Austen, Kate
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AKA: Kate Ryan, Kate Dodd, Joan Heart, Annie, Maggie, Monica Callis, Lucy
Resided in: Iowa
Occupation: Unknown
Reason for Travel: Captured by marshal in Australia, being flown to US as prisoner
Flight Seat #: Unknown
Kate has been on the run from one thing or another since she was a teenager. Kate was an Army brat, raised by her mother, Diane, and Sam Austen, who was stationed at Fort Lewis, WA. She grew up learning to hunt and track with Austen, who she grew up knowing as her father. She learned later that he was stationed in Korea up until 4 months before she was born, and couldn't have been. Her parents divorced when she was 5 years old, and her mother ended up marrying Wayne, who Diane had an affair with while married to Sam. Wayne was likely Kate's biological father, a fact which disgusted Kate, because he was an abusive alcoholic.
Kate grew up in Iowa as a young girl, where she spent a lot of time with her childhood friend, Tom Brendon. In 1989, Kate and Tom buried a time capsule together and vowed to dig it up in 20 years or so.
When Kate is 24, she was fed up with Wayne's abuse of her and her mother, and took out an insurance policy on the house. While Wayne was sleeping, she set up a gas leak and blew the house up, killing him. She gave the insurance policy to her mother, who knew nothing about the plan, and told her "I took care of you." She then took off, on the run for the rest of her life.
Some time while she was on the run, Kate tried to escape to Tallahassee, but got caught at the bus station by U.S. Marshal Edward Mars. It turned out that her own mother turned her in for the crime. From her mugshot, Kate was arrested in Harrison Valley, PA and we know she briefly used the last name alias of Dodd. As she was driven back in custody to her arraignment, a black horse suddenly came out in front of the car and caused Mars to veer and hit a pole. He was knocked unconscious, and Kate took the opportunity to escape.
A few months after murder of her father, Kate returned to Iowa and attempted to make contact with her mother, Diane. While in Iowa, the fan belt on her car broke. She introduced herself as Lucy and accepted a ride into town from the tow truck driver, Johnny. When she reached the gas station, she saw Cassidy trying to pull the jewelry con on a man who is accused her of selling fakes. When he threatened to call the police, Kate intervened and said that her father was owned a jewelry store and that she thought she could spot a fake. This diffused the situation. Cassidy recognized Kate’s motivation - that she was stranded and did not want the police around and offered to give Kate a ride to a local bar. Kate told Cassidy that she was trying to contact her mother and Cassidy agreed to help her. Kate waited across the street in a car watching through binoculars while Cassidy, wearing a wig and Kate’s clothes, pulled a black case towards the door of Diane’s house.
Immediately upon knocking on the door, the Marshall and a group of federal agents rushed out with guns in hand and believing she was Kate, knocked Cassidy to the ground. Even though Cassidy insisted that she was just selling bibles, the Marshal questioned her extensively. This leads Cassidy to tell Kate, “I don’t know what you did to him, but if he ever gets his hands on you it is going to be you or him.” Kate then tells Cassidy about the murder of her biological father, Wayne and that her mother turned her in for it. Cassidy pretended to be a costumer in the diner where Diane works. Cassidy purposefully spilled soup on her so that when Diane entered the restroom she would find Kate inside.
Diane asked Kate if she came to apologize, but Kate does not think she has anything to apologize for, as Wayne was abusive to her mother. Diane told her that, “you can’t help who you love, Kathryn, and I loved him.” Diane does not turn Kate in to the officers that are sitting at a table in the diner, but informed Kate that if she ever sees her again she will scream for help.
Kate and Cassidy parted ways after Kate’s confrontation with her mother. But before they do, Cassidy told Kate that she is pregnant with the child of the man who conned her. Kate advised Cassidy to call the police and report him, but Cassidy asked Kate if she will ever forgive her mother for turning her in. Kate replied, “No.”
Sometime while she was a fugitive, she met a man named Kevin Callis (who ironically was a police officer), and married him. She enjoyed her life at this point and wanted to settle down, even pleading with Edward Mars to relent, but eventually realized she must run again. She drugged Kevin, who only knew her as "Monica" during that time (and never knew about her fugitive status the whole time) and ran, to save him from accusations of complicity with her. She left the locket which his mother (Suzanne) left her on their wedding day in his hands.
A couple of years before Flight 815, Kate returned to Iowa to visit her now-dying mother in the hospital where Tom Brendan worked. Kate had been on the run for a while now, under the pursuit of the marshal. While they were waiting for the right time to visit Kate's mother, Tom and Kate took a late night trip to dig up the time capsule. Inside the New Kid's on the Block lunchbox, they found an old cassette and a toy airplane belonging to Tom, amongst other items.
Things went wrong when Kate visited her mother. Diane, who had never forgiven her, began screaming for help, and Kate was forced to go on the run once again, as security personnel tried to apprehend her. Kate ran into Tom as she was fleeing the hospital, and asked for his keys. Tom tried to convince her to turn herself in, but they raced out of the parking garage together as an officer fired rounds into the car. Kate lost control and the car hit another vehicle before coming to a stop. Kate then realized that Tom was killed during the escape. She glanced back and saw the toy airplane, and was forced to flee before the cops catch up.
