I'm always amused by how that page, when taken out of context of the story-arc, you have no explanation for why he looks really out of it and is all stubbly and not himself.
but there's a definite underlying notion that he's being nice to Cass solely in order to have emotional blackmail on his side when he asks her not to help him
Yeah, I can see that. Not necessarily here, because it's not definite that Cass will listen to him when he says to stay out of it (and she doesn't), but their relationship is quite unhealthy at turns.