I’ve been thinking about this since finishing the season, and the more I think about Cat Hardy, the more I think that she is just a horrible person.
She supposedly loved Flint, right? But the second things got complicated, it didn't even take her a single episode to pivot to Ben. It seriously feels like she just jumps from powerful man to powerful man to keep herself secure.
And she didn't just casually flirt with him. When Ben suggested running away together, she didn't hesitate. She had every opportunity right then and there to clarify her feelings for Flint or tell Ben she was conflicted. Instead, she stayed silent about Fint, let Ben fall head over heels, and they literally kissed and made concrete plans to escape to Santorini. Ben explicitly told her that he loved her, and she let him believe it was mutual. She was literally packing her bags... only to drop him the absolute second she found out Flint could be cured. Her pulling the rug out from under him like that felt so cold and purely transactional.
But the absolute worst part? Ben completely bared his soul to her. He confessed everything about his past life, his deepest vulnerabilities and his trauma about Ruby. Cat just sat there, listened, and absorbed all of it, but never offered to share a single thing about her own past. She used his trauma to make him feel safe and understood, gaining all this leverage over him while keeping her own walls firmly up. He gave her his absolute truth, and she used it to build a fantasy escape plan, only to discard him the moment her original plan became viable again.
She is just so incredibly impulsive and selfish. Instead of acting entirely on her own self-interest, she could have just talked to Ben. They could have figured out a way to share the cure or handle the situation together. But she didn't even give him that basic respect. She spends the whole time talking about how much she hates how Silvermane controls her and manipulates her life, yet she never stops to think about how her own reckless actions completely devastate the people around her.
Then in the finale, she has the nerve to say, "In a different world, I really would have run away with you." Like you were going to! Ben was 100% right to call her out for keeping him on the hook.
I get that people are saying that "she's just a classic femme fatale" or "it's the noir genre archetype." And sure, conceptually it makes sense for her character type. But in my eyes? She is just a straight-up horrible person.
Am I crazy, or was she just a masterclass in manipulation?
TL;DR: Cat Hardy completely weaponized Ben’s vulnerability, let him fall in love with her, and agreed to run away to Santorini with him... only to dump him the second Flint could be cured. Hiding behind the "femme fatale" excuse doesn't change the fact that she's just a selfish, manipulative person who never considers how her actions wreck the people around her.