thought: tom targeted david bc david wanted to move away from the killing floor, and that was generally regarded throughout the slaughterhouse as a sign of weakness, but i think bc david was feeling all weird and his “feelings weren’t really working back then” (and likely aren’t now, either), he was spared from being a victim of the flesh.
but not really spared -- he was still subjected to it (and probably could’ve died if he didn’t move off that conveyor belt). and quite interestingly, he shot tom himself. yes, he was given the bolt gun and tom guided his hand to tom’s forehead, but david shot him, pulled the trigger himself. so i wonder if at some point, during david’s trek around the super duper Flesh(TM) slaughterhouse, tom kinda-sorta changed his mind or just took a gamble and... tried to see if introducing david to being an avatar, or at least the baby steps leading up to avatardom.
maybe not bc i haven’t gotten into season 2 yet but. i am Thinking.