Kate Austen

Kate Austen
Actor	Evangeline Lilly
First Island Appearance	"Pilot, Part 1"
Last Island Appearance	N/A
Age	27-28
Origin	Iowa, USA
Status	Alive - imprisoned
Profession	Unknown
In Australia...	...to escape arrest
On the flight...	...to be escorted to USA by the Marshal
Family Members...	noinclude>-</noinclude>
Images	Images of Katherine "Kate" Austen

Katherine "Kate" Austen is one of the middle section survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. She is currently being held captive by the Others along with Jack and Sawyer.

Before the crash

Born in 1977, Katherine Austen was raised in rural Iowa by her mother, Diane Janssen, and Sam Austen, whom Kate believed to be her father. However her true biological father was a man named Wayne. By the time Kate was an adult, Sam and Diane had separated, and Diane revived her relationship with Wayne. Kate disliked Wayne intensely, as she eventually found herself as the object of his drunken sexual advances, as well as discovering his physical abuse of her mother.

Kate, arrested by Edward Mars, on her first escape attempt at the bus station

Kate discovered the truth that Wayne was her true father when she discovered a wartime photograph of Sam dated nine months before she was born, indicating that he could not possibly be her father. Disgusted by this new knowledge, and his recent unruly behavior, she decided the solution was to help her mother by murdering Wayne. She took out a home owner's insurance policy on the family house, then orchestrated a devastating gas explosion and fire while Wayne was asleep inside. However, instead of being thankful, Diane reported Kate to the authorities. Kate has been on the run from the law ever since, and U.S. Marshal Edward Mars soon became the prominent law enforcement figure in her pursuit.

Mars' pursuit of Kate was a long one, and Kate evaded his attempts at capturing her many times. Her first escape came was after Mars had captured her at a bus station. However as he was driving her in custody, a black horse ran in front of his car and forced them off the road. Kate ran from the scene of the accident, leaving a wounded Mars behind.

Later, Kate learned that her mother was hospitalized, and dying of cancer. She sought the help of her childhood sweetheart, Tom Brennan, a doctor at Diane's hospital, to gain access to secretly visit her. However during the visit, Diane screamed for help to the nearby security guards who had been posted, forcing Kate to attempt another escape. Against Kate's objections, Brennan insisted on assisting her in the getaway using his automobile. Tragically, he was shot fatally in the attempt, and Kate was forced to flee on foot.

Kate, in her wedding gown

Still on the run, Kate attempted to assume a new life by relocating to Florida under the alias Monica, where she married a police officer named Kevin Callis. Callis did not know her true identity. As Kate truly thought she was happy, she called the Marshal and begged him to stop chasing her. True to Mars' assertion, domestic life did not become Kate, and she soon abandoned Callis, drugging him first so that he would not be implicated in her crimes.

In a later attempt to lure Kate, Mars informed her that he possessed her toy airplane, a highly sentimental item from the time capsule that she and Tom had buried together while in high school. Mars told her it was located in a safety deposit box in a New Mexico bank. Despite the risk of capture, Kate traveled to New Mexico, where she posed as Monica to become affiliated with a group of bank robbers, becoming romantically involved with one of them named Jason. She conned the gang into robbing this bank her true intention was the recovery of the toy airplane. The robbery was partially botched, and culminated with Kate betraying the gang by shooting Jason. Kate escaped, abandoning everyone after obtaining with her true objective, the toy airplane.

Kate then fled to Australia, where she boarded at a farm owned by Ray Mullen for 4 months. Mullen eventually noticed Kate's wanted poster at the post office, and attempted to turn her in to Edward Mars for a large monetary reward to pay off his mortgage debts. Kate discovered the plan, but when her escape attempt endangered Mullen's life, she chose to save his life rather than make her escape. She was consequently captured by the Marshal, who then took her aboard the ill-fated Oceanic Flight 815 to extradite her from Australia back to the United States.

