Kate Hawthorne is a character in the science fiction comedy television series Resident Alien. She is portrayed by Meredith Garretson.
Character overview[]
Kate Hawthorne is a woman who lives in Patience. She is married to the town's mayor, Ben Hawthorne, and is the mother of the boy Max Hawthorne, who can see through the alien Harry Vanderspeigle's human disguise, as well as a currently unnamed child who was abducted from her womb by The Greys. She is a teacher at her son's school, which has led to him becoming something of an outcast among his peers. She and her husband have something of a troubled relationship, as she is an assertive, dominant personality, while he tends to be much more submissive in nature. She is a professional lawyer, but gave up her dream to have a family and live in Patience. Having grown up in a large town, Kate never had the same feeling of community that many Patience natives have, but comes to appreciate the town and the people in it.
Appearance[]
Plot summary[]
Kate Hawthorne is out walking with her son Max, her holding his hand, when she two of them encounter the alien who is masquerading as Harry Vanderspeigle. As she is unable to see Vanderspeigle's true form, she is confused when her son screams upon seeing him and then rushes back to their car, locking the doors. That evening, she and her husband Ben hear their son screaming. Neither believe their son's claim that there's an alien under the bed who tried to kill him and she tells him that she can't do another night with no sleep. She gives him a count of three to get off the top of his bed and come sleep with them, chastising Ben for letting him watch movies like E.T.: The Extraterrestrial.
She is again aggravated when she and Ben take Max to the doctor's for a sore throat, only for him to race out of the clinic and hide under the bench because the Vanderspeigle alien is the doctor. She and Ben again ignore Max's claims of attempted murder, but agree to let Max go with Ben to his office, so long as his sore throat doesn't worse. She then tells Ben that they're getting rid of him if he keeps things up.
Later, she pays a visit to Vanderspeigle at his cabin, telling him that her son is going around town telling everyone that he's an alien and showing him a wanted poster that her son made. Vanderspeigle at first thinks that she believes her son's story and secretly grabs a knife to try to kill her, only for her to ask him what's wrong with her son, why he's making things up. She tells him that she normally used to talk with Sam Hodges about this sort of thing. When she asks what she can do about it, he suggests that she and her family move far away, that Scotland needs mayors. She tells him that they're not moving and he plays it off as a joke. He then suggests that she's neglecting her son and she agrees that things might be difficult for Max, with her working at school. She later approaches Max at school, hoping to connect with him, but her giving him a hug only ends up embarrassing him in front of his peers.
She and Ben have a talk with Max. When they give him cookies, her realizes that it's a serious talk and at first believes that they're getting a divorce. When they tell him that Vanderspeigle is coming over for dinner, he asks why they couldn't just be getting a divorce and screams and hides in his room. To their surprise, however, Max behaves like an angel during dinner, secretly playing the role of the good boy to run interference for his friend Sahar who is stealing Vanderspeigle's keys so that they can sneak into his cabin. Meanwhile, Kate is embarrassed by Vanderspeigle's unexpected date, D'arcy Bloom, who reveals that she and Ben had dated while they were in school and technically never actually broke up with each other.
Kate's relationship with her husband, Ben, grows increasingly troubled due to his own lack of assertiveness and their continued troubles with Max. Vanderspeigle suggests sending Max off to a special school in Georgia, ostensibly because of him suffering for teraphobia and face-blindness, though secretly due to Max's ability to recognize him as an alien. When Vanderspeigle later claims to have been "mistaken," Ben calls it "great news," but Kate states that he drove a wedge between her and her husband.
Things only continue to get worse, as the two have their anniversary dinner. Based on the misguided advice of Sheriff Mike Thompson, Ben picks the restaurant, a fancy upscale restaurant named Laurent's that he would normally never frequent. During the dinner, he is abnormally controlling. Kate finally calls him out on it and he replies that she had said she wanted him to challenge her more. She admits this is so, but says that this isn't him. She tells him that that they aren't always going to agree about everything, that they're different people, but she wants them to be a team. Following the dinner, Kate visits the restroom. Here, she encounters a woman who gives her name as "Sarah Houston" and claims to be new in town. Kate introduces herself as the mayor's wife and gives the woman her phone number, telling her to call her if she needs anything. Unknown to Kate, the woman is actually the government agent Lisa Casper, who is seeking her son Max to learn what he knows about the alien.
