Kate Austen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kate | |
|---|---|
 Evangeline Lilly as Kate Austen |
|
| First appearance | "Pilot, Part 1" |
| Centric episodes | "Pilot, Part 2" "Tabula Rasa" "Whatever the Case May Be" "Born to Run" "Exodus, Part 1" "Exodus, Part 2" "What Kate Did" "I Do" "Left Behind" |
| Information | |
| Name | Katherine Austen |
| Status | Returning to the survivor's beach along with Jack, Sayid, and Juliet. |
| Profession | Fugitive |
| Portrayed by | Evangeline Lilly |
Katherine "Kate" Austen is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Evangeline Lilly.
Contents |
[edit] Prior to the crash
In the episode "Born to Run" we learn Kate grew up in the U.S. state of Iowa, and was the daughter of a soldier and a diner waitress. In "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues," she tells Jack she learned how to read tracks in the wild from her father, an avid outdoorsman who once took her into the woods to track deer for eight hours.
As we learn in flashbacks in "What Kate Did," Kate's parents divorced and Kate's mother Diane married Wayne, an alcoholic who physically abused Diane. When Kate was making a scrapbook as a present for her father, she discovered the man who she thought was her biological father was still in Korea when she was conceived; she then realized Wayne is her biological father. Kate took out an insurance policy and blew up her house with Wayne inside it, meaning to benefit her mother. She explained this to her mother and fled, but was captured at a bus station by US marshal Edward Mars, who claims Kate's mother went to the authorities with what Kate had told her.
En route to the indictment hearing for Wayne's murder, a large black horse appeared in front of the Marshal's car, causing him to swerve off the road. While the marshal was still stunned from the air bag deployment, Kate was able to take his keys. After a brief tussle, Kate knocked him out of the car and drove off.
It is revealed that sometime after that. in flashbacks in the episode "Left Behind" Kate (under the alias Lucy) goes back to Iowa to see her mother again to ask why she told the cops about Wayne's murder. Kate does this with the help of Sawyers ex-girlfriend, Cassidy Phillips. It is revealed that her mother was still in love with Wayne and that after his murder she carried hard feelings for Kate. Kate is then told that if her mother ever sees her again, she will yell for help.
In the flashbacks in "Born to Run," Kate traveled around the country with a car trunk full of license plates from various states, using hair dye to disguise her appearance.
Kate then received word her mother was dying from cancer, Kate took a chance and went home. There she met and reignited her childhood romance with Tom Brennan, now married and a doctor at the hospital. The two dug up a time capsule they had buried 15 years earlier, which contained a tape recording and a selection of Tom's toys, including a little toy airplane. Kate convinced Tom to arrange a visit with her mother, who was being guarded in the chance her daughter would make an appearance. Once Kate revealed herself to her mother, Diane began screaming for help, and Kate was forced to flee. She asked Tom for his car keys, but he demanded to go with her, saying the police would be easy on her if she cooperated. Kate sped towards a police car blockading the entrance of the parking garage, and an officer fired off a few shots as she passed. She then crashed into another car. Kate turned to Tom and saw he was dead. Kate fled the scene, leaving behind the toy airplane.
In the episode "Whatever the Case May Be" Kate was involved in an elaborate bank robbery in New Mexico, in which she presented herself to the bank manager as an innocent bystander while she was actually romantically linked with the bank robbers' supposed leader. Posing as "Maggie Ryan" applying for a loan, Kate was rounded up by the robbers as one of the hostages.
When another hostage overpowered a robber, Kate grabbed one of their guns, but immediately claimed to be unable to use it. The lead robber then took Kate into a back room, and after a quick kiss, hit her so as to continue the ruse. The robber brought in the bank manager and claimed he would kill the seemingly innocent Kate, unless the vault were opened. Thinking he was saving her life, the bank manager complied. In the vault, the robber revealed Kate had actually planned and organized the entire operation. The robber, intent on shooting the manager, was stopped by Kate, who instead shot the robber in the leg, then forced the manager to open a safe deposit box. Inside the box was a single item: Tom's toy airplane.
