it'll be interesting getting the actual details of how he ended up the way he has. I don't think I remember any past exposition, just the hints that he clearly doesn't care about his own image and station within the hierarchy of the class.
I'm fairly confident the aim is for Charlotte (and I guess Emma to a degree) to "heal" him of his self-imposed purgatory prison, but I suspect it must be a significant series of events or happenings for him to be this socially self-destructive and emotionally shut-down.