"Kate's Motel" is an orchestral piece from the Season One soundtrack. The winding eight-note passage with a slower counterpoint serves as Kate's character theme.
Main appearance
A car pulls up in front of a motel, and a blonde woman steps out, her face concealed. She opens her trunk and pulls up its bottom lining, revealing dozens of license plates. Taking one for Ohio, she removes the current license plate and screws on its replacement. A maid cleaning a room leaves the door open, and the woman steals supplies from her cart and enters a different room.
Once inside, she undresses and begins using a product on her hair. Stepping into the shower, she washes her hair, revealing that she is a brunette with dyed hair. Finally, she faces the camera, and we see who she is.
The woman collects an envelope from the front desk that is registered to Joan Hart. She opens it in her car, revealing money and a letter. Upon reading the letter, she breaks down and starts crying.
Full list of appearances
"Kate's Motel" and its variations appear in the following scenes.
- Kate enters a hotel, dyes her hair and collects a letter. ("Born to Run")
- Kate asks to go with Michael on the raft. ("Born to Run")
- Kate leaves her mother flowers at the hospital. ("Born to Run")
- Sawyer accuses Kate of trying to take his place on the Raft to have a better chance of evading capture. ("Born to Run")
- Kate and Tom Brennan drive to their time capsule. ("Born to Run")
- Later, they dig up the capsule and listen to the tape inside. ("Born to Run")
- Sawyer shows Michael that Kate stole and edited Joanna's passport. ("Born to Run")
- Kate visits her bedridden mother. ("Born to Run")
- The assembled survivors walk away from Kate. ("Born to Run")
- Ed Mars captures Kate for the first time. ("What Kate Did")
- Kate kisses Jack. ("What Kate Did")
- Kate escapes after a horse distracts Ed Mars. ("What Kate Did")
- Kate talks to Sam Austen about her father. ("What Kate Did")
- Kate talks to an unconscious Sawyer as though he is Wayne. ("What Kate Did")
- Kate and Sawyer approach the horse together. ("What Kate Did")
- Kate puts on the dress given to her by the Others. ("A Tale of Two Cities")
- Tom leads Kate to breakfast with Ben. ("A Tale of Two Cities")
- Tom puts Kate in her cage. ("A Tale of Two Cities")
- Kate escapes her cage and tries to free Sawyer. ("Every Man for Himself")
- Ben reveals his con to Sawyer. ("Every Man for Himself")
- Juliet tells Kate that she can save Sawyer. ("I Do")
- Kate watches Kevin drive away. ("I Do")
- Suzanne Callis gives Kate a family heirloom. ("I Do")
- Sawyer tells Kate that they are on a different island. ("I Do")
- Kate drugs her husband's drink. ("I Do")
- She climbs a fallen tree over the sonic fence. ("Par Avion")
- Kate attacks Juliet in the Barracks. ("Left Behind")
- Kate meets Cassidy. ("Left Behind")
- Kate falls unconscious as the Others' gas takes effect. ("Left Behind")
- Kate realizes she is handcuffed to Juliet. ("Left Behind")
- Cassidy impersonates Kate. ("Left Behind")
- Juliet tells Kate she broke Jack's heart. ("Left Behind")
- Kate and her mother talk in the bathroom. ("Left Behind")
- Kate says goodbye to Cassidy and reveals her name. ("Left Behind")
- Kate enters Sawyer's tent. ("Catch-22")
- Jack gives Kate a newspaper clipping. ("Through the Looking Glass, Part 2")
- Kate and Sawyer debate about whether to go home or stay on the Island. ("The Economist")
- Kate tells Sawyer to "go home." ("Eggtown")
- Kate's court declares her a flight risk. ("Eggtown")
- Kate tricks Hurley into divulging Miles's location. ("Eggtown")
- Kate refuses to let her son be used in her defense. ("Eggtown")
- Jack testifies for Kate's defense. In cross-examination, he testifies that he no longer loves Kate. ("Eggtown")
- Kate asks Sawyer for help in breaking Ben out of Locke's basement. ("Eggtown")
- Kate and Miles break into Locke's house to see Ben. ("Eggtown")
- Kate's mother tells her that she doesn't want to testify against her. ("Eggtown")
- Sawyer tells Kate that he'll keep her safe. ("Eggtown")
- Sawyer tries to persuade Kate to have sex with him. ("Eggtown")
- Kate accepts the D.A.'s deal. ("Eggtown")
- Jack finds Kate in the jungle. ("The Other Woman")
- Kate tells Jack why she stayed at Locke's camp. ("The Other Woman")
- Kate fails to seduce Jack. ("The Shape of Things to Come")
- Jack asks that Kate help during his surgery. ("Something Nice Back Home")
- Sawyer kisses Kate in the chopper, and then jumps. ("There's No Place Like Home, Part 2")
- Kate and Aaron flee their home. ("Because You Left")
- Sawyer tells Daniel that he just lost all of his friends on the helicopter and not to tell him about things he can't change. ("Because You Left")
- Kate gets a call from Sun. ("The Lie")
- Kate talks to Jack on Penny's boat. ("The Little Prince")
- Dan Norton tells Kate that she will lose custody of Aaron. ("The Little Prince")
- Locke asks Sawyer if he wants Kate to return to the Island. ("The Little Prince")
- Jack and Kate talk. They follow Norton's car. ("The Little Prince")
- Kate sees Claire's mother. ("The Little Prince")
- Kate talks to Ben at the dock. ("The Little Prince")
- In a Previously on Lost recap, lawyers visit Kate's house. Sun tells her to take care of them. She meets Ben at the dock. ("This Place Is Death")
- Kate tells Jack not to ask her about Aaron. ("316")
- LaFleur, t night, looks out from his house at Kate. ("Namaste")
- Kate sees Cassidy. ("Whatever Happened, Happened")
- They talk about Sawyer. ("Whatever Happened, Happened")
- Kate tries to convince Jack to operate on Ben. ("Whatever Happened, Happened")
- Kate arrives at the Infirmary to give blood to Ben. ("Whatever Happened, Happened")
- Kate finds Aaron after he goes missing in the store. ("Whatever Happened, Happened")
- Cassidy tells Kate she took Aaron to help herself. ("Whatever Happened, Happened")
- Jack, Kate and Daniel prepare to leave DHARMA territory. ("The Variable")
- Kate interrupts a moment between Sawyer and Juliet on the sub. ("Follow the Leader")
- Kate and Tom Brennan prepare to enter a store. ("The Incident, Part 1")
- Kate hears Juliet buried in the Swan. ("LA X, Part 1")
- Kate tries to pick her handcuffs with a pen. ("LA X, Part 2")
- Jack and Hurley encounter Kate in the jungle. ("Lighthouse")
- Kate enters the Temple and talks to Miles. ("Sundown")
- The Man in Black apologizes to Kate for Claire's attack. ("Recon")
- Kate prepares Claire for labor. ("The End")
Variations
The theme reappears in "Backgammon Gambit", "Flash Forward Flashback" "Heavy Metal Crew", "Our Lady of Perpetual Labor", "Romancing the Cage", "Sawyer Jones and the Temple of Boom" and "Sundown".
Title significance and influences
The title, "Kate's Motel", is a reference to the Bates Motel from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. The theme bears a slight resemblance to one of Psycho's themes, found in the cue "Temptation". In the scene in which the piece plays in Lost, Kate arrives at a motel. Michael Giacchino has cited Bernard Herrmann, (composer of Psycho among other films) as an influence on his career. The piece is also somewhat similar to the 13th-century Latin hymn "Dies Irae", which was sometimes an inspiration to Hermann.
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