Having seen the Daphne/Charlie kiss, I am unbothered and unmoved.
I think Charlie cares for Daphne insofar as she has divulged enough humanity for him to recognize a kindred spirit on some level.
But Charlie was stiff as a board during the kiss, the passion one-sided, with him pulling away almost as quickly as she initiated it. Why?
Four reasons.
One, because to get romantically involved with a member of the criminal enterprise he just dug himself and his family out of their reluctant tangential association with is an all-around bad idea.
Two, to be with Daphne fully aware of her ambitions via illegal means is the stark opposite of the straight and narrow life he's considering leading.
Three, Charlie is an honorable man with a good heart who balks at the duplicity of giving into intimacy with Daphne when he's aiding in a conspiracy to incriminate her.
Four, because of Emma.
"If he can't see you - I mean, like, really see you, appreciate that - I say, screw him, you know?," is a line Charlie says to Daphne to ease the sting from her father's rejection of her. Beneath the contextual surface, coupled with the frustration he unloads at Emma for her (allegedly, to him) continued blind eye to his motives, his overtures are not about Daphne. It is not Daphne he wants to understand him; it's a plea for Emma to see him, see that his love for her is and has always been genuine, secrecy notwithstanding.
Here, with Daphne, Charlie is his usual reserved self. With Emma? Whatever tight lid he tamped down on his emotions to stay focused blew clean off with the force of a lit match in a gas leak. She has always been the one to unravel him.
I do feel sorry for Daphne. Underneath her dispassionate bravado is a woman seeking familial love. It is tragic for her to experience the double whammy of the one person in her vicinity who seems to care for her rejecting her, too, before learning he's been working against her with the feds. Though her feelings are clearly hurt, sympathy for Daphne isn't inspiring me to ship her with Charlie.
Despite the muddied waters of mistrust and misunderstanding keeping Emma and Charlie from reconnecting, he loves her, and she loves him, and so they are whom I am rooting for.
As a matter of romantic chemistry, a few silent seconds of tense longing gazes shared between Emma and Charlie surpass whole episodes of Daphne and Charlie working cons for me. I still believe that, not only do Emma and Charlie hold the key to each other's happiness, they can shape each other into better people. If nothing else, their love is as present and visceral as ever, obstacles immaterial. And that further helps me settle the question of whom to ship.
Daphne and Charlie make an effective team when their interests align for the job they're working on, and it's been good seeing her open up about her past and current turmoil as she navigates a family unwilling to welcome her as their own. As long as they stay on the same side, I'd like to see them become genuine friends. They do have an interesting push-pull to their dynamic (even more so when the Morality Gradient Comparison includes Emma as a data point), but it isn't one I want to see a romantic relationship emerge from.
I guess one's interest depends on a matter of perspective intrigue. Do you prefer to potentially watch Charlie influence Daphne to her better angels (or Daphne appeal to the devil on his shoulder), or would you rather theoretically see Emma and Charlie harness the good in each other and work through the flaws as an honest couple?
When put in those terms, I suppose Daphne/Charlie is a fair dynamic to want to see play out through the complexities of a romantic angle.
For me, though, pound for pound, it's still Team Hiletti all the way.