In the episode "I Do" Kate (under the alias Monica) met a police officer named Kevin and eventually settled down with him in Miami, Florida. At the day of marriage, Kevin's mother gave Kate a gold chain with a trinket on it that was supposed to go to her daughter, but since she had four boys Kate was the only choice. Later on, Kate called Edward Mars from a phone booth. She set a timer (supposedly it went off one second before they could trace her call) and begged him to stop looking for her because she was happy. Mars said he would stop chasing her only if she really settled down, but that he knew she would never stop running. Afterwards, Kevin revealed he bought two tickets to Costa Rica (also on Oceanic Airlines) for a honeymoon. After a home pregnancy test she took showed two blue lines, Kate decided to come clean. She drugged his tea so he wouldn't remember the conversation and wouldn't lose his job. She told him she was a fugitive, her name wasn't Monica, and she almost had a baby. Kevin, a little woozy from the drugs, was emotionally struck with this revelation. He fell unconscious to the floor, and Kate placed the gold chain in his hand as she left.
Sometime later, in the episode "Tabula Rasa" Kate turned up in Australia. Using the name Annie and claiming to be Canadian, she arrived at the house of an Outback farmer, who, in exchange for help around his farm, offered her a wage and a home. Months later, in the middle of the night, Kate attempted to sneak out of the house. The farmer interrupted her in this attempt, and insisted he drive her to the train station the next morning.
On the road, their truck is followed by Edward Mars. The farmer admitted that he saw Kate's picture on a wanted poster at the post office and turned her in for the cash reward (later revealed to be $23,000; 23 is one of the numbers). Kate grabbed the wheel and drove off the road, rolling the truck. Despite being free to escape, Kate pulled the injured farmer away from the wreck, giving the marshal time to capture her.
Immediately prior to the flight, the marshal revealed to an Australian law enforcement officer that he had been chasing Kate for three years, and he had put the toy airplane in the safe deposit box as bait. He now had the toy airplane in his possession, presumably having recovered it from Kate's possessions after capturing her.
On board Flight 815, she was sitting handcuffed beside the marshal. Just prior to the crash, she asked the marshal for a favor, which she later claims was to make sure the farmer received the reward for turning her in. As the plane broke apart, the marshal was injured. Kate stole the keys to her handcuffs, but made sure to apply the marshal's oxygen mask before putting on her own.
[edit] After the crash
Since arriving on the island, Kate has been involved with most of the major developments that occur to the survivors, from the recovery of the transceiver, to the discovery of the repeating transmission, the polar bear, the cave-in, and the decision to move to the caves. This is due in no small part to her friendship with Sayid, Charlie, and Hurley, as well as her apparent feelings for both Jack and Sawyer.
In "Walkabout," Kate will not help Locke kill the boars, even though her father trained her how to hunt, and says, "I'm a vegetarian." In a later episode, however, she is seen killing a shellfish with Sawyer helping her get the food for others on the Island.
During a game of "I Never" in "Outlaws," Kate reveals to Sawyer that she was married, though she says the marriage didn't last very long (her marriage to Kevin). She also reveals that she has killed a man, although she may have been referring to Tom, as she also tells Jack that the toy airplane "belonged to the man I killed."
Later, Kate helps deliver Claire's baby boy in the middle of the jungle, while Jack is in the midst of trying to save Boone's life.
When Sawyer dumps out the contents of her backpack, he finds out that she is carrying the passport of a survivor who drowned a few days after the crash, presumably to use for future false identification, in "Born to Run." He then tells everyone about it because she made a statement that she would take his spot on the raft.
