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This article has been chosen for this week's Article Attack This page needs work in the following areas: more eloquent bio in parts, and greater emphasis on important events on the island rather than the current equal focus on trivial details. |
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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
Katherine Austen was born on 1977, in rural Iowa. Her mother, Diane Janssen, became pregnant with Kate by a man named Wayne. However, Kate grew up believing that her kind step dad, Sam Austen, was her biological father. Eventually, Diane returned to Wayne, despite his physical abusiveness. Wayne, an alcoholic, also made repeated advances towards Kate, who was still unaware of his "true" identity.
Kate, arrested by Edward Mars, on her 1st escape attempt
One day, while making a photo album of all Sam’s war pictures, a date caught Kate’s eye. A picture showing Sam at war, was dated nine months before Kate was born, indicating Sam's absence at the time of her conception. Kate's shock, at learning that the man she despised was her real father, soon turned to disgust that he was ruining both her mother's and her own life. Wayne arrived home drunk one night, and attempted to make a pass at Kate. Filled with anger, Kate tolerated this last advance, then blew up the house with Wayne inside. Rather than turn herself in, Kate decided to become a fugitive, but went to see her mother first. At the diner where Diane worked, Kate handed her confused mother a home owner's insurance policy to assure her a good living, then fled. Diane was traumatized to learn that her daughter had killed the man she loved, and reported Kate to the authorities.
Kate's first escape, came when Marshall Edward Mars caught up to her in a bus station. As he drove her in, a black horse ran in front of his car and forced them off the road. Kate ran from the scene of the accident, and left a wounded Mars behind.
Forced to live a life on the run, Kate was constantly hunted by the determined Mars. Later, She learned that Diane developed cancer, and was hospitalized. Kate sought the help of her childhood sweetheart, Tom Brennan, a Doctor at Diane's hospital. As they waited for a window of opportunity, the pair dug up a time capsule they had buried as children. That night Kate snuck into the hospital to comfort her mother, however, at seeing Kate, Diane started to scream for help, forcing Kate to escape again. With guards everywhere, Kate asked Tom for his car keys, but he insisted on helping her and got in the car. As they sped away from hospital, they soon had an accident. Fearing police attention, Kate escaped the scene in tears, leaving Tom for dead.
Kate, in her wedding gown
On the run, Kate assumed name Monica and relocated to Florida, where she married a police officer, named Kevin Callis. In on of her frequent calls to the Marshal, Kate begged him to stop chasing her. Mars countered that escaping had become a part of Kate's nature, and promised her to let her go if she could promise to stop running. Unable to keep up her charade, Kate soon proved him right. She confessed the truth about her self to Kevin after drugging him, and escaped again.
Later, in an attempt to lure her in, Mars used one of their conversations to inform Kate that he possessed of an item from Tom's time capsule; the toy airplane, which he left in a safety deposit box in a New Mexico bank. Despite the strong risk of getting caught, Kate traveled to New Mexico, where she posed as Monica to a man named Jason, affiliated with a group of bank robbers. Conning Jason and his gang into teaming with her, Kate then planed a robbery of the bank where the toy airplane was located. In the events of the robbery, Kate, who posed as an innocent photographer, under the alias of Mrs. Ryan, turned on her accomplices, shooting Jason in the leg, as well as shooting the other robbers who tried to intervene, to save the life of a bank employee whom Jason was about to kill. She then obtained the bank key to the deposit box, which held the last item she had from Tom.
Kate then fled to Australia, where she boarded with a man named Ray Mullen for 4 months, working on his farm, until the widowed farmer noticed Kate's wanted poster at the post office. Deeply behind on his mortgage, Mullen decided to contact the police, and obtain the reward of $23,000. To enable her arrest, Mullen convinced Kate to stay an extra night, promising to drive her to the bus station in the morning. On their ride the next day they were tailed by Mars, but Kate saw him, and crashed the vehicle. Once the truck came to a rest, it caught fire. Despite discovering his intentions, Kate decided to save Mullen's life before escaping and pulled him out of the car to safety. As a result of the delay, Mars caught up with Kate and made his arrest. Together they boarded Oceanic Flight 815 back to the states, where Kate sat handcuffed, in seat 27H, until the crash.
On the island
Season 1
Kate obtaining an antenna from Sayid to help locate the source of the French Signal
Upon crashing on the Island, Kate was quite shaken. She wandered into the jungle until she came across Jack, who was badly wounded. Unable to reach his wound, he asked her to stitch him up, which she agreed to reluctantly. As Kate frightfully sewed up the wound, Jack recited his "Count to 5" story to encourage her. In a subsequent conversation at the beach, Kate revealed to Jack that ,unlike him, she remembered every aspect from the plane's mid-air breakup to its crash.