Sometime following this, Kate invites "Sarah" over to dinner along with "Richard Houston," who is supposedly her husband. In fact, "Richard" is actually a government agent partnered with her, whose actual name is David Logan. When Ben arrives home, he is annoyed, as he upset that they are having fish for dinner instead of their usual taco night. He is sulky throughout the dinner, irritating Kate, who pulls him aside and tells him to at least try to make an effort at conversation. Meanwhile, Kate sneaks up to Max's room and discovers a piece of Harry Vanderspeigle's spaceship, hidden away by Max. When she is caught by Kate, she claims that she simply wanted to see what a child's room looks like, feigning that she and "Richard" are having difficulties having a child of their own due to him being sterile.
Following this encounter, Casper and Logan try to use Max to track down Vanderspeigle, but are thwarted by him and his friend Sahar, who realize that the two agents are onto them. They then break into the Hawthorne household and try to interrogate Max and Sahar while Kate is upstairs exercising. Kate eventually comes down and demands to know what they are doing, at which point Casper forces into a closet. She manages to break out. Around the same time, Ben arrives and sees what is happening. He makes his way inside the house and together he and Kate fight off the two agents using every household object they can get their hands on. In the aftermath, covered in blood, they seem to be newly turned on to each other and kiss and make out.
In the coming weeks, Ben and Kate's marriage seems to be stronger and more passionate than ever. They have wild sex, engaging in a variety of kinky role-play. In truth, however, this outward front is a cover for their continued cracks in their relationship. Ben remains troubled by being kissed by D'arcy Bloom, despite himself not having been the one to make contact. Meanwhile, Kate finds herself restless, troubled by the fact that she gave up a promising legal career in order to settle down in the sleepy town of Patience and be a mayor's wife, a schoolteacher and a mother to Max.
The cracks in the two's relationship begin to show when Ben is out at the Grady property taking photos with D'arcy, as D'arcy was the only one with a license and insurance for the ATV needed to reach it. Kate is away on a trip with Max and Ben admits to D'arcy that he feels like he can't himself around Kate, that he has to do things like holding his farts in. D'arcy is surprised, as she thought their relationship was "all handcuffs and frozen dildos." Ben tells her that he has a sign that he can't even hang up in the house because he's worried about Kate might think. The two eventually retire to the Hawthorne house and D'arcy helps Ben to hang up the sign, which reads "Live, Laugh, Love." The two smoke marijuana that she hid the room that is now Max's when she was a teen and she ends up falling asleep in Max's bed, though romantic happens between them. Despite this, when Kate arrives home the next day, Ben has D'arcy sneak out the window. He also takes down the sign when it is clear that she dislikes it.
One day, Kate is working at out the local gym when she discovers that D'arcy is there as well, trying to get back into shape after having taken a "recovery day" for years following the accident that ended her Olympic dreams. The two get to chatting and Kate helps D'arcy to get back into the groove of working out. Afterwards, the two head to the 59 for celebratory drinks. When Kate's drink tastes like soap to her, she fears she might be pregnant. She admits to D'arcy that she doesn't know how she feels about having another kid. She says that Ben would be thrilled. D'arcy is dubious because of a comment previously made by Ben, but doesn't say anything. Kate assures her that Ben does want kids and would start a family band if he could. D'arcy takes her to a corner of a bar and dispenses a pregnancy test from a machine. Kate tells her she doesn't know and D'arcy tells her it's there for her when she's ready.
Ben hosts a surprise party for Harry Vanderspeigle's birthday, hoping to lure him into once again becoming the town doctor. During the party, Ben gets a call and informs Kate that he got a call from a company that wants to put a resort in Patience. She expresses her disgust at the idea to D'arcy, who says that nobody is putting a resort there. She asks what she's talking about and Kate says that Ben took pictures of the Grady land to show them and now the company is sold on the idea. "He said he was using those pictures for the town website," reveals D'arcy, stunned.
In the shock of it all, the entire messy business comes out into the open in the party. Mike reveals that D'arcy had kissed Ben, trying to absolve Ben of guilt, but not realizing that Kate didn't know about the kiss. Kate is shocked to learn about the time that D'arcy spent with Ben and that she even spent the night over at the house and she didn't know it. In her anger, she accuses D'arcy of not being her friend and spending time with Ben only because finding a single guy who's real and available is too scary for her, thus inserting her drama into other people's lives because she can't deal with her own. She tells Ben that she hates her life in Patience and drops the bomb that she's pregnant. "Who's keeping secrets now?" comments Ben and Kate stalks off, Mike telling Ben that's not really the road he wants to go down.
