Why I donât ship McRollins
In light of recent news Catherine will be returning, Iâve decided to write this post about why I donât think McRollins is a good, stable, or healthy relationship.
When we first met Catherine in season one, I didnât dislike her or their relationship. But, it didnât start off well either. I wouldnât even call it a relationship (in fact, neither would Steve, but Iâll get to that shortly). Iâd 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 âfavorsâ?)Â
Now, onto the fact Steve straight up refused to call her his girlfriend and denied that they were in a relationship. Iâve seen many Catherine fans use this as âproofâ that Steve was the one that treated her unfairly. But on the contrary, it actually couldnât be any further from the truth. Itâs only more proof of how emotionally damaging their relationship was to him. Itâs 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 didnât call her his girlfriend, then she couldnât break up with him. If she didnât have his heart, she couldnât rip it out and stomp all over it. He didnât want to be vulnerable. He was afraid of commitment. Because thatâs what leads to abandonment. And thatâs 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. Catherineâs 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 didnât get much of a backstory on this, so weâll just leave it at that. So, somewhere along the line, she got back together with Steve after that. Now theyâre 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 itâs never mentioned again. She takes the job with Billy, and Steve waits up on the porch for her after work. Again, weâre 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 Steveâs mom. Catherine starts sneaking behind Steveâs 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 doesnât 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 (Iâm not saying sheâs 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 sheâs 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 sheâs actually working for the CIA. We donât hear from her or see her until she comes back at the end of season five. And no, she doesnât come back for Steve. She comes back for Konoâs fucking wedding. Which doesnât 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. Sheâs âhelping earthquake victims.â When in reality, sheâs just a spook. Later on, Steve finds out sheâs been compromised and goes out of his way to make sure sheâs 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 sheâd 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 wouldâve said to the proposal and she tells him she wouldâve said yes. But that doesnât make sense, because didnât 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 heâd have to be waiting for her whenever she decided to come back into his life and crush him all over again? Iâm 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 donât ship McRollins, itâs 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. Itâs because she abandoned him. Itâs because she did the very thing she knew would tear him apart. Itâs because she doesnât 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!Â
If you disagree, I donât care. Donât bother messaging me.
THIS! All of THIS!
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Every. fucking. word. of. this.
Had to reblog the yearly reminder since we're going to have to watch her onscreen again... đ¤˘
SHE LEFT HIM TO BE BEHEADED *AFTER* SHE HAD ALREADY SAVED THE CHILDREN!
Called Danny and then run to hide!