Kate then accompanied him, alongside Charlie, on the quest in the jungle to find the plane's front section to retrieve the cockpit's transceiver, in the hope of finding rescue. During the expedition, they were confronted by the Monster for the first time.
Once obtained the transceiver, Kate asked around if someone can fix it, and Sayid volunteered. Later, Kate and Sayid set out on an expedition to find a high ground to get a signal, and were joined by Shannon, Boone, Charlie and later,Sawyer. During their quest, Kate disarmed Sawyer after shooting the polar bear, however, she pretended not to know how to use it and enlisted Sayid's help. Once the they reached higher ground, Kate listened to Rousseau's chilling distress signal.
Afterwords, Sayid built an antenna to locate the source of the distress signal, and handed it to Kate, who attempted to place it up on a tree while on a hunting quest with Locke and Michael. However, while up, she heard the Monster's familiar sound, and dropped the antenna, which crashed on the ground. Kate brought the broken pieces back to Sayid, and in in spite his frustration, she advised him to try again.
Few days later, Kate accepted the tortured Sawyer's request to kiss him, in exchange for tell her where he had hid Shannon's asthma medication. However, after they kiss, he revealed to Kate that he didn't have the medication, prompting Kate to slap his face.
Later, Kate and Jack searched in the jungle for the kidnapped Claire and Charlie. After a short confrontation between Jack and Ethan, he and Kate found Charlie, hanged by his neck from a tree. Ignoring Kate's pleads for him to stop, Jack kept pounding on Charlie's chest several times, until he started to breath, at which point both Jack and Kate broke in tears of relief.
Kate and Jack, searching in the jungle for kidnapped Claire and Charlie
While diving in the waterfall Kate and Sawyer discovered Marshal's Halliburton case, trapped underwater. After his failing attempts at opening it, Kate managed to temporarily steal it, before Sawyer obtained it back. Eventually, Kate enlisted the help of Jack to get the case back, and in digging up the Marshal's body to retrieve the key from his pocket. They open the case together, which contained Tom's plane, and the Marshal's set of handguns.
Kate later decided to help Sawyer in tracking and killing the boar that seemed to be harassing him, and while camping at night, they played "I Never", during which Kate revealed her killing of a man, and her former short marriage.
When Locke brought in the injured Boone to Jack, Kate tried to help Jack with his treatment, but he sent her to fetch alcohol from Sawyer instead. On her return trip, Kate happened upon Claire going into labor in the a jungle clearing. Relaying messages via Jin and Charlie, Kate executed Jack's instructions and succeeded in helping Claire to deliver her healthy baby.
Later, Kate approached Michael in an attempt to take the last spot on the raft. Not intending to give up his spot, Sawyer then revealed to everyone that Kate was the Marshal's accompanied criminal. Subsequently, Kate left to the Black Rock before the raft set sail, on a mission for dynamite to blow open the hatch, during which she lost the chance for saying goodbye. At obtaining the dynamite, Kate demanded to take share in transporting it and won a pull of straws for it, despite Jack's disapproval. In return, Jack resorted to trick Kate into believing that she carried the dynamite, while he hid his bag instead.
Season 2
After the hatch door was blown off, Kate defied Jack's warnings by working with Locke to get down to the Swan, where she was soon captured by Desmond. When Locke descended to find her, Desmond held him and Kate at gun point. Led by Locke into believing that Kate is the most dangerous of the two, Desmond ordered him to lock her inside the pantry, unwittingly giving her a chance to escape through the ventilation system. When Kate returned to the computer room, Desmond was then holding at gun point both Locke and Jack, who had followed to rescue her. Kate intervened, by hitting Desmond from behind. However, this resulted in Desmond shooting the Swan's computer by mistake. In a fit of panic, Kate was sent by Locke and Jack to fetch Sayid to repair the broken terminal.
Later, Kate attempted to comfort Sun over losing her wedding ring, when Sun revealed that she had hidden the bottle of letters from the raft. Clearly upset by this news, Kate then started to read all the letters inside the bottle, looking for one from Sawyer. When stopped by Sun, she confessed that she had feelings for him, and expressed remorse over missing the chance to say goodbye before he left.
