behaviour could link back to him attending harvard, which probably enlarged his ego significantly tbh.
i hate nelson but also he’s very interesting because i feel as if he had to have some underlying problems with control pre-syntec to be able to hide ALL of this while being celebrated in the community.