"LOST" Fans Illusions About Kate Austen
"LOST" FANS ILLUSIONS ABOUT KATE AUSTEN
I just discovered that six years after ABC’s "LOST" left the air, many fans are still harboring illusions about the Kate Austen character. Why? Because she was portrayed by Evangeline Lilly, the show’s leading lady? Did Kate being the leading female character was a reason why so many made excuses for her mistakes and crimes? What exactly did Kate do? Well . . . let’s see:
*Murdered her stepfather Wayne Jensen, when she discovered that he was her real father. Apparently, she could not deal with the reality that she shared blood with him.
*In order to murder Wayne, she blew up his house, which also belonged to her mother, Diane Jensen.
*Kate dragged her mother into a false insurance claim over the destroyed house, so that Diane could profit from it and she could pretend to herself that she had murdered Wayne to protect her mother from his drunken abuse.
*Recruited former boyfriend Tom Brennan to help her gain access to Diane, while the latter was in the hospital and she was a fugitive. This led him to be shot and killed by the police, while Kate was trying to make her escape from the hospital.
*Planned a bank robbery in New Mexico that endangered the lives of innocent employees and customers, so that she could gain access to the suitcase left behind by U.S. Marshal Edward Mars, which contained a toy airplane that Tom had given to her when they were kids.
*Married a cop named Kevin Callis, using a false identity. When she thought she might be pregnant, she panicked, drugged Kevin and went on the run again.
*While on the island, she tried to manipulate and trick both Jack Shephard and James “Sawyer” Ford into giving her Marshal Mars’ suitcase, which she and Sawyer found, while swimming in a lagoon.
*She gave Sun Kwon the idea to poison the latter’s husband, Jin Kwon, so that he would remain on the island and not join Michael Dawson’s attempt to leave. Kate did this, because she wanted a spot on Michael’s raft in order to leave herself.
*Convinced Jack to create a story that she was Aaron Littleton’s mother, so that she could use the infant as an emotional comforter, following the trauma they had faced leaving the island . . .and not bother making any effort to find any of Aaron’s living relatives.
*Met Carole Littleton (Aaron’s grandmother) at the funeral of Christian Shephard, six months after returning to the States and never told the latter than she was a grandmother. Kate kept Aaron away from his grandmother for another two-and-a-half years, before she finally had the decency to finally hand the toddler over to his true guardian.
I noticed during the series’ run that Kate had a habit of resorting to violence (physical or verbal) whenever someone shatters her illusions. She had resorted to anger when both Jack and fellow castaway John Locke tried to tell her that they all needed to return to the island. She had resorted to physical abuse when former member of the Others, Juliet Burke, revealed that Jack had seen her have sex with Sawyer. And she did the same to Sawyer, when he accused her of using him for sex, whenever she had relationship problems with Jack.
Many fans have accused Kate’s parents of being monsters. Wayne Jensen was a drunk and wife abuser. Well . . . this is true. They also accused Diane Jensen of being a terrible mother by preferring Wayne over her daughter. Diane was merely guilty of having bad taste in men, preferring the alcoholic Wayne over her upstanding Army sergeant ex-husband, Sam Austen. Otherwise, she was a pretty decent mother. Yes, she did expose Kate’s murder of Wayne to the police. But Kate had murdered him . . . her husband. In cold blood. When Kate tried to claim that she was trying to save Diane from Wayne’s abuse in a flashback scene from (3.15) "Left Behind", the latter made it clear that she knew Kate was lying. Kate’s soliloquy in (2.09) "What Kate Did" confirmed that she was not even thinking of her mother when she murdered Wayne. And Sergeant Austen was not that surprised that Kate had murdered Wayne. He figured she would do it once she learned that Wayne was her real father, she would kill the latter.
Yes, Kate was not perfect. Yes, Kate made mistakes and committed crimes. Yes, many other "LOST" characters were guilty of mistakes and crimes. But why did so many fans make excuses for her lapses in morality? Not only did they make excuses for her murder of Wayne Jensen, they also made excuses for her kidnapping of Aaron Littleton, upon leaving the island for the first time in the Season Four finale, (4.13-4.14) "There's No Place Like Home (Part II)". That is correct. Kate had kidnapped Aaron. And Jack Shephard, along with Sun Kwon, Sayid Jarrah and Hugo "Hurley: Reyes were accessories to her crime. Episodes like (5.04) "The Little Prince", (5.11) "Whatever Happened, Happened" and (6.13) "The Last Recruit" made it clear that Kate had pretended to be Aaron’s blood mother for selfish reasons. Yet, some people are still claiming that she had merely "adopted" Aaron.
As I had earlier stated, it has been six years since "LOST" went off the air. And although there are some fans who are willing to openly admit that Kate had made mistakes and committed crimes, I have noticed that other fans - many of them, as a matter of fact - still continue to make excuses for her. Only one other "LOST" character has received such a large amount of excuses for past crimes and mistakes and that is James "Sawyer" Ford. And I do not know whether to find this pathetic, funny or both.