Ben tracks down Kate, finding her in the cabin's bedroom. He apologizes for not telling her about what happened with D'arcy, saying she probably already knows by now that she's married to a dipshit. She asks why he didn't tell her. He says he was scared and that the truth is that they don't really talk about things anymore. "Let's talk, right now," says Kate. "We're gonna have a baby," says Ben and they both agree that it's a lot. They then start making out and later head to the bathroom to once again engage in wild sex.
Not long following this, Ben proposes to the town of Patience a plan to build a major new resort within the town, in order to rebrand the town away from being a "murder town" and attract new residents and business. Kate is one of his few allies, as most of the town is adamantly opposed to the plan, feeling that it would ruin Patience's small-town charm by driving away local business and creating massive traffic problems. Kate adamantly supports Ben, both determined to be more supportive of him and genuinely feeling it to be a good idea.
Asta, D'arcy, Deputy Liv Baker and Kayla hatch a plan to change Kate's mind. On Halloween, they take Kate out for the evening and bring her to an old bridge at a secluded creek. There, they showed her how they carved their names into the bridge as children, and that it was even where Ben lost his virginity. Kate admits that having grown up in a big city, this is something that she never had, that she never had this sense of community or belonging. They tell her that she could have it too and she ends up carving her and Ben's initials. Afterwards, she agrees with them that she is on-board with them and she no longer wants the resort and for Patience to change.
Kate goes to Ben and reveals that she is no longer in support of the resort. She expects her word to change his mind, but to her surprise and shock, he tells her that he is still for it and that the two of them are going to have to agree to disagree. Stunned, Kate reports back the news to the others. Kayla then asks her why she is spending so much time worrying about one man's opinion. She explains that as they are both lawyers, she's done some research and they could get a temporary restraining order to halt progress prior to a preliminary injunction hearing. She asks Kate if she's in and Kate asks when they could start.
Around this same time, Kate begins to suspect that her pregnancy test may have been a false positive. She gets blood work from Asta at the Patience Health Clinic and confirms the false positive. Meanwhile, her battle with Ben over the resort continues. When the tension starts to create conflict at home, they agree to a truce to simply not talk about the resort at home. This, however, ends up becoming an issue when Ben brings over Sheriff Mike, who is his other big supporter on the resort plan, for dinner. Mike has made no such agreement and therefore ends up dragging the two back into the argument. The stress of things seemingly causes Ben start having nightmares and sleepwalking, something that he hasn't done since childhood. Things come to a head when Ben, drowsy during the day due to a lack of sleep, ends up in a car crash.
Kate rushes to the hospital, where she blames herself for having caused Ben's accident by putting this stress on him. She tells him that he doesn't have to worry anymore, that she knows a lot of good can come from having a resort in town. She continues that she doesn't want him to have to stop doing something that he believes in. He, however, tells her that during the accident, the important moments and people of his life flashed before his life, and all of them were there in Patience. He explains that he got so caught up in rebranding Patience that he forgot that he already loves it exactly the way it is, and he no longer wants to change it. He tells her that he's tired of trying to make everyone like him. She tells him that they already do, but he retorts that they don't, that he's just the mayor to them, but he knows that she does, and that's enough. Kate's words, however, are soon proven right when members of the town pour in to check on Ben and make sure he's okay.
Kate and Ben's baby in an incubation tube of The Greys
Sometime following this, Kate wakes up in the middle of the night. She goes downstairs, only to find Ben standing still in the kitchen, apparently having sleepwalked there despite no longer suffering from the stress of the resort. He tells her that he had the same nightmare again, quipping that she shouldn't have woken him until he finished doing the dishes. She tells him to come back to bed. Not long after this, Ben is abducted in his sleep by The Greys along with Robert Hutchins, something that has apparently been going on for years and is the cause of his sleepwalking, anxiety and nightmares. He struggles. "Do not worry," one of The Greys tells him. "Your baby is here too," he says, indicating an incubation tube containing the baby which they abducted from Kate's womb approximately three months before.
Kate finds herself waking up at night, troubled by a large owl in her and Ben's bedroom window. She tells Ben that the owl bothers her and that she's getting new blinds so that she doesn't have to see it. He protests this, telling her that it's good luck to have an owl staring at you. He admits that he doesn't know and that he actually made it up because he wanted to save money on blinds. "Blinds it is," he agrees. Kate later discusses the owl with Asta's cousin, Kayla, at Joe's Diner, who tells her that for her people, owls are taboo, that they're messengers of death. When Kate looks deeply disturbed at this, she tells her that she's sure it's fine, that it's really more of a metaphor and that they're in Colorado and there's sure to be owls flying all over the place. Kate, however, notes that the owl isn't really flying, that it just sits outside her window and stares.