Kate is also the first to enter into the DHARMA Initiative station known as "The Swan" and therefore the first to be captured by Desmond. Inside, Desmond tells Kate to tie Locke up, but Locke insists that she is the more dangerous one. As a result Desmond instructs Locke to bind Kate's hands and feet. Locke does so, but smuggles a knife into Kate's jeans, and then locks her inside a cupboard room. There Kate, after struggling loose with Locke's knife, finds that the room is full of food. She takes some Apollo bars, eats some but saves one or two, and escapes through the vents. Soon she exits the vents and finds that Locke, Desmond, and Jack are arguing and that Desmond is holding Locke as a hostage. In an effort to stop this, Kate hits Desmond over the head and arms the computer to the countdown timer.
Later, when all of the Swan incidents are resolved, Kate invites Jack to a game of golf at Hurley's makeshift golf course. There she and Jack are confronted by Eko who brings a wounded and delirious Sawyer. Kate takes care of Sawyer as his fever worsens and is left alone with him in the hatch. This results in Sawyer trying to choke her and demanding to know why she "killed him." Confused and frightened Kate ran off into the jungle, leaving Sawyer on the floor. She believed that Sawyer was being possessed by Wayne, her birth father whom she killed. Jack found Sawyer alone and on the floor, and went to find Kate in the jungle, demanding to know why she foolishly left a wounded man unattended. An emotionally distraught Kate lashed out at him and tried to run, but Jack wouldn't let her. As Jack comforted her, Kate gave in to her feelings for Jack, and kissed him. When the kiss was over, Jack looked at her with confusion and Kate stumbled away from Jack, running further into the jungle. The kiss greatly complicated Kate and Jack's relationship, which was no longer purely platonic.
After Sawyer, Jack, and Locke decided to go after Michael, Kate demanded to go with them. Jack denied her request, but she disobeyed his request by following them anyway. Soon after she was captured by "the Others" and was exchanged for the trio's guns and promise to return to their camp. Jack held this against Kate, making their relationship even more complicated. Sawyer, however, told her he would have done the very same thing.
Later, Claire and Kate went out to find Danielle Rousseau so they could find the place Claire was taken to. When Claire asked Kate about Rousseau, she was reluctant to tell Claire about Rousseau killing her team because they were sick. They happened upon another hatch, which seemed to be an abandoned medical station (dubbed "the Staff" on a map viewed by Locke in a later episode). Kate opened some lockers to discover raggedy clothing, a fake beard, and glue.
In "S.O.S." Jack enlisted Kate to go with him to recover Walt, as she was a strong character, in exchange for Henry Gale. Kate was flattered that Jack had welcomed her back into the club, but Jack merely stated that he has chosen her because Sayid refused him. During their trek, Kate found a doll and was about to pick it up when Jack ran over and said that it was a trap. But it was too late, and Jack and Kate were both pulled up into a net. They managed to escape when Jack shot the rope holding the net up. As they ventured into the forbidden line, Kate apologized for kissing Jack. Jack said he doesn't feel sorry about the kiss. As the two were about to talk about their relationship in further detail, an exhausted and possibly injured Michael stumbled toward them, thus halting any more attention regarding Jack and Kate's tempestuous relationship.
In "?," Jack asked Sawyer for the heroin he had stashed away in order to ease Libby's pain before she died. Kate went with him, and discovered that Sawyer's hidden stash was in his very tent, buried underneath the sand. She also was the one who told Hurley that Libby had been shot. During Libby's death Kate was overcome by sadness and wept to herself. There, Sawyer came to comfort and wept with her. Kate then aided Hurley in digging the graves for the dead Ana Lucia and Libby.
During "Three Minutes," Kate agreed to go with Michael and the other people to go and get Walt. She was unaware that in fact the Others told Michael that she was to be one of the people that had to be brought to them.
In the season 2 finale "Live Together, Die Alone," Kate was suspicious about Michael's claim of the Others being primitive "hillbillies," mainly due to her prior discovery of the clothing in the Staff. As they were walking, she discovered that they were being followed by two members of the Others. She and Sawyer began firing at them — hitting and (presumably) killing one of them. Jack then told them he knew that they would be following, and subsequently got Michael to tell them about his plan.
