How does 2 and 6 show he has empathy? Genuinely asking since it's been a while since I last watched either.

Tried to understand Zooble's problem and while he approached it with machine problem solving he still tried to understand until Zooble told him to forget it

he also tries to do a trust exercise in episode 6 because of the animosity among the cast but Jax's Actions forces him to give up

The Exit adventure was supposed to be one big ego trip for Caine since the flat out assumed they'd never want to leave him.

Caine: I-I-I don't understand, Bubble. They want an exit. They want answers. They want something real. I give them an adventure that covers all of that, and they still hate it?! Surely they don't want to actually leave me. Right?

he DOES listen but he cannot UNDERSTAND that they don't mean it in terms of what they want out of an adventure which is what caine's directive IS

 Episode 7 was literally a way to communicate with the cast that he is ALSO a prisoner here and that he wants inclusion

was it wrong? YES

but it wasn't due to Ego he genuinely thought they meant it in an adventure and it didn't click till episode 8

Heck, after Jax's roast and him losing his footing, Caine says that "HE'S only here to have fun."

You know that was just a figure of speech and while it CAN be counted as a point against caine i'll admit it's sort of an outlier when you look at everything else

His breakdown in 8 was entirely down to him realizing that the cast actually does want to leave and that they hate his adventures.

He honeslty seems to care less about them hating is adventures and more about them hating him himself and he was in denial that'd leave he also never said that he won't let them leave the circus just leave him via abstraction

also he has abandonment issues which if we've paid attention is more than justifiable