LOST: Kate Austen profile

Evangeline Lilly will be a celebrity guest at the upcoming FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention event coming up on the weekend of September 6-8, 2018. Lilly will co-star in the upcoming Marvel movie "Ant-Man and the Wasp," but she is arguably most well-known for her work as the rebel heartbreaker Kate Austen in "LOST."

I was recently approached about doing another "LOST" panel for the convention (which I happily agreed to). I will be busting out another quick-binge of the series to prepare for the panel, similar to what I did before appearing as a panelist at Salt Lake Comic Con 2015. The plan will be to watch 50 - 60 episodes in the next 67 days before the convention.

• Read the transcript to the Salt Lake Comic Con 2015 "LOST" panel here.
• See my 2015 quick-binge schedule of "LOST" episodes here.

This will essentially be my fourth time watching "LOST." With that in mind, I am trying to find a way to watch the show with new eyes, finding details that I hadn't seen before and learning new things about the story. One of the ways that I can do this is by focusing on Kate, who is definitely one of my top three least favorite characters. I'm not a fan of Kate at all, really. I think she's whiny, annoying, unattractive and just constantly in-the-way. But we've got to give the people what they want. Undoubtedly, people will want to talk about Evangeline Lilly at FanX, so I've got to be prepared, and I am willing to give her another chance. Let's take a deeper look at Miss Austen - in detail, thanks in part, to my go-to resource for all things "LOST" -  Lostpedia.

Katherine Anne Austin is one of the Oceanic Six - a prominent survivor of the Oceanic 815 plane crash. Kate appears in 108 of the 121 episodes of "LOST." Kate is 30 years old and was born in May of 1977. She grew up and lived largely in the midwestern United States, but has spend portions of her adult life on the run. Before the ill-fated flight to Los Angeles, Kate was in trouble with law enforcement due to what we will call "complications" with murder, robbery and assault. On the Island, Kate became somewhat of a secondary leader for the Survivors, often tagging along (or hooking up) with Jack Shephard and "Sawyer" Ford.

All About Kate:

There are 10 Kate-centric episodes, which are as follows:

1. Tabula Rasa
2. Whatever the Case May Be
3. Born to Run
4. What Kate Did
5. I Do
6. Left Behind
7. Eggtown
8. The Little Prince
9. Whatever Happened, Happened
10. What Kate Does

Categorizing Kate:

Lostpedia categorizes Kate in the following groups:

• Characters in all six seasons
• Oceanic Survivors
• Passenger
• Middle Section
• Ajira Passengers
• Wives
• Mothers*
• Kate was not an actual mother
• Criminals
• Murders
• Kate kills characters both on and off the Island.
• Off-Island Characters
• Dharma Initiative
• Kate appears in flashbacks for the following characters:
• Locke, Sayid, Hurley, Nikki and Paolo, Jacob
• Kate appears in flash-forwards for the following characters:
• Jack, Sun, Sawyer
• Kate appears in flash-sideways for the following characters:
• Jack, Sawyer, Claire

Kate's Connections:

During my second time watching the entire series of "LOST," I found the following connections between Kate and other characters in the series:

• Saywer eats at Kate's mom's diner.
• Kate buys a fake necklace from Sawyer's girlfriend, Cassidy. They work together for an episode.
• Kate has Aaron off the Island and pretends to be his mother.
• Kate and Jack get engaged off the Island.
• Kate meets Roger Workman while cleaning up the Dharma Fire.
• Kate visits Cassidy to give her money for Sawyer's daughter, Clementine.
• Kate gives Aaron to Claire's mom in Los Angeles.
• Kate and Sawyer take Young Ben to be healed by Richard Alpert and the Hostile Others.
• Charles Widmore captures Jack and Kate after Daniel Faraday is shot.
• Kate meets Young Eloise Hawking at the time that Daniel Faraday is shot.
• Kate meets Jacob as a child while she is shoplifting. He touches her nose.
• Kate is the reason Juliet gives up on Sawyer.
• Kate is recruited by the Man in Black.
• Kate rides on Libby's boat.
• Kate, Jack, Sawyer and Hurley meet Dead Jacob as his ashes are burning.
• Jack and Kate kill the Man in Black.

Fun Facts and Trivia:

• In the original script, Kate would have been the leader of the Survivors, not Jack. Michael Keaton had originally been cast as Jack, and he was written as having died in the pilot episode.
• A stash of license plates previously used by Kate while on the run can be seen in her trunk during one episode. The license plates include these states: Minnesota, Idaho, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, North Dakota, Colorado and Wisconsin.
• Kate is one of the few characters to show sympathy toward Ben Linus on the Island.
• Kate is the only member of the Oceanic 6 to fly off the island on the Ajira 316 flight.
• Kate visits five of the ten known Dharma Initiative stations on the Island.
• The subject file on Kate's mugshot is: 00-0428-23-5607-01, which contains the Numbers 4, 8, 23 and 42.
• Kate is the only one of the Oceanic Survivors and Candidates whose Candidate Number is not one of "The Numbers" or a multiple thereof. The only Survivors on The List in addition to Locke (4), Hurley (8), Sawyer (15), Sayid (16), Jack (23), and Jin and/or Sun (42) are Kate, Michael, and Shannon. Shannon's number is 32, a multiple of 4 and 8;  Michael's number is 124, a multiple of 4; Kate's number is 51, which is not a multiple of any of The Numbers.
• Kate is one of the five original main characters still alive at the end of the series.
• Kate was the central character of the first episode to contain the traditional flashback format; she was the third character to be seen in a flashback of any kind. Additionally, Kate was the final Oceanic 815 character to have a flashback episode centered around them.
• Kate has the second most flashback (17), next to Jack.
• In Season 6, Kate is the first to receive an individual flash sideways.
• Kate and Jack are the only characters to appear in every season premiere of the series.
• Kate has been tied up more than any other character on the show.
• Kate has cried seventeen times during the series.

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Well, there you have it. Do you like Kate? Do you hate her? Are you on the fence? Is there anything specific regarding Kate that you'd like me to keep an eye out for while I quick-binge this time around? Let me know in the comments below.

This will be the first of several new "LOST" blogs in the next couple months, so stay tuned. And, as always...

Namaste... and good luck.