The Others trapped the party when they stopped to investigate a pile of tubes in a field. While trying to escape, Kate was hit with a powerful dart, which rendered her unable to move. She fell down in a comatose state. Jack then tried to carry her, but was also shot by a dart and both were rendered immobile. They were taken to the Pala Ferry, bound, hooded, and gagged, whereupon Michael was reunited with Walt and allowed to leave with him. Kate got the Other known as Tom (also known as Mr. Friendly) to admit that his beard was a fake. She then waited as Henry Gale came to give instruction to the Others. Shortly after a mysterious light and sound emanates from the hatch, Kate, Sawyer, and Jack were taken away.
In the season 3 premiere, "A Tale of Two Cities," Kate woke up on the floor of a shower with Tom standing over her. He told her to shower and clean up, ignoring her questions about her current location or the status of Jack and Sawyer. After Kate showerd, she discovered that her clothes had been taken away, but a note on a nearby locker read "Wear This." Inside was a sun dress of Alex Rousseau's, which Kate had no choice but to wear. Tom appeared again and escorted Kate to a beach, where "Henry Gale" was waiting at a table, complete with a full breakfast. Kate was handcuffed. She asked about Sawyer and Jack, and Henry was curious why Kate asked about Sawyer first. Henry told her that the dress and the breakfast were being offered because he wanted Kate to have a taste of civility, since the next two weeks were going to be "unpleasant." Kate was then locked in a cage in a type of abandoned zoo, where Tom removed her handcuffs. Sawyer was in a cage across the way and the two were relieved to be reunited.
The next day, Kate and Sawyer were forced to excavate and move heavy rocks, "The Glass Ballerina." A hidden Alex spoke to Kate from the bushes, asking about a boy named Karl, who was in Kate's cage before she arrived. Seeing Kate working in the sun dress was too much for Sawyer, and the two kissed for the first time in the equivalent of almost two seasons. They seemed to have reconnected, and indirectly, broke the connection between Kate and Jack.
The next morning, Sawyer was beaten by Ben (Henry's real name) and taken out of his cage, "Every Man for Himself," only to later return very subdued and quiet, refusing to continue plans to escape. Kate asked what happened to him, but Sawyer refused to answer (he believed a pacemaker was put inside of him to prevent him from escaping, and if he told Kate, one would be put inside her as well). Soon, an Other named Danny Pickett began beating up Sawyer, who did not fight back. Pickett repeatedly asked Kate if she loved Saywer, and she frantically said she did in order to stop the beating. Later on, Kate realized she could climb out of her cage, and when she successfully got out, Sawyer refused to escape with her. Instead of leaving him behind, she went back into her cage.
Kate worried for Sawyer's safety as Pickett threatened to kill Sawyer, "I Do." Juliet took Kate to see Jack, who she had to convince to do the surgery or Sawyer would have been killed. She failed, however leaving Jack extremely angry. Pickett told her to say what she had to say to Sawyer as he would kill Sawyer soon. Climbing out of her cage, she entered Sawyer's by breaking the lock. After a heated conversation with Sawyer, she kissed him and they had sex. Jack saw Kate in Sawyer's arms on the camera. Shocked and heart-broken, he agreed to perform the surgery on Ben as he had nothing left to stay on the island. Pickett held a gun to Sawyer's head and almost killed him, but Jack, performing surgery on Ben, got Tom to radio him, and interrupted, inadvertently preventing Sawyer's death. Jack told Kate to run and when she reached safety to radio him telling him the story he told her the first time she met him. Kate said she could not leave without Jack but Jack again told her to run.
