Kathryn Nolan

''"I've always had this irrational fear of leaving Storybrooke, like something was holding me back... is that crazy?"

- Kathryn to Regina  Kathryn Nolan is a recurring character on Once Upon a Time''. She débuts in the third episode of the first season. She is played by guest star Anastasia Griffith and is the Storybrooke counterpart of Princess Abigail.

Kathryn is the estranged wife of David Nolan, with whom she had a fight with in the early years of Storybrooke, which resulted in him leaving and being found in a coma by Regina Mills.

Season One
Kathryn is first introduced when John Doe, later revealed to be David Nolan, wakes up and is brought back to Storybrooke hospital by Mary Margaret, Sheriff Graham and Emma Swan. Regina Mills brought her in, as Regina was David's emergency contact, under the pretext of finding her by rewatching previous hospital tapes.

She tells Emma and Mary Margaret that they had gotten into a fight and he had left; she had assumed that he left Storybrooke after all that time and now knew why he never contacted her. Emma becomes suspicious, but Kathryn brushes her off and reunites with her husband.

After David is discharged from the hospital, she throws him a welcome-home party filled with people he doesn't recognize. After having a talk with Emma, David leaves to go to Mary Margaret's house while Kathryn hides out in the kitchen. Regina confronts her, and she confesses her insecurities about their marriage. Regina encourages her to go after David and after a brief pep talk, Kathryn thanks her and declares Regina to be her friend.

A few weeks later, the mayor directs David to Mr. Gold 's shop, where he suddenly remembers everything about their marriage. He promises her that he'll make their marriage work, and pushes all thoughts about Mary Margaret behind him. Kathryn never knew about him pursuing the schoolteacher.

A few weeks later, after Sheriff Graham's death, Kathryn applies to a law school in Boston and is accepted. She tells David, who decides that it was wonderful news, and takes a walk. He talks to Mