That's what happened with holden...his gf was his anchor to "normal" sexual behavior and relationships with women. After he solved a few cases he started feeling himself (the shit with the tickler principal...it was weird af but he didn't technically do anything wrong at the time) and when he started reading into stuff with his gf...he ultimately ended up being right, but it was off putting to her cuz he kept tryna jump ahead of what was happening.
Then he started feeling himself forreal and met with Kemper cuz he felt like he was on his level. When he actually stared that kinda evil in the face, and he legit thought dude would kill him, it brought him back down to reality.
So next season I feel like holden will be tryna humble himself after that and work out what it means to be in a team instead of a dog with a bone all the time.