When Sawyer began attacking Pickett, Kate turned on the Other holding her, and the two locked them in the cage before making a run for the beach, "Not in Portland." When they arrived, Kate radioed Jack for a boat, but her attempt was intercepted when Pickett arrived and shot the radio. She and Sawyer escaped into the jungle and encountered Alex. She hid them in a hidden hole, and lost Pickett and the Others. Alex told Kate that she had a boat, but only if she helped rescue Karl. She and Sawyer posed as hostages when Alex approached the guard of some holding cells, and the three of them manage to enter. They found Karl in cell 23, being brainwashed. They managed to escape unnoticed. Back on the beach, Kate helped load Karl onto the boat, but they were caught again by Pickett. Juliet suddenly appeared and shot him, allowing them to escape with Karl. Alex, however, was told to remain on the island. Before they left, Juliet gave Kate her radio to contact Jack. She told him the story he told her when they first met, reminding him how he counted to five when operating on the girl. Kate was extremely upset and in tears when she was told by Jack never to return for him. She and Sawyer left soon after.
In "Stranger in a Strange Land," shortly after leaving Alcatraz island, Kate was adamant on Sawyer turning the boat around so they could rescue Jack. However, despite her protests, they made it to the shore of their own island. When they stopped to rest, Karl woke up and told them about the "Alcatraz" island, and explained that they only worked there and that they lived on the same island as they did. When asked about the children, Karl told her that they took them so they could live a better life than what they were currently living. The next morning, Kate woke up to discover that Karl had disappeared during the night. They heard him crying in the jungle, but Sawyer told Kate to let him handle it himself. When the two returned, Sawyer decided to allow Karl to return to his village, seeing him as "excess baggage" they needed to get rid of. After he left, Kate and Sawyer had an argument about their relationship and due to the fact that Kate felt guilty about leaving Jack behind. They both started their journey towards the survivor's camps.
In "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead," Kate and Sawyer continued their journey to the beach. She helped remove a dart from Sawyer's foot, and then suggested they reconcile, but Sawyer refused. When they arrived on the beach, they received a warm greeting from everyone especially Sun who greeted her with a hug. She told Sayid about her tale of events, and also told him and Locke that she intended on rescuing Jack. Later that night, Kate wandered through the jungle, followed by Sayid and Locke, who asked her why she didn't seek their help. She accused them of not being motivated. During that conversation, they heard gunfire. Kate suspected Rousseau, and called her out. She told her of the 16-year-old who helped her escape, and suggested it may be her kidnapped daughter.
In "Enter 77" Locke, Rousseau, Kate and Sayid found the eye patched man in a small house in the middle of the jungle. Rousseau decided to leave and Kate, Sayid and Locke investigated. At first he shot Sayid in the shoulder but he was not hurt all that bad and soon he apologized to Sayid and told him that he was the last remaining member of the DHARMA Initiative. Locke found a computer with a chess game on it and Mikhail who was the eye patched man told Locke that he had been trying to win that game for years but the computer had always beaten him. When it was revelaed that Mikhail was an Other, Sayid and Kate fought him and ended up winning. Sayid and Kate then tied him up. After Sayid discovered a secret door in the floor underneath a mat he and Kate investigated while Locke kept guard. They found explosives all over the walls so if it was to blow up the house would go with it. Kate was then attacked by Bea Klugh who Kate smacked repeatedly but she was stopped by Sayid. She told him she was an Other and that she was there when she, Sawyer and Jack were kidnapped. When Sayid held Bea at gunpoint he and Kate took her prisoner and they found Mikail keeping Locke hostage outside. Bea and Mikhail spoke in Russian to each other confusing Locke, Sayid and Kate then Bea yelled firmly in English "Just do it Mikhail!" Mikhail pushed Locke out of the way said sorry to Bea and then shot her in the chest, which killed her straight away. Sayid held a gun to Mikhails head and when he asked Sayid to kill him he didn't. Sayid, Kate, Locke, Rousseau and their prisoner Mikhail left the flame and it blew up behind them. Locke revealed that he needed to because if the hostilities had taken over of the station then he needed to press "77."
