There were plenty of great characters in the sprawling ensemble of Jack Shephard from a standard protagonist into a saner version of Rick Grimes. They turned Hurley from the goofy comic relief to a deeply lovable tragic figure whose lottery victory was the worst thing that ever happened to him.
But the Lost writers didn’t bring additional depth to all their characters. In some cases, they took a character with a lot of depth and promise and intrigue and reduced them to a one-note archetype. A perfect example of this is Kate Austen, played by Evangeline Lilly. When Lost introduced Kate, she seemed to have a lot of potential, but she was quickly reduced to a love interest for Jack and Sawyer. She didn’t get enough of a role in the series, which totally wasted her promising backstory and Lilly’s talent (and left diehard fans such as myself bitterly disappointed).
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I'm Still Disappointed By How Badly Lost Wasted Kate's Character On The Island
Kate Was Reduced To A Romantic Interest In A Love Triangle
When Lost began and its characters were introduced, Kate seemed to be one of the ones with the most potential. She was smart and courageous, and she helped Jack galvanize the survivors to think about long-term survival on the island. But as the series went on, the writers didn’t seem to know what to do with her. One of the toughest characters in the Lost cast was reduced to the objectified third member of a love triangle between Jack and Sawyer. She could’ve been so much more than that, but the writers only thought of her as a romantic interest.
Kate's Backstory Made Her One Of The Most Interesting Lost Characters Early On
Kate Was A Fugitive Who'd Been On The Run For Months Before The Plane Crash
Kate was arrested by Edward Mars.
After escaping custody, Kate fled to Miami and adopted the name “Monica.” There, she married a police officer named Kevin Callis. Filled with guilt, Kate confessed who she really was to Kevin and drugged him with a sedative before going on the lam once again. After months of moving around the U.S. under various different aliases, Kate found out Diane had terminal cancer and risked everything to visit her. When Kate visited Diane, Diane screamed for help and alerted the police. During Kate’s getaway, her high school sweetheart Tom was shot and killed.
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Months after that, Kate set up a bank heist in New Mexico to get into a safe deposit box. This is where Kate’s backstory tied in with the larger mystery of the series, because box 815 – the flight number of the crashed plane – contained Tom’s toy airplane. Kate ended up working on a farm in Australia, where her boss figured out her true identity and alerted Mars to her whereabouts. Mars captured Kate once again and got her on the doomed Oceanic flight that would crash on the notorious island.
Lost ran for six seasons and concluded its run with a series finale aired on May 23, 2010.
All in all, this was one of Lost’s most compelling origin stories. It could’ve been a whole separate TV series of its own. Once all that had been revealed, Kate became one of my favorite characters in the show. However, after establishing that Kate had such a storied past as a killer and a fugitive, Lost didn’t do much with the character. She was shown to be tough and resourceful, but her past didn’t haunt her as much as her backstory suggested it would.
The ABC Show Fails To Deliver On Kate's Potential
Evangeline Lilly's Performance Was Completely Squandered
Between reducing her to a love interest and putting her in all the show’s most boring and inconsequential storylines, Lost completely squandered Kate as a character. She should’ve gotten in on more of the action, and her remorse should’ve been explored in more depth. Evangeline Lilly did an amazing job with the role, deftly balancing Kate’s toughness with her underlying vulnerability, so it was doubly disappointing that the character was wasted. Given how dark and complicated her backstory is, Kate should’ve been one of the most compelling characters in Lost, but her dramatic potential was ignored season after season.
Lost is a mystery drama series created for TV that follows a group of survivors of a plane crash and tells its story between the past, present, and future via flashbacks. When Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 crashes and lands on a mysterious island in the pacific ocean, the castaways discover their new temporary home may have a mind of its own, as strange supernatural events keep them locked to the island. From an unknown black smoke creature to dangerous islanders, the engers must work together to survive the island's seemingly deadly intentions.
- Directors
- Jack Bender, Stephen Williams
- Writers
- Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof
- Seasons
- 6
- Main Genre
- Mystery
- Creator(s)
- J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Jeffrey Lieber
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