The Tallies then arrived at the camp, along with those from the raft. Jack took the injured Sawyer into the Swan to operated on his wound, after which Kate started attending to him. In the next morning, a black horse appeared to Kate in the jungle, which looked eerily similar to the horse that intervened with her first arrest by Mars. A puzzled Kate returned to the Swan and continued to attend to Sawyer. The unconscious Sawyer suddenly asked Kate why she killed him, in a manner that was reminiscent to Wayne's. Kate, now traumatized, fled the Swan, heading for the Jungle. When Jack went after her, she attempted to evade him by acting mean, before suddenly kissing him. She appeared mortified by her action, strongly apologized to Jack, and ran away, leaving him frozen in shock.
At Shannon's grave, Kate was met by Sayid, to whom she expressed her concerns about going insane, after confiding in him her vision. To comfort Kate, Sayid compared her vision to that of Walt, which he saw with Shannon. Eventually, Kate's worries abated, and she returned to the Swan and approached Sawyer. Speaking as if he was Wayne, she revealed that she had killed him because she loathed the idea of him being her father, with a part of him in her, adding that her feelings for Sawyer reminded her somehow of Wayne. Sawyer then awoke, he had heard the whole monologue, and joked that he was flattered by it. In spite of her embarrassment, Kate was relieved.
After Claire began having memory flashes from the time she was kidnapped, Kate joined her to find Rousseau, whom Claire recalled attacking her during that time. The trio continued their journey to the place Rousseau had found Claire, and nearby they discovered the Staff. Inside, Claire and Danielle searched for a vaccine for Aaron, while Kate found several lockers, containing the others' trashy costumes, and a fake beard. On their return, Kate talks to Jack of this revelation, which led the survivors to suspect that the Others were not what 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. During their walk, Kate picked up a baby doll, triggering a net in which both were caught. Eventually, Jack shot the rope, to let them out of an temporarily intimate situation.
After Jack's failing attempts to call the Others out, they decided to camp at the line. As night fell, Kate again said she was sorry for kissing him. However, Jack replied that he was not. Suddenly, an exhausted Michael showed up and fainted, and 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 he suggested to retrieve Walt. During their trek, Kate and Sawyer spotted two of the Others that were following them. They shot one of them, while the other ran away. In a subsequent confrontation, Jack revealed Michael's actual intentions. He advised, however, continuing on the mission, assuring them that he had a plan.
Upon arriving to the Capsule Dump, the 5 castaways were captured by the Others. 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 then hooded and drugged, to be taken as prisoners to one of the Others' bases.
Season 3
Kate, forced to have breakfast with Ben
Kate awoke to find herself inside a locker room with a bandage on her arm, and Tom watching her. She was allowed to shower, after which she found that her cloths had been taken, and replaced by a sundress. Once dressed, she was taken by Tom to have breakfast with Ben at the beach, during which was told by Ben that the next two weeks were going to be very unpleasant. In their conversation, Kate asks about Sawyer and Jack, to which Ben asks her what she asked about Sawyer first. Kate was then thrown into a cage opposite of Sawyer.
The next day, both of them were forced to work at a rock quarry. Sawyer, who was watching her the whole time, walked towards her and kissed her. The Others tried to punish him with a taser, but he surprised them by fighting back. However, Sawyer was finally subdued after Juliet pointed a gun at Kate, and threatened to shoot her. After they were thrown back to their cages, Sawyer revealed that he had made such an risky move to test the strength of their enemies.
After Sawyer returned from his walk with Ben, Kate revealed to him her discovery that she could climb out of her cage through the top bars. While out, Kate attempted to free Sawyer, but he told her to run away and not bother saving him, saying it's "Every man for himself." In spite her frustration at his loss of interest at escaping, 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.
Later, Juliet forced Kate to try and convince Jack to perform surgery on Ben, using Pickett's threats to kill Sawyer to persuade her. She was then taken to Jack at the Hydra, who refused to listen to her, and dismissed her from his presence, when he learned that she was used to convince him. Overwhelmed at the thought of losing Sawyer, who revealed her they are not on their island but on a different one, Kate ended up having sex with him in his cage, admitting she loved him. Pickett and Jason came to shoot the con man the next morning. At the last moment, Pickett was interrupted by Tom, who ordered Pickett to hand the walkie-talkie to Kate. On the other side of the walkie Jack was holding Ben hostage and ordered her to use this chance in running away. Kate then asked Jack about his own fate, but he insisted that she had only an hour before the Others came after her, after which he ordered her to call back on the radio and tell him the story he told her on their first day on the island. At her reluctance, Jack again for her to run.
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. |
Trivia
An Easter egg from official site Oceanic-air.com revealed Kate's assumed name while she was a fugitive, in the 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 Conner was born. Conner 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.
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?
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