In the episode "Par Avion", the group encountered a strange row of pylons that surround the Others' territory. Locke pushed Mikhail past them, which activated a sonar frequency causing Mikhail to have a brain hemorrhage and die. Kate, Sayid, Locke and Rousseau then put a branch up against a pylon of the security system and over the other side of it and all four climbed over successfully activating the radar. The four then encountered Jack playing football with Tom, and Sayid stopped Kate from approaching the changed Jack.
In the episode "The Man From Tallahassee" Kate, Sayid and Locke headed into the barracks to save Jack. While Sayid and Locke guarded, Kate went inside. She heard a piano playing and entered a living area room and there she found Jack, who was playing. Jack told her to leave, however two others run in with guns and push Kate to the floor and asked Kate who else was with them. Some more men came in and put the captured Sayid against the floor too. They did not tell the Others that Locke was also with them. In a games room, Jack came in and Kate was tied up. The two talk about the Others and how they promised to let Jack off the island. Jack told Kate that he would be coming back for her. Jack then left with Juliet, leaving Kate alone.
In "Left Behind", Kate attacks Juliet when she brings her some food, but is overpowered. The next morning, Locke visits to say goodbye to her and, after some time, Kate notices that the Others are packing bags and wearing gas masks. She is then knocked out with nerve gas. She awakens in the jungle, handcuffed to an equally bemused Juliet, and the two constantly bicker. Kate is devastated when Juliet tells her that Jack saw her sleeping with Sawyer and that she broke Jack's heart. They both discuss Jack further when they are soon hounded by the smoke monster, and are forced to flee back to the Others' camp. On their way, Kate witnesses Juliet trapping the monster with the surrounding pylons. Kate angrily storms off after discovering that Juliet had the key to the handcuffs all along. The two eventually find the camp again, and Kate finds Jack unconscious in the hallway of his house. She apologizes to Jack for ruining his chance of escape, and helps him out of the house. The two of them, along with Juliet and Sayid, decide to return to the beach.
[edit] Behind the scenes
- In the original plot for Lost, in which Jack dies when the group finds the cockpit, Kate was to emerge as the leader for the survivors, motivating them to build shelter and begin considering life as permanent residents of the island.
- In the original description for Kate, she was a slightly older woman separated from her husband, who went to the bathroom in the tail-section of the plane. However, that idea ended up being used for Rose and her husband Bernard.
- Yunjin Kim originally tried out for Kate. The producers liked her but didn't think she was right for the part, so they wrote the role of Sun-Hwa Kwon for her.
- In real life, the actress who portrays Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) is the girlfriend of the actor who portrays Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan).
- In real life, Evangeline Lilly's home in Hawaii that she shared with two other cast mates was burned down.
[edit] References
[edit] Commentary
- ^ J.J. Abrams (Director) Damon Lindelof (Director). (2004) Lost Season 1 DVD [DVD]. Los Angeles: Buena Vista Home Entertainment..
- ^ J.J. Abrams (Director) Lloyd Braun (Director). (2004) Lost Season 1 DVD [DVD]. Los Angeles: Buena Vista Home Entertainment..
| Lost | |
|---|---|
| Production: | DVD releases • Episode list • Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3 • Soundtrack |
| Main characters: |
Ana Lucia • Ben • Boone • Charlie • Claire • Desmond • Hurley • Jack • Jin • Juliet • Kate Libby • Locke • Michael • Mr. Eko • Nikki • Paulo • Sawyer • Sayid • Shannon • Sun • Walt |
| Supporting characters: |
Alex • Bernard • Christian • Cindy • Ethan • The Others • Pickett • Rose • Rousseau • Tom |
| Organizations: | DHARMA Initiative • Hanso Foundation • Oceanic Airlines |
| Elements: | Crossover list • DHARMA Initiative stations • Flight 815 • Mythology • Thematic motifs |
| Miscellaneous: | Gary Troup • In popular culture • Lost Experience • Rachel Blake • Video game |
