Katherine Anne Austen

Katherine Anne Austen was born in 1977 and raised in Iowa by her parents Diane and Sam. Kate grew up believing Sam was her father, but when she was making a scrapbook for him, she found pictures of him in Korea. They were taken four months before she was born, meaning he wasn’t her real father. Sam and Diane were now separated and Diane got married to Kate’s real father, Wayne. Wayne was a drunk who abused Diane. Kate wanted to help her mother and decided to kill Wayne and making it look like an accident. One night, she blew up his house. Then she visited her mother, telling her she had to go away for a while. Her mother suspected something was wrong and reported her to the authorities when she found out what her daughter had done.
Kate has been on the run ever since and was constantly chased by the U.S. Marshal Edward Mars, who became obsessed with catching her. The first time he caught her, when she was buying a bus ticket to Tallahassee, she managed to escape when she saw a black horse on the road. That forced them off the road and Kate left the marshal behind.
A while later, Kate was still on the run. She met a woman named Cassidy who helped her get in contact with her mother for the first time since she killed Wayne. Her mother told Kate that she loved Wayne, despite what he did to her. Kate told her mother she did it for her, but Diane replied that Kate did it for herself. Diane told Kate she wouldn’t report her this time, but if she ever saw her daughter again she would scream for help. Kate later told Cassidy that she would never forgive her mother for giving her up.
Later, Kate found out her mother was dying in cancer and she felt she had to meet her one last time. She sought out her old boyfriend Tom, a doctor who helped her sneak in to the hospital and see her mother. Diane freaked out when she saw her daughter and cried for help. Kate left, but was discovered and had to escape in Tom’s car. He went with her and was shot by the police and died. Kate left him in the car and ran away again.
Then she went to Florida and started calling herself Monica. There she met a police officer, Kevin and married him. She started calling Mars, asking him to stop chasing her and to let her live a normal life. When Kevin booked a vacation, that required a passport, Kate realised she had to leave him. She drugged him and told him some of her story before she ran off again.
Mars tried to lure her out by telling her he had the toy airplane that belong to Tom locked up in a safety deposit box. Kate, now posing as a woman named Maggie, arranged a bank robbery. She seduced a guy named Jason into doing the robbery. During the robbery, she shot Jason and the others, took the airplane from the deposit box and left once again.
Then she travelled to Australia, where she lived at a farm for four months. The owner of the farm, Ray Mullen saw a wanted poster of her and gave her up for 23.000 dollars. While in a car, Kate noticed Mars following them and forced the car off the road. Mullen was badly wounded and Kate decided to save him instead off running away and she was caught by Mars. He took her aboard Oceanic Flight 815 to bring her back to the United States.

Life as one of the Oceanic Six/Getting back to the island
 There’s No Place Like Home Part 1
Kate, along with the rest of the Oceanic Six, arrive at Hawaii. The others are welcomed home by their families, but Kate is all alone, except for Aaron.
During a press conference, she pretends Aaron is her son.
Some time later, she attends Hurley’s birthday party, and Christian Shepard’s funeral. There she meets Claire’s mother, Aaron’s grandmother.

Eggtown
She is put on trial in California for the murder of the father, and a long list of other crimes. She pleads not guilty, but it doesn’t look good. Her mother, who is terminatelly ill, tells Kate that she wants to see her grandson, if she can, she won’t testify. Kate refuses to let her mother anywhere near “her son”. Kate is sentenced with ten years of probation and she can’t leave California. While catching a taxi home, Jack approaches and they talk a little. After telling her that he still loves her, she asks him if he’d like to come by for a visit. He looks troubled and makes a lame excuse that he has to get back to the hospital. She sees through him, and says that she understands why he doesn’t want to see the baby, but until he does, she can’t see him. She then goes home, and meets the nanny, who tells her that she just put the baby down for a nap. Kate goes to his room, and the boy wakes up, saying “Hi, Mommy”. Kate hugs him and it is revealed that her “son” is Aaron, Claire’s son.

Something Nice Back Home
Jack changed his mind about Aaron and he and Kate started a relationship. He proposed to her, and she said yes. But their trust issues causes too much trouble on their relationship, especially when it’s revealed that Kate has secretly been doing something she promised Sawyer. Jack demands that she tells him what it is, but she refuses, knowing that Sawyer wouldn’t want her to.
She tells Jack he can’t be like this, drinking and taking pills, around her son. Jack yells at her that she’s not even related to Aaron.

Through The Looking Glass/There’s No Place Like Home
Some time later, Jack calls Kate day and night, but she refuses to talk to him. After a while, she agrees to meet him by the airport. He tells her that they have to go back to the island, that they weren’t supposed to leave. She says that they did the right thing, then she gets into her car and leaves. Jack yells that they have to go back. Kate suddenly stops her car and comes back. Furious, she tells Jack that she spent the last three years trying to forget all the horrible things that happened on the day that they left. She then speeds off in her car again.

There’s No Place Like Home
At home, she has a dream, in which she receives a phone call in the middle of the night. The voice appears to be speaking backwards. She hangs up and hears something. She takes out her gun and goes to Aaron’s room, where she sees someone she never would have expected to see. Claire, Aaron’s real mother. Claire warns Kate not to bring Aaron back to the island.
Kate wakes up, and goes into Aaron’s room, where she starts crying and says she’s sorry.

Because You Left
One morning at Kate’s house, while she and Aaron eats breakfast and watches cartoons, someone knocks at the door. It’s a lawyer, and he demands blood samples from Kate and Aaron, to prove that he is her real son. Kate refuses, and he says he will be back. Kate quickly packs some things, and leaves the house with Aaron.