On the Island

Season 1

Kate obtaining an antenna from Sayid, to help locate the source of the French Signal

During the turbulence that preceded the crash of Flight 815, Kate's captor, US Marshal Edward Mars, received a head injury caused by falling baggage. Kate unlocked the handcuffs securing her by stealing the keys from the unconscious Mars before the plane crashed. Incidentally, her handcuffs were discovered after the crash by Walt and were used briefly to restrain Jin. Mars' cache of firearms were later discovered as well, and used by the survivors.

One of Kate's first acquaintances post-crash was with Jack, who had just finished tending to the injuries of some of the other survivors, and needed Kate's assistance in stitching one of his own wounds. This acquaintance was the beginning of her involvement in what would become the core subgroup, composed of herself, Jack, Locke, Sayid, and Sawyer, who later were to participate in the most significant adventures of the survivors. It was also the opening scene in what would later become a love triangle involving Jack, who played "straight" man to Sawyer's "bad boy". Jack also was tending to Edward Mars, who was discovered dying; he learned from him that Kate was a criminal and a fugitive; nonetheless he gave Kate the benefit of the doubt, and decided to judge her by her actions on the Island, rather than solely by her history.

Kate's first island adventure, with Jack and Charlie, was the quest to retrieve the cockpit's radio transceiver, in the hope of obtaining rescue. During the expedition, they were confronted by the "Monster" for the first time. Once the transceiver had been obtained, it needed to be repaired, then brought to higher ground for better reception. These needs led to her acquaintance with Sayid, who had technical expertise, as well as Shannon, Boone, and Sawyer. This quest ended with their discover of a chilling distress signal that appeared to have been running for sixteen years.

The beginning of the love triangle formed a few days later, when Jack and Sayid were attempting to force Sawyer to give medication to Shannon, Kate accepted Sawyer's request to kiss him in exchange for revealing his knowledge of Shannon's asthma medication. However the request was only a ruse to get a kiss, since he then revealed that he didn't have the medication.

Kate and Jack, searching in the jungle for kidnapped Claire and Charlie

After Claire and Charlie were kidnapped by Ethan, Kate and Jack went together in pursuit of them. They had a short confrontation with Ethan, then discovered Charlie hanged from a banyan tree, apparently dead, although Jack managed to revive him after an extended resuscitation attempt.

While diving in the waterfall Kate and Sawyer discovered Marshal's Halliburton case, trapped underwater. Kate and Sawyer vied for possession of the case, and Sawyer could not open the locked case despite his best efforts. Kate then convinced Jack to exhume Edward Mars's body to recover the key to unlock the case. Jack then recovered the firearms from the case, but what Kate also got what she had really wanted from the case, the toy airplane from her time capsule with Tom Brennan.("Whatever the Case May Be")

Kate's acquaintance with Sawyer became closer on a boar-hunting trip. During this expedition, they played a game of "I Never", and revealed dark secrets to each other, many of which they had in common, such as having killed someone. However her relations with Sawyer were not always smooth, such as when he revealed the secret that Kate was the Marshal's prisoner, so that he could obtain a space on Michael's raft. However at the time when the raft set sail, Kate had departed on a mission to the Black Rock to find dynamite to blow open the newly-discovered hatch. She realized then that she regretting not having had the chance to say goodbye to Sawyer.

Season 2

Kate, led by Locke into the Swan's pantry

After the mysterious hatch was opened, Jack decided to abandon it because of the survivors could not be hidden in it due to its broken ladder. However instead of assisting with Jack's plan of guarding the survivors in the caves until morning, she decided to defy Jack by assisting Locke's rival plan in exploring the Hatch. Jack followed Kate, and discovered Desmond, a man from his past, holding both of them hostage. In the melee that followed, the Swan computer was damaged, and Desmond fled into the jungle. After the computer was repaired by Sayid, the hatch was now a shared secret, and a valuable resource, among the central subgroup of survivors.

