Katherine "Kat" Gardener is a level-headed mother of five children, a nurse at Eastwick General Hospital, and the wife of Raymond Gardener. Struggling to balance a happy and healthy life and marriage, Kat is often compared to Mother Nature.
Biography[]
Kat was born in Eastwick and began a relationship with Raymond as a teenager. When she first got pregnant at 18, Ray stuck by her and they had been together ever since.
Personality[]
Character Arc[]
Kat is attending the annual witch celebration in Eastwick, alongside her children and husband Ray when she stumbles upon a coin. Taking the coin, she heads to the fountain in town square and tosses it into the water, unknowingly summoning mysterious wealthy businessman Darryl Van Horne to Eastwick in the process.
Shortly after, Bun suffers a stroke as a result of the awakening of magic and Kat becomes her nurse in the hospital, this is where she meets Roxie and Joanne, with the former inviting the women around for drinks. A blossoming friendship is born.
Her growing powers first manifest during an argument with Raymond, in which she chased the earth to move, sending him falling out of his hammock. Although she brushed this off as a coincidence. Kat has dinner with Darryl, Joanna and Roxie, which results in them drunk and frolicking in the local fountain. Raymond spots her and drags her away in a rage. Later, the pair have a confrontation and she accidentally strikes him down with lightning. In hospital, Raymond demands a divorce and threatens to take the kids from her due to her being an 'unfit mother'.
Kat decides she's going to call a divorce lawyer, upon Darryl's recommendation. She still lives with Raymond but during one night, while she is watering the garden, he visits her and the two reminisce about their high-school days. Wrapped up in nostalgia, Raymond takes her in his arms and they sleep together. However, the next morning Kat reiterates that they are still getting a divorce, which angers him.
Relationships[]
Powers and Abilities[]
- Elemental Control: Kat has the power to control and manipulate the elements of air, earth, fire, and water. Kat is one of the most powerful witches in the world and has demonstrated a plethora of abilities, all of which are facets of her power to control the elements. Kat possesses the psionic ability to summon and control the forces of Mother Nature herself. With this ability she can control all aspects of nature for miles around her location and can target specific nature effects, in her immediate vicinity. For example, she can cause water to boil or freeze. Summon a strong gust wind to throw two thousand pound piano across a room, control the weather to creating thunder, rain, and bolts of lighting, she can even aim lightning from her thunderstorms at targets of her choice. She can also promote or decay plant growth and vegetation or control and create fire. She can cause earthquakes and create fissures down to the core of the Earth. Kat's ability seems to be attuned to her emotions an can manifest unintentionally depending on her mood. Kat has been shown to be sensitive to the dynamics of the natural world, and her psionic powers over nature are affected by her emotions. One consequence of this connection to nature is that she often suppresses extreme feelings to prevent her emotional state from resulting in violent phenomena. Kat's abilities are limited by her willpower and the strength of her body. Kat's powers allow her body to compensate for climate extremes; its been stated that Kat's body changes temperature in opposition to her environment so that the colder the environment the warmer her body gets, and the warmer the environment the colder her body gets. Her body also compensates for rapid decreases or increases in atmospheric pressure. Over the years she has taken more interest in developing her gifts.
- Chlorokinesis: Kat is able to control vegetation and the life within it, such as by accelerating, reviving, or withering plant growth and creating various organic flora at will.
- Atmokinesis: Kat can control and manipulate meteorological phenomenon through precise manipulation of humidity, precipitation, temperature, and barometric pressure.
- Animal/Insect Influence: Butterflies and other wildlife seem to be drawn to Kat when she uses her abilities. Whether she can control their actions or it's just a side-effect of her powers is unknown.
- Healing: Kat could induce rapid healing in others via physical contact, as she was able to magically heal the injuries of her hospital patients. Kat has the ability to heal people, with this she can heal most injuries, though she is unable to heal the dead. She has been seen healing people from cuts, diseases to drowning accidents. The negative side-effects of this gift is that she only can heal a few people before she feels the effects. The results of healing to many people will cause Kat to feel weaknesses such as tiredness, nose bleedings, gray hair and later unconsciousness. As she takes away other peoples negative energy when she heal them that energy has to go somewhere which is in Kat. To gain her strength back, Kat has to sleep for a number of hours before she's back to full strength again.
Weaknesses[]
- Emotions: Kat's power is subject to the influence of her emotional state and may fluctuate according to them. According to Eleanor Rougement, strong emotions such as hate and anger can actually fuel Kat's power and energize her.
- Mortality: Despite their mystical attributes, witches are still human and share many of the same weaknesses as non-supernatural beings (e.g. age, decapitation, disease, heart-failure, suffocation, snapped neck, etc.). However, witches immune to drowning.
- Overexertion: According to Eleanor Rougement, Kat heals by taking on other people's suffering, absorbing the negative energy surrounding their injuries into herself; her body seems to be able to nullify this negative energy after a certain amount of time. Thus healing too many people in rapid succession can place great physical strain on her body (e.g. symptoms could include disorientation, nose bleeds, grey hair and unconsciousness).
Trivia[]
- Her "Witches of Eastwick" book/movie counterpart is Sukie Ridgemont (played by Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1987 film)