Kate
Evangeline Lilly BACKSTORY The law caught up with the most-wanted Midwestern girl (a.k.a. Annie, a.k.a. Maggie, a.k.a. Joan) while she was on the run in the outback; her longtime pursuer, a U.S. marshal (Fredric Lane), was transporting her back to the States on Oceanic 815. She has a history of charming people (okay, men) into coming to her aid, though gruesome fates usually await them: She shot the three male accomplices who helped her hold up a bank. (All she wanted was a meaningful toy plane that was stashed in a safety deposit box.) The love of her life back home in Iowa — Dr. Tom Brennan (Mackenzie Astin), owner of said plane — tried to stop her from escaping in his car, but was killed by cops as she drove off with him in the passenger seat. Oh, and as for her original crime? She torched her parents' house — while her lecherous, drunken, wife-beating dad was inside.
ISLAND LIFE SO FAR She landed in a classic good boy/bad boy love triangle with Jack and Sawyer that conveniently echoes her daddy issues and long-lost-love guilt. A tomboy who always wants in on the action, she's put her skills at manipulation to good use — most notably stirring up Jack and Sawyer's rivalry, first over whether to kill the suffering-from-crash-injuries marshal and then over what to do with a briefcase containing guns and that precious toy plane. She later jockeyed for Sawyer's spot on a doomed raft constructed by fellow islanders Michael and Jin; that plan backfired when Sawyer forced her to reveal her criminal past to the other castaways. Their long-simmering tension subsided when she tended to a gravely wounded Sawyer after the raft was destroyed in an explosive encounter with the Others. We last saw her — where else? — between Jack and Sawyer, after the three of them were bound and gagged by the Others.
BURNING QUESTION FOR SEASON 3 ''Very simple,'' says Lindelof. ''Jack or Sawyer?''
WE PREDICT She'll finally choose Sawyer, only to get mad jealous when Jack takes up with a new woman — and we're kinda scared to see what jealousy does to our moody little criminal.
SIX DEGREES OF KATE Her mom, Diane (Beth Broderick), served beers to Sawyer in her diner. Sgt. Sam Austen (Lindsey Ginter) — the man Kate once believed to be her dad — was a member of the U.S. Army unit that captured Iraqi castaway Sayid.ew.com