Dan comes over with Kate's food order. Seeing Kate's expression, he asks if something is wrong with the food and Kayla explains about there being an owl outside Kate's window, staring at her. Hearing this, Dan appears just as disturbed as Kate. He pulls some cedar from a pocket, telling Kate to take it and it burn it every room in the house, using a match. He tells her that they usually use sage or sweetgrass, but this will offer her more protection and that she needs it. She asks if they will come over to the house and help her, but they start walking away, almost as if she is contagious. Not long after this, Kate tells Ben that she thinks they should sell their home.
Kate goes to Judy Cooper, who is not a licensed realtor, but whose aunt lets her works with clients she doesn't care about. Ben asks if it's really the right time to put the house on the market, to which Judy argues that the market is always strong for a murder house. To this, Ben claims that the previous owner slipped and fell, but Judy takes the idea and runs with it. Ben struggles with the idea for a while, but eventually goes to Kate, telling her that if she wants to sell the house, then that's what he wants too. Kate, though, says that she doesn't, that she loves the house and never wants to leave it. He asks what her deal is and she tells him that she just doesn't feel right, that she thought at first that it was that she didn't feel right there, but it's as though a part of her is missing. He suggests a vacation, saying that maybe she just needs to get out of the house for a bit. He suggests they go somewhere fun and says Yellowstone. She tells him she was about to say Paris, but agrees to Yellowstone.
Having learned that Ben is also being abducted by the Grey aliens, Harry Vanderspeigle inserts himself into the Yellowstone trip. The trip is productive for him, but not so much so for Kate, who continues to feel uncomfortable and as if something is missing. Back at home, she pulls out her sketchbook with the intention of writing and illustrating a children's book. The illustrations, however, are deeply disturbing, depicting among other things a highly realistic depiction of an owl feasting on a mouse, with entrails coming out. When Ben and Max question her about it, she at first describes it as being a beautiful tale of a mother feeding and protecting her babies. Ben, though, questions how she would react if she were to see one of her students drawing it, if she might not call their parents in for a conference. This forces Kate to take another look at it, then wonder just what it is that's happening to her. Max tells her that he once saw a movie in which someone saw an owl and it meant they were being abducted by aliens. Ben tells him that they've been over it and that there's no such thing as aliens. That evening, however, Kate runs an online search about owls and alien abductions. She finds a page with the heading "Am I being abducted?" stating that owls can be a sign of false memories.
Kate talks with Deputy Liv Baker about her appearance in a recent documentary about alien experiencers. She tells her that it was fascinating, especially the stuff in it about owls. She asks her if it's real and Liv tells her that it is, that a lot of experiencers see owls and they believe them to be false memories that were planted to cover up an alien abduction. She asks if Kate has been seeing owls, but Kate brushes it off, claiming to only be curious. Nevertheless, Kate asks her how someone would know for sure and Liv tells her there are other signs, such as weird bruising, lost time and that some people even find tracking chips in their skin. She invites Kate to come to an alien experiencer support group in Braddock. Later, at home, thinking back on the conversation, Kate feels around her body and discovers a strange lump and markings on the back of her neck.
Kate decides to take Deputy Liv up on her invitation and attend one of her alien experiencer meetings. Once there, when asked to introduce herself by the group's leader, she claims to only be there to watch. The leader points out that they don't normally get a lot of watchers, but Kate claims that she hasn't actually experienced anything. She then, however, admits to having seen an owl outside her window. She says that it's good, but then admits that she actually isn't. She tells them that she used to like where she lives and that she loves her home, but that she no longer feels safe. She says that it's bigger, like she no longer feels safe anywhere. She continues that she feels like she's going crazy, then asks if she's allowed to use the word. One of the experiencers there tells her that she's not going crazy, that the same thing happened to him. He even considered selling his house, then one day he discovered a tiny bump behind his knee that he realized could be a tracking chip. Kate feels at her neck and Liv asks if she's okay. She admits that she isn't sure. That evening, she handcuffs herself to her bed in the hopes of preventing herself from being abducted.
The next morning, Kate wakes up to find herself still handcuffed to the bed. However, when she reaches for the key, she drops it and is unable to retrieve it. She thus calls D'arcy Bloom for help. D'arcy is naturally confused as to why Kate would be handcuffed to the bed and is less-than-reassured when Kate tells her that it's "not a sex thing." However, a follow-up from Kate then leads D'arcy to realize the truth, as she is already aware of the fact that Ben is being abducted by aliens. That evening, Kate again handcuffs herself to the bed. The next morning, she wakes up to find the handcuff unlocked. On her arm is a message written in red ink: "IT'S REAL." Kate then pays a visit to the Patience Health Clinic, apologizing to Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle for not having an appointment but that she has something in the back of her neck and she needs him to take it out immediately.