Kate continued to realize her feeling for the absent Sawyer, as she spoke with Sun, who had become her new confidante. Soon the Tailies arrived, bringing with them the return of Michael, Jin, and the ailing Sawyer. Kate continued to bond with Sawyer as she tended to him in the Hatch. It is at this time that she began to encounter a black horse in the jungle, a horse that looks eerily similar to the one that enabled her first escape from Edward Mars by causing a car accident. She eventually had a possible hallucination where Wayne seemed to speak through the unconscious Sawyer. Disturbed, she abandoned Sawyer as well as her duties entering the numbers into the Swan computer, and ran into the jungle. When Jack finally caught up to her, she suddenly kissed him in her emotional confusion, then just as suddenly ran off again, leaving him frozen in shock. Eventually she returned and made a personal confession to Sawyer, who was actually emerging from unconsciousness. He heard her entire monologue in which she realized that Sawyer reminded her of Wayne, whom she loathed for being her true father. After their touching reunion as she realized he was finally conscious, he was helped outside by Kate, where they both made a shared sighting of the black horse.

Later, Claire began having memory flashes from the time she was kidnapped by Ethan. Kate decided to help her findRousseau, whom Claire recalled attacking during that time. After finding her, Rousseau agreed to help for her own reasons. The trio continued their journey to the place where Rousseau had found Claire, which triggered enough memories that enabled her to discover the entrance to the Staff station. Inside, Claire searched for a vaccine for Aaron, Danielle searched for clues to Alex's fate, while Kate found several lockers, containing the Others' trashy costumes, and a fake beard. Upon their return, Kate told Jack of these discoveries, which hinted that the Others were the ragtag, disorganized group they seemed to be.

Kate, watching out for the Others, before she was captured by them

Jack then chose Kate to come with him to "the line", where he planned to force a trade with the Others, Ben for Walt. Kate's love triangle deepened when Kate picked up a baby doll, triggering a net trap in which both were both caught in a temporarily intimate situation. After Jack's attempts to call the Others failed, they made camp, where Kate told him that she was sorry for kissing him. However Jack immediately replied that he wasn't sorry. It was at this point that a disoriented Michael appeared at the line, then fainted, whereupon Kate and Jack carried him back to the Swan.

Unaware of Michael's traitorous intentions to help the Others, Kate agreed to join the squad of five survivors that he suggested to rescue Walt from the Others ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1"). Kate spotted the Others tracking them along their trek, which resulted in Sawyer's shooting of one of them, and Jack's admission that he knew Michael had tricked them all. Despite knowing the truth of their quest, the 5 castaways were captured by the Others at the capsule dump. They were taken to Pala Ferry, where Ben gave Walt back to Michael, along with a boat to use in escaping the Island. As they both left, Hurley was set free and sent back to camp with orders for the survivors not to attempt a rescue. Kate, Jack, and Sawyer were were taken away as prisoners of the Others.

Season 3

Kate, forced to have breakfast with Ben

Kate's first experience as a prisoner at the Others' base was awakening to find a bandage on her arm from an apparent blood sample, and Tom's assertion that her old clothes had been burned. She was then treated well with new clothes, a sundress, and a luxurious beachside breakfast with Ben, during which she was told that the next two weeks were going to be very unpleasant. Ben also quizzed her about her feelings about Jack and Sawyer.

Kate then was imprisoned in a large animal cage, across from a similar cage holding Sawyer. Jack was nowhere to be seen. Kate and Sawyer were forced to work daily at a rock quarry, overseen by a belligerent Pickett. Kate and Sawyer continued to bond, and their ordeal of hard labor at the quarry eventually caused Sawyer to abandon his work to kiss her. As Pickett responded, Sawyer almost turned the situation into a successful escape attempt, which was foiled only when Juliet arrived with a gun and believably threatened to shoot Kate. Kate and Sawyer discussed the strength and composition of the Others, but also began to ask oblique questions about their feelings for each other.

Kate, stopped by Sawyer from opening his cage

When Sawyer believed that he had a deadly device affixed to his heart, Kate discovered that she could escape the cages by climbing out through the top bars. Although mystified why Sawyer did not want to attempt to escape with her, Kate refused to leave him, and climbed back into her cage, quoting Jack, "Live together, die alone" to demonstrate that she would stick with him, despite his attempt to convince Kate to make a solo escape attempt by citing: "Every man for himself." The entire interaction was secretly observed by Ben, who had orchestrated the situation, and appeared to be studying the development of their relationship.

