In a previous show, Kate tells Jack that the little plane belonged to the man she loved....the man she killed. Tom was killed in the car wreck, but she didn't actually kill him. Does she think she did? The only person we've seen her kill so far is Wayne, and surely she didn't mean him.

Somebody help me out here.

It's Tom. She was driving the car in which he was killed, so she feels responsible for his death.

It was Tom because they got the plane after diggin it up. She feels responsible for killing Tom because he was in the car.

Kate is wracked with guilt and self-loathing which has built inside her for years. She never had a chance to release it during her life on the run. It's coming out in streams now...

How/why did the plane end up in the safe deposit box? Kate had it in her possession, why give it up again?

The Marshall got the plane from the back seat of the car after Tom was killed and Kate ran. He put it in the safe deposit box as a way to bait Kate into coming out of hiding. Kate then planned the whole robbery in order to get to the plane.

I guess that's possible but if I were the Marshall, I wouldn't bank on my prey wanting a toy plane back so bad that she would stage an entire bank robbery to get it back.

He actually guessed right thinking she would. When a cop is on a fugitive's trail for years they get to know them pretty well. I thnk it shows that the Marshall really was able to get inside Kate's head and understand her. He evens says in Exodus why he planted the plane at the bank and he knew she would do anything to get it back. He knew it belonged to an old friend/ex-boyfriend that she felt responsible for killing.

Well, it may have worked out that way for him but it's far fetched. I can see telling my boss, "I'm going to plant a toy plane in a safe deposit box and stake in out hoping that a fugitive I'm tracking comes back for it." I'm willing to go with the flow if that's the best the writers can do but I don't find that "trap" reasonable, logical, or probable unless there is a LOT more to that plane than we know.

I guess I will disagree, they're isn't anything more to the dumb little airplane than we know. We found out in Whatever The Case May Be that all she wanted was the little plane. Because it belonged to the man she loved. The man she killed.

We found out in Born To Run that the plane indeed was Tom's and they had placed it in a time capsle in like 1989 or something because he thought it would be cool to dig up. They dig it up then Kate gets in trouble, Tom wont leave her so he ends up shot to death by the most gun ho police man i've ever seen and then Kate run's away after trying to grab the place that meant that much to a now dead tom.

Then in Exodus Part 1 or Part 2 I can't remember which exactly The Marshall gives a big speech about he used the plane to draw Kate out of hiding. He says very clearly that it's all Kate cares about.

That is the extent to which the plane means. Nothing more in my opinion.

I agree that it means nothing more. I'm just saying that I think the plan (in real life) would be silly. I sincerely doubt that, even for sentimental reasons or for "love," anyone would stage an entire bank robbery, risk capture, and endanger bank employees and customers to retrieve that kind of object. But the writers give that as Kate's motivation so I'll accept it. I just think it's weak writing due to the implausibility but then again, we're talking about a show with monsters, black smoke, polar bears, images talking backwards, cursed numbers, etc. and we love it so why not?