Harry instantly recognizes the lump on the back of Kate's neck as being that of a Grey implant. He is also aware of the fact that the Greys have been taking Ben and therefore is not surprised that they are taking Kate as well. He decides to hypnotize Kate in the hope of getting information out of her that will help him to thwart the Greys' plan to explode a bomb with a compound that will render the Earth uninhabitable to anyone but them. However, when he tries, he is unable to get any useful information from Kate, as she only focuses on her baby and the Greys having taken her. At first, Harry thinks that Kate will not want to remember this and therefore decides to make it so that Kate will not remember anything following the session. He then, however, thinks of the love that he has recently rediscovered for his own child, Bridget, and tells Kate then when he snaps his fingers, she will wake up and remember everything. He does and then comforts her as she sobs, remembering everything about her time with the Greys and her baby.
Kate goes to Ben, intending to tell him everything, only to learn that he has discovered an equally big secret of his own: that he has been abducted by the Greys for over thirty years. The two of them decide that they must get their tracking chips removed at all costs, but realize that they may have another problem: the possibility that their son Max may be being abducted by the Grey aliens as well. They therefore decide to stage an inspection under the excuse that that the school called and said that some of the students there have been getting lice. They find him to be free of any Grey tracking chips and so Ben calls in Dr. Smallwood to remove their chips. However, after Ben has his chip removed, Kate declares that she wants to keep her chip, as it is her only connection to their daughter. Ben protests that it's too dangerous, but she tells him that she's going to fight.
That evening, Kate is taken by the Greys as expected. Onboard the Grey spaceship, she makes her way for the facility where the Greys are holding the children. While there, she unexpectedly encounters D'arcy Bloom, who it turns out has sneaked aboard for her own purposes, hoping to explode a bomb and prevent a Grey plan to take over the Earth, transforming it to suit their own purposes. Kate pleads with her to help her and she agrees, leaving the plan to Asta and Harry, who are also aboard their spaceship. They arrive at the nursery and locate Kate's baby. The Greys then arrive and tackle Kate, fixing a device to her neck and transporting her off the ship. However, when they turn back, they discover that the baby is gone, D'arcy having taken it. D'arcy then locates Asta and escapes with her and Harry. D'arcy then travels to the Hawthorne family home and knocks at their door, ready to reunite Kate with her child. Ultimately, however, she does not go through with this, realizing that the baby will not be safe as the Greys would likely just come and abduct her again. She then starts raising the baby with Asta's help, naming her Daisy, Kate and Ben being left to believe that the child is still missing.
Quotes[]
"Look at this. It's disgusting. Makes me want to throw up just looking at it." - Kate upon seeing a picture of Harry Vanderspeigle's alien form
"I hate Patience, I hate my life, and I hate that I thought you were my friend, and I'm glad I pissed on your hand when I took that pregnancy test!" - Kate to D'arcy Bloom
"I... you know, I never had this where I grew up, you know, a sense of belonging to a place, like it was a part of you."
- Kate, after learning of the carving spot under the bridge
"I've been trying so hard to change this town... to make it perfect. And it already is. At least to me. And... I don't want it to change. I'm just so tired... of trying to get everyone to like me."
"Oh, honey. Everybody loves you."
"No, they don't. I'm just the mayor to them."
"No."
"But I know that you do. You know, that's what matters."
- Ben and Kate Hawthorne
Behind the scenes[]
- Kate Hawthorne's actress, Meredith Garretson, is credited as a guest star despite appearing in all episodes of the first season of Resident Alien. She continues to appear regularly in the second and third seasons, though is absent from at least one episode. Beginning in the fourth season, she is credited as starring cast.
- According to Resident Alien creator and showrunner Chris Sheridan, he had considered withholding the truth regarding Kate's pregnancy and the abduction of her child by The Greys until Season 3. He decided, however, that this would feel like a cheat, that it would make it seem to viewers like the story had simply been cut off, and thus it was important to reveal the truth within the same season. He also felt that it made for both a great and terrifying ending to the season.[1]
Gallery[]
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References[]
- ↑ Syfy: Resident Alien Showrunner Breaks Down Biggest Moments from Game-Changing Season 2 Finale by Josh Weiss. September 29, 2022.