Juliet persuaded Kate to try and convince Jack to perform surgery on Ben, by describing Pickett's threats to kill Sawyer. This was Jack and Kate's first reunion since their journey from the Pala Ferry. Although they were initially grateful to see each other, their conversation immediately soured as Jack accused Kate of being manipulated by the Others. Kate believed Sawyer was soon to be executed. That night, Sawyer revealed to her that they were on a different island than their own, and that escape was probably impossible, and the two of them had sex together for the first time, and she admitted she loved him. The next morning, Pickett and Jason came to shoot the con man. At the last moment, Pickett was interrupted by the walkie-talkie. It was Tom, who ordered Pickett to allow Kate to speak with Jack over the connection. Jack, holding Ben hostage during surgery, tried to order Kate to attempt to run and escape, not knowing that they were isolated on a separate island.

Kate's places and license plates

License Plate	Significance
	Because she was a fugitive, Kate had a stash of license plates hidden within the trunk of her car, to use when adopting a new identity. Some of the license plates found in the picture to the right are: Minnesota, Idaho, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, North Dakota, Colorado, and Wisconsin, all holding a possible reference to the places where she might have been located while on the run.
Iowa	This was Kate's birthplace, and where she was later temporarily reunited with her childhood sweetheart, Tom, while visiting her dying mother. In Iowa, Kate committed her first crime, by killing her 'step' father Wayne, and escaping after, which also makes it the starting point of her escape.
Nebraska/Ohio?	In "Born to Run", Kate changed her license plate from Nebraska to Ohio.
New Mexico	In Ruidoso, New Mexico, Kate staged her bank robbery, to get the toy airplane from the safety deposit box.
Florida	Florida is where Kate married Kevin Callis, and lived with him for a while in Dade County, before escaping again.
Australia	In Australia, Kate lived and worked on Ray Mullen's farm, before he turned her in for the $23,000 reward. By boarding with Edward Mars on Flight 815, Australia became the end point of her escape journey.

Trivia

An Easter egg from the official ABC-created site Oceanic-air.com revealed Kate's assumed name while she was a fugitive, in the form of a fax transmission of her mugshot.

• Kate's legal name is almost certainly Katherine Austen. She has also been referred to or used the aliases as Katherine Ryan, Katherine Dodd, Joan Heart, Maggie Ryan, Annie and Monica, and presumably lived under the name Monica Callis during her marriage. Her father (Sam Austen) called her Katie. Her mother called her Katherine. Sawyer almost always calls her Freckles, but occasionally calls her Kate during exceptionally emotional or tense conversations.
• According to the Marshal, Tom Brennan was killed a couple years before the plane crash, which would place the flashbacks in "Born to Run" happening during 2002.
• Kate presumably left Iowa before Tom's son Connor was born. Connor was almost 22 months old in "Born to Run".
• Tom & Kate's time capsule was buried on August 15 (8 15), 1989, roughly 15 years before the plane crash. (The Numbers)
• The safety deposit box that contained Kate's toy plane was box #815. (The Numbers)
• The character of Kate was first intended to be the de facto leader of the survivors, after Jack's character gets killed off in "Pilot, Part 1". However, after finding later that killing him off in the first episode, would raise feelings of betrayal, and anger in the audience, the writers decided to have the Pilot killed in Jack's place.
• In this depiction, Kate was written as an older woman traveling husband, whom she is separated from after he goes to the bathroom right before the crash. This idea was still employed, but with the characters of Rose and Bernard.
• On her mugshot the Subject File is: 00-0428-23-5607-01, which contains the numbers 4, 8, 23 and 42.

Unanswered questions

• Why or how did she end up in Australia in the first place? Besides being on the run, there must have been events leading up to her leaving the United States.
• Why was she taken by the Others?
• Who sent her money in a letter informing her Diane was dying?
• Did her "encounter" with Sawyer in "I Do" leave her pregnant?