Template:Infobox Lost Character-1 Katherine Austen, better known as Kate, is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Evangeline Lilly. She is the lead female character of the series.
The cryptic Kate is not quite the innocent figure she initially seems to be.
She grew up in Iowa, the daughter of a soldier and a diner waitress. As we learn in flashbacks in What Kate Did, her parents divorce and Kate's mother marries a man named Wayne, an alcoholic who physically abuses Kate's mother (Diane) and may or may not have abused Kate. When Kate is making a scrapbook as a present for her father, she discovers that the man she thinks is her real father was still in Korea when she was conceived, and she then realizes that Wayne is her biological father. Kate takes out an insurance policy and blows up the house with Wayne in it, meaning to benefit her mother. She explains all this to her mother and then flees, but is captured at a bus station by US marshal Edward Mars, who claims that Kate's mother went to the authorities with what Kate had told her. She later escapes from him, while being driven to the indictment hearing for Wayne's murder, after a large black horse appears in front of the Marshal's car, causing him to swerve off the road. While the marshal is still stunned from the deployment of the air bag, Kate is able to take his keys. After a brief tussle in the car, Kate knocks him out of the car and drives off.
In the flashbacks in "Born to Run," Kate travels around the country with a car trunk full of license plates from various states, using hair dye to disguise her appearance.
When she receives a letter that her mother is dying from cancer, Kate takes a chance and goes home. There she meets and reignites the romance with her childhood boyfriend Tom Brennan, now married and a doctor at the hospital. The two dig up a time capsule they had buried 15 years earlier, which contains a tape recording and a selection of Tom's toys, including a little toy airplane. Kate convinces Tom to arrange a visit with her mother, who is being guarded, apparently in case of her daughter's appearance. However, once Kate reveals herself to her mother, Diane begins screaming for help, and Kate is forced to flee. She asks Tom for his car keys, but he demands to go with her, saying that the police will be easy on her if she cooperates. Kate speeds through the parking garage, directly at a police car blockading the entrance, but an officer fires off a few shots as she passes, and she then crashes into another car. Kate turns to Tom and sees that he is dead. Kate flees the scene, leaving behind the toy airplane.
Subsequently, Kate is involved in an elaborate bank robbery in New Mexico, in which she presents herself to the bank manager as an innocent bystander, while she is actually romantically linked with the bank robbers' supposed leader. Posing as a "Maggie Ryan" applying for a loan, Kate is rounded up by the robbers as one of the hostages.
When another hostage overpowers a robber, Kate grabs one of their guns, but she immediately claims not to be able to use it. The lead robber then takes Kate into a back room, and after a quick kiss, hits her to continue the ruse. The robber brings in the bank manager and claims he will kill the seemingly innocent Kate, unless the vault is opened. Thinking he is saving her life, the bank manager complies. In the vault, the robber reveals that Kate has actually planned and organized the whole operation. Appearing intent on shooting the manager, the robber is stopped by Kate, who instead shoots the leader in the leg, then forces the manager to open a safe deposit box (the number of the safe deposit box is: 8.15 - two of "the numbers"). Inside the box is a single item: Tom's small toy airplane.
Sometime later, Kate turns up in Australia as a fugitive. Using the name Annie and claiming to be Canadian, she arrives at the house of an Outback farmer, who, in exchange for help around his farm, offers her a wage and a home. Months later, in the middle of the night, Kate attempts to sneak out of the house. The farmer interrupts her in this attempt, and insists he drive her to the train station the next morning.
On the road, their truck is followed by marshal Mars. The farmer admits that he saw Kate's picture on a wanted poster at the post office and has turned her in for the cash reward (later revealed to be $23,000; 23 is one of the numbers). Kate grabs the wheel and drives off the road, rolling the truck. Despite being free to escape, Kate pulls the injured farmer away from the wreck, giving the marshal time to capture her.
Immediately prior to the flight, the marshal reveals to an Australian law enforcement officer that he has been chasing Kate for three years, and that he had put the toy airplane in the safe deposit box as bait. He has the toy airplane in his possession, presumably having recovered it from Kate's possessions after capturing her.
