Kate Austen

Name: Kate Austen

Occupation: Fugitive¹

First Appearance: 1×01 – Pilot, Part One

Flashbacks: (Shared) – 1×02 – Pilot, Part Two
(Centric) – 1×03 – Tabula Rasa; 1×12 – Whatever the Case May Be

Click for Timeline

Pre-Island

Kate arranged a bank robbery in New Mexico to obtain an envelope stored in a safety deposit box. She ended up shooting – but not killing – her three conspirators when the lead robber (who she was involved with) went to kill the bank manager. She escaped with the envelope, which contained a toy plane².

Kate was in Australia fleeing from criminal charges and worked on Ray Mullen’s sheep farm for three months under the assumed name of ‘Annie’. Mullen turned her in to the US Marshall’s office for $23,000 reward money. During the arrest she had an opportunity to escape but instead chose to save Mullen’s life, and she was subsequently arrested by Edward Mars.³

Kate was on board Oceanic 815 in Mars’ custody. When the plane hit turbulence, Mars was knocked out and Kate freed herself from her handcuffs using Mars’ key so she could reach the airmasks. She made sure that Mars had a mask on as the plane went down.⁴

On the Island

After the crash of Oceanic 815, Kate quickly bonds with Jack as she sews his wound up. Later they decide to search for the cockpit, just before hearing the Monster in the jungle.⁵

The next day, Kate takes a pair of walking shoes of a body before setting off for the cockpit with Jack and Charlie. At the cockpit they find the pilot alive, although he is quickly killed by the monster, his body deposited high in a tree.⁶

After Sayid repaired the transceiver at the beach, Kate set out on another expedition, this time with Sayid, Sawyer, Boone and Shannon to higher ground to get a clear signal. During the hike, the band was attacked by a polar bear which was shot by Sawyer, who Kate then disarmed. Later, she listened as the transceiver picked up a repeating mayday signal in French; the signal had been repeating for over sixteen years.⁷

Later the group agreed not to tell the rest of the survivors about the French transmission, but she told Jack anyway. After seeing Mars and realizing he was dying she asked Jack if he could put him out of his misery – but Jack angrily refused, telling her that he knew she was a fugitive and he wasn’t a murderer.⁸

That night in a final conversation, Mars asked her to kill him but Kate couldn’t, instead leaving it to Sawyer who botched the job. Jack finished Mars off and the next morning Kate offered to tell him what she’d done. Jack refused saying that it didn’t matter and the island had given them all a blank state.⁹

The following day, Kate joined Locke and Michael on a boar hunt. She was also carrying an antenna for Sayid which was designed to triangulate the French signal, but it broke. After a boar attack, she helped Michael back to camp while Locke carried on alone.¹⁰

The next day when the camp’s water was stolen, Kate helped Sayid in locating the culprit, although they incorrectly pegged Sawyer as the guilty party. Sawyer gave her Mars’ US Marshall badge since she was obviously appointing herself as the new sheriff¹¹.

The next day, Kate headed to the caves with Jack, Locke and Charlie to fetch water. The group found two dessicated corpses – christened ‘Adam and Eve’ there and when Jack convinced some of the survivors to relocate to the caves for safety and convenience Kate decided to stay on the beach with some others to make sure the signal fire still burned¹².

Kate and Sayid – late joined by Sawyer – set off to place antennae on the island to triangulate the French signal the next day. Later, Sawyer admitted that he’d heard Jack was trapped in a cave-in, and she returned to help dig him out. When he was free, they patched up their friendship but she still wanted to return to the beach¹³.

The next day, Kate exploited Sawyer’s obvious attraction for her to try and get him to reveal where Shannon’s asthma medicine was. Later, even after being tortured by Sayid he demanded a kiss from Kate – and got it – only to reveal he didn’t have it. After an accidental stabbing, Kate read Sawyer’s letter and realized that he had written it himself. He confessed that he had, although he’d eventually come to be exactly like the man he hated¹⁴.

A few days later, Kate advised Sawyer – still on the outs with the group – that he needed to make more of an effort to get along¹⁵.

When Claire and Charlie were taken by Ethan a few days later, Kate joined Jack, Boone and Locke searching for them. During the course of their search Jack and Kate split from Locke and Boone, and Jack was confronted by Ethan who told him to back off. Jack attacked him and was beaten unconscious¹⁶.

When Kate revived him, they found Charlie hanging from a tree. After several minutes, Jack finally revived him and – there being no sign of Claire – they both returned to the caves with him¹⁷.

Four days later, whilst swimming with Sawyer in an inland pool, she found a metal attache case. She later tried to take it from Sawyer while he slept – unsuccessfully – and again the next day as he tried to open it. Finally she enlisted Jack’s help by telling him it was the Mars’ and contained four guns. They dug up Mars’ body to retrieve the key but Jack caught her trying to palm the key so she could open it herself. He got the case from Sawyer by threatening to cut off his meds and opened it with her, revealing four guns – as she said. However, Kate was really after a small toy plane which she told Jack belonged to the man she both loved and killed¹⁸.

Kate started helping Sun with her garden, and discovered that she could speak English¹⁹.

A few days later, she helped Charlie get Claire’s diary back from Sawyer²⁰.

After Claire returned from the jungle and Ethan killed Scott to get her back, Kate joined Locke, Sayid and Sawyer in using Claire as bait to trap him. Ethan was caught by Jack, but was killed by Charlie before he could answer any questions²¹.

The next day Kate joined Sawyer when he hunted for a boar he was convinced was terrorizing him. They played a drinking game at night, when she revealed that she had been married and that she had killed someone. She used the carte blanche he gave her to help him hunt the boar to make him give the gun back to Jack²².

Timeline

1. 1×02 [↩]
2. 1×12 [↩]
3. 1×03 [↩]
4. 1×02 [↩]
5. 1×01 [↩]
6. 1×01 [↩]
7. 1×02 [↩]
8. 1×03 [↩]
9. 1×03 [↩]
10. 1×04 [↩]
11. 1×05 [↩]
12. 1×06 [↩]
13. 1×07 [↩]
14. 1×08 [↩]
15. 1×09 [↩]
16. 1×11 [↩]
17. 1×11 [↩]
18. 1×12 [↩]
19. 1×13 [↩]
20. 1×14 [↩]
21. 1×15 [↩]
22. 1×16 [↩]

Tags: Characters, Kate