Why I don’t ship McRollins
In light of recent news Catherine will be returning, I’ve decided to write this post about why I don’t think McRollins is a good, stable, or healthy relationship.
When we first met Catherine in season one, I didn’t dislike her or their relationship. But, it didn’t start off well either. I wouldn’t even call it a relationship (in fact, neither would Steve, but I’ll get to that shortly). I’d say it was more of a friends with benefits type of thing. Or, less politely, Steve having sex with her in exchange for intel that could save lives on cases he was working on. (Sidenote: what kind of person only gives life-saving information in exchange for “favors”?)
Now, onto the fact Steve straight up refused to call her his girlfriend and denied that they were in a relationship. I’ve seen many Catherine fans use this as “proof” that Steve was the one that treated her unfairly. But on the contrary, it actually couldn’t be any further from the truth. It’s only more proof of how emotionally damaging their relationship was to him. It’s beyond obvious that Steve has abandonment issues. Steve not putting a label on his relationship with Catherine was his way of protecting himself from being abandoned. If he didn’t call her his girlfriend, then she couldn’t break up with him. If she didn’t have his heart, she couldn’t rip it out and stomp all over it. He didn’t want to be vulnerable. He was afraid of commitment. Because that’s what leads to abandonment. And that’s exactly what she did to him. A million times over.
I want to mention something I feel like was overlooked by not only most of the fandom, but also the writers, characters, and show itself. Catherine’s ex-boyfriend, Billy Harrington. When we see him in the season three finale, we learn who he is. And what else do we learn? That she and Steve were together before, they broke it off, and then she was with Billy. We didn’t get much of a backstory on this, so we’ll just leave it at that. So, somewhere along the line, she got back together with Steve after that. Now they’re together and Billy shows up and obviously still has feelings for her. Feelings that were obviously reciprocated. When Catherine has her ceremony for leaving the Navy, it shows us Steve smiling proudly at her... And wait, who is she smiling at? Billy. Steve is obviously upset by this, but it’s never mentioned again. She takes the job with Billy, and Steve waits up on the porch for her after work. Again, we’re shown that Steve might be a little concerned about her feelings for Billy. As he should be. But instead of following this up, giving it any sort of closure or reconciliation, they just kill Billy off. Which Catherine was so obviously broken up about... Do with that what you will, but that whole thing was a big deal to me, and the start of me disliking McRollins.
Now to mention the stuff with Catherine and Steve’s mom. Catherine starts sneaking behind Steve’s back to help her, lying to him about things, and overall being really untrustworthy. She literally says to Doris that she refuses to lie to Steve, and then turns around and lies to Steve. Nice, Catherine, really. When Steve finds out, they share a hug on the beach and all is forgiven. That doesn’t seem like enough to me, but Steve takes it and they move on.
Steve then goes out of his way to help her get to Afghanistan, and even goes with her to help. Then she leaves him for dead in order to save herself and the children (I’m not saying she’s wrong for this, just making an observation). Steve almost gets killed because of her. Even after that, as soon as he woke up, his first thought was to make sure she was okay. He even tries to stay in Afghanistan and help her but Danny talks him out of it, thankfully. Their phone call at the end, he offers again to help her. She says she’s better off by herself and they have a goodbye and their first I love you. This is the first time she abandons him.
She then lies to Steve and tells him she is helping school children or something, while she’s actually working for the CIA. We don’t hear from her or see her until she comes back at the end of season five. And no, she doesn’t come back for Steve. She comes back for Kono’s fucking wedding. Which doesn’t stop her from leading Steve on, bringing back all of his old feelings and reopening his wounds. He wants her to stay so badly he plans to propose to her. But, once again, she leaves him. She breaks his heart all over again, and tells him she needs more than what a relationship can give her. Tells him another lie that makes her look good, like a good person. She’s “helping earthquake victims.” When in reality, she’s just a spook.
Later on, Steve finds out she’s been compromised and goes out of his way to make sure she’s okay and she stays safe. Obviously learning about all of this broke his heart once again.
Season seven, she comes back. Again, not for Steve. But to save his mother. Steve asks her if she’d been lying to him the whole time, and she admits that she was. You can see how painful this is for Steve. Catherine finds out from a slip-up from Lynn that Steve was going to propose to her, and at the end of the episode, he asks what she would’ve said to the proposal and she tells him she would’ve said yes. But that doesn’t make sense, because didn’t she tell him when she left the last time she needed more than a relationship? Did she want to marry him just so she could leave him a million times more and know for sure he’d have to be waiting for her whenever she decided to come back into his life and crush him all over again?
I’m willing to bet my life that if she does come back in season eight, it will undoubtedly be because she needs something.
She saw what Steve went through with his mother, she saw how much it hurt him, she knew he had abandonment issues. And then she turned around and did the exact same thing his mother did to him, right down to the CIA. Literally, the exact same fucking thing. Alex himself even said Steve would be an idiot to get back with her and essentially marry his mother. The mother that broke his heart. Just like Catherine did so many times.
So, if you want to know why I don’t ship McRollins, it’s because she played with his emotions over and over again. Because she walked all over him. Because she broke his heart. Because she lied to him and betrayed his trust. It’s because she abandoned him. It’s because she did the very thing she knew would tear him apart. It’s because she doesn’t fucking care about Steve.
*If I missed anything you can think of that should be added to this list, feel free to let me know!
If you disagree, I don’t care. Don’t bother messaging me.