On board Flight 815, she is in handcuffs, sitting next to the marshal. Just prior to the crash, she asks the marshal a favor, which she later claims was to make sure the farmer received the reward for turning her in. As the plane begins to break apart, the marshal is injured. Kate steals the keys to her handcuffs, but makes sure to apply the marshal's oxygen mask before putting on her own.
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 previously, though she says the marriage didn't last very long. 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 delivers 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 Swan and therefore the first to be captured by Desmond Hume. 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 harms 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 Mr. 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 runs off into the jungle, leaving Sawyer on the floor. She believes that Sawyer was being possessed by Wayne, her birth father whom she killed. Jack finds Sawyer alone and on the floor, and goes to find Kate in the jungle, demanding to know why she foolishly left a wounded man unattended. An emotionally distraught Kate lashes out at him and tries to run, but Jack won't let her. As Jack comforts her, Kate gives in to her feelings for Jack, and kisses him. When the kiss is over, Jack looks at her with confusion and Kate stumbles away from Jack, running further into the jungle. The kiss greatly complicates Kate and Jack's relationship, which is no longer purely platonic.
After Sawyer, Jack, and Locke decide to go after Michael, Kate demands to go with them. Jack denies her request, but she disobeys his request by following them anyway. Soon after she is captured by "The Others" and is exchanged for the trio's guns and promise to return to their camp. Jack holds this against Kate, making their relationship even more complicated. Sawyer, however, tells her he would have done the very same thing.
Later, Claire and Kate go out to find Rousseau so they can find the place Claire was taken to. When Claire asks Kate about Rousseau, she is reluctant to tell Claire about Rousseau killing her team because they were sick. They happen upon another hatch, which seems to be an abandoned medical station (dubbed "The Staff" on a map viewed by Locke in a later episode). Kate opens some lockers to discover raggedy clothing, a fake beard, and glue.
In "S.O.S," Jack enlists Kate to go with him to recover Walt in exchange for Henry Gale. Kate is flattered that Jack has welcomed her back into the club, but Jack merely states that he has chosen her because Sayid refused him. During the venture into the forbidden line, Kate apologizes for kissing Jack. Jack says he doesn't feel sorry about the kiss. As the two are about to talk about their relationship in further detail, an exhausted and possibly injured Michael stumbles toward them, thus halting any more attention regarding Jack and Kate's tempestuous relationship.
In "?", Jack asks Sawyer for the heroin he has stashed away in order to ease Libby's pain before she dies. Kate goes with him, and discovers that Sawyer's hidden stash is in his very tent, buried underneath the sand. She also is the one who tells Hurley that Libby has been shot. During Libby's death Kate is overcome by sadness and weeps to herself. There, Sawyer comes to comfort and weep with her. Kate then aids Hurely in digging the graves for the dead Ana Lucia and Libby.
During "Three Minutes", Kate agrees to go with Michael and the other people to go and get Walt. She is unaware that in fact the Others told Michael that she is to be one of the people that has to be brought to them.
In the season 2 finale "Live Together, Die Alone" Kate is 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 are walking she discovers that they where being followed by two members of the Others. She and Sawyer begin firing at them hitting and (presumably) killing one of them. Jack then tells them he knew that they would be following them and gets Michael to tell them about his plan.
The Others trap the party when they stop to investigate a pile of tubes in a field. While trying to escape Kate is hit with a powerful dart rendering her unable to move. She falls down in a comatose state. Jack then tries to carry her but is also shot by another dart and both are rendered immobile. They are taken to a Pala Ferry bound, hooded, and gagged where Michael is reunited with Walt and they leave. Kate gets the Other known as Tom (also known as Mr. Friendly) to admit that his beard is a fake. She then waits as Henry Gale comes to give instruction to The Others. Shortly after a mysterious light and sound emanates from the hatch, Kate, Sawyer, and Jack are taken away.
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