Some time later, Kate made several phone calls to the marshal, and ended up figuring out where he locked up the personal effects from Tom's car. Kate organized what appeared to be a bank robbery, conning a robber named Jason into being her partner. Once she gained access to the vault, however, it is clear she was only after a lone safety deposit box, and got the bank manager (Hutton) to open it. Inside was the toy airplane, which she took, leaving the money behind.
Kate then fled to Australia, where she lived on the farm of Ray Mullen for three months. Ray turned Kate in for a $23,000 reward. The marshal apprehended Kate, and arranged to fly her back to the states in his custody. However, along the way of the fateful flight, he sustained a fatal wound in the crash of Flight 815, and Kate was able to free herself from the cuffs he had placed her in.
On the island, Kate forms a bond with both Jack and Sawyer, two very different men who are often at odds with one another; she is the center of a potential love triangle. She surprises many people when she shows her leadership skills, and that she is a fearless, adventurous woman who can handle firearms.
However, she is at times also dishonest and scheming, in order to keep her secrets well hid, and to make sure she isn't caught again. Kate helps Sun try to poison Jin in order to free a spot on the raft for herself (so she wouldn't be on the island when rescuers came). She then burns Joanna's ID, so that she can use it as her own. Sawyer, who was taking heat for the poisoning, believes Kate is not all she tells people she is.
At one point, while she is helping Sawyer recover from fever, he deliriously mumbles that he knows she tried to kill him. She then thinks she is going crazy, and that he is the embodiment of Wayne, who she killed. She then sees the same black horse as she had in her past off the island in the middle of the jungle. Later, after Sawyer gets better, they both see it, and she is able to touch it before it runs off.
She is frequently the one who volunteers for dangerous expeditions. She goes with the group to find Michael after he ran off for Walt the first time, but she is captured and used by the Others as leverage to get her friends to disarm. She's released shortly thereafter.
Kate goes with Jack, Sawyer, Hurley and Michael to get their revenge after Ana-Lucia and Libby are killed, and retrieve Walt. However, the group is betrayed by Michael, and they are ambushed and captured by the Others.
Kate is imprisoned with Sawyer in the cages at Hydra Station, while Jack is kept isolated in the below-sea-level tanks. She is forced to meet with Ben for breakfast, who tells her that things are going to get bad for their little group now that the tables have turned. After Pickett severely beats Sawyer and confronts her with the question, she admits that she loves Sawyer. She even manages to temporarily escape her cage, but voluntarily goes back in because she can't bear to leave him behind.
When Pickett returns to assassinate Sawyer, the two pull off a daring escape, with the help of Alex. She is not able to come with them, but they do manage to save her boyfriend Karl, and he is brought back to the main island in Alex's small boat with Kate and Sawyer. They argued about whether they should go directly back to the beachcamp; an argument which Sawyer wins. While on their way back to the beach, Kate and Sawyer argued again. She tells Sawyer that all he has to do is apologize and they can start with a clean slate. Sawyer, thinking she feels guilty about sleeping with him, said that he has nothing to apologize for.
Once back at the camp, Kate set off to rescue Jack and marched off into the jungle to find Rousseau. Sayid and Locke follow her to find out why she did not ask for their help. Rousseau joins their team after she learned that Kate has seen a girl named Alex. They traveled north and found the Flame Station and Mikhail Bakunin. He told them that he is the last surviving member of the Dharma Initiative. Sayid recognized that he was lying and the team took him captive and continued to look for Jack.
They used maps found by Sayid in the Flame Station to find the barracks, the presumed location of the Other’s community. Before reaching the barracks, they found a sonic fence that according to the map encircled the barracks completely. When Bakunin refused to tell them anything about the fence, Locke pushed him through it leading to his death. They decided to attempt to go over the fence using a tree placed on top of one of the pillars. Kate climbed up the tree and over the fence first and the others followed. As they came upon the Other’s barracks, Kate saw Jack running toward them and started to call his name. Sayid stopped her and they are taken aback that he was playing football with a group of the Other’s and not trying to escape.
That night, Kate sneaked into what they had discovered was Jack’s house. He asked her what she was doing there and told her that they were watching him and she must run. Kate was captured and locked in a recreation room. Juliet brought Jack to the rec room and he admitted to Kate that he had made a deal with Ben and that he was going home. He promised her that he would be back for her.
While still being held by the Others, Locke visited Kate and told her that he is leaving with them. He said that he tried to speak of her behalf but that they knew what she had done and were unwilling or unable to forgive her. Still in the Others' captive, Kate was dumbfounded after she heard that Locke was leaving with the enemy. Some time later, Kate saw a group of Others putting on gasmasks and can of CS gas was thrown into the rec room. When she awoke, she found herself in the jungle, handcuffed to Juliet.
After Kate insisted in going back to find her friends, Juliet confronted her with the fact that Jack had seen Sawyer and Kate together and said that he was devastated by it. This confrontation leads to a physical assault in which Kate dislocated Juliet’s arm. They hid in a banyan tree as the Smoke Monster flashed what appeared to be a white light at them. After another encounter with the mysterious black smoke at the sonic fence, Kate and Juliet made it back to the now deserted barracks. Kate found Jack on the floor of his house. She aroused him and tearfully apologized to him for everything she had done. He immediately asked about Juliet. They rejoined Juliet and Sayid and decided to return to the beach. As they walked away, Jack left Kate and took a place beside Juliet.