The Lie
Kate and Aaron drives around LA, she doesn’t know where to go. She receives a call from Jack, but she ignores it. Her phone rings again, but this time from a unknown number. She answers, and Sun. They decide to meet up at Sun’s hotel.
When she gets there, Kate and Sun talk about who would have a reason to expose their lie. Sun tells Kate that she has to do whatever it takes to keep their secret. Kate asks what a person Sun thinks she is, and Sun thinks she’s a person who can made hard desicions when she has too. Like she did on the freighter, when she said to Sun that she would find Jin, but she didn’t. Kate apologizes, and Sun says she doesn’t blame her. She then asks about Jack.

The Little Prince
Kate leaves Aaron with Sun in her hotelroom, and goes to meet the lawyer. She agrees to give him the blood samples, if she can meet his client. The lawyer refuses, and advises Kate to be prepared to lose Aaron. Kate won’t give up, she waits outside his office when Jack shows up. She notices the lawyer driving off in his car, and tells Jack to go with her or to leave.
They stop outside a motel, where the lawyer’s client is revealed to be Mrs Littleton, Claire’s mother and Aaron’s grandmother. Kate thinks that she is the one who’s trying to take Aaron, and Jack goes in there to talk to her.
After a quick visit he comes back, and explains to Kate that mrs Littleton isn’t there for Aaron. She has sued Oceanic and is there to get her money.
Kate and Jack drives to the harbor, where they meet Ben. Kate is upset, especially when she realises that Ben is the one who’s trying to take Aaron, and that they are trying to make her go back to the island. She asks him to leave her and her son alone, and Ben replies that Aaron isn’t her son.

This Place Is Death
Suddenly Sun shows up,wanting to kill Ben. Kate takes Aaron from Sun’s car and drives off.

316
Jack arrives home and finds Kate there. She is lying in his bed, looking barely alive. Jack asks her what happened to Aaron. She makes him promise to never mention Aaron again, and agrees to go back to the island with him. They kiss and have sex.
In the morning, she is clearly uncomfortable, and tries to leave, but Jack makes coffee and she stays, but when his phone rings, she quickly leaves.
When she arrives at the airport, Jack smiles at her, but she quickly walks away.
On the plane, he talks to her about how amazing it is that they’re all together again. Kate simply says that just because they’re on the same plane, it doesn’t mean they’re together again. Suddenly the plane experience some turbulence and then a flash happens, just like the one that changes time on the island.
Jack, Hurley and Kate finds themselves on the island again, right by the waterfall where Kate and Sawyer went for a swim together. Suddenly a Dharma van shows up, and the person driving it is revealed to be Jin.

Whatever Happened, Happened
A while after the rescue, Kate is driving to New Mexico. She finds the house she’s looking for and knocks on the door. The woman opening the door is Cassidy, a woman Kate met on her years running. Cassidy is also the mother of Sawyer’s daughter, Clementine, who he asked Kate to take care off before he jumped off the chopper. Cassidy is happy to see Kate, and asks why she’s there. Kate tells her the truth, that Sawyer sent her.
Kate gives Cassidy an envelope full of money, but Cassidy isn’t happy, still bitter about what Sawyer did to her. She asks Kate why Sawyer didn’t come back with her, and Kate explains what happened. Cassidy calls him a coward, and she thinks he jumped because he was trying to get away from Kate. Kate defends him, but is hurt by the words. Cassidy sees that Kate is going through exactly what she did when Sawyer left her, and she asks if Aaron is Sawyer’s son. Kate was honest about everything else, but this lie she continued, saying she was pregnant when she met Sawyer. Cassidy sees through this, and realises that Aaron isn’t Kate’s son.
During the years,  Kate and Cassidy became close friends, and Clementine is calling her Auntie Kate. When she realises that Jack is trying to convince her to go back to the island, Cassidy is the one she turns to. After almost losing Aaron in a supermarket, she tells Cassidy that she expected this to happen. Cassidy tells her that she feels this way because she took Aaron, because she needed him to fix her heart, that Sawyer broke when he left her. Kate finally realises the truth and she knows what she has to do.
She visits Mrs Littleton, and tells her the the truth about Aaron and why she kept him, because she needed him. She also says that she’s going back to the island to find Claire, and bring her back. She then says goodbye to Aaron and goes to Jack.

Flashback/forward Episodes
1×2.Pilot, Part 2
1×3.Tabula Rasa
1×12.Whatever The Case May Be
1×22.Born To Run
1×23.Exodus, Part 1
2×9.What Kate Did
3×6.I Do
3×15.Left Behind
4×4.Eggtown
4×12.There’s No Place Like Home, Part 1
4×13/14.There’s No Place Like Home, Part 2
5×4.The Little Prince
5×11.Whatever Happened, Happened

Trivia
The character of Kate was first intended to be the de facto leader of the survivors, after Jack’s character was to be killed off in “Pilot, Part 1“. Later, the writers found that killing Jack in the first episode would raise feelings of betrayal and anger in the audience. They decided instead to have the pilot killed in Jack’s place.

Kate has been referred to as or used the aliases Katherine Ryan, Katherine Dodd, Joan Heart, Maggie Ryan, Annie, Lucy, and presumably lived under the name Monica Callis during her marriage. Her father and Tom Brennan called her Katie. Her mother called her Katherine. Sawyer almost always calls her Freckles, but occasionally calls her Kate during particularly emotional or tense conversations.

Both she and Sawyer has a thing from their past that’s important to them, Kate has the toy airplane and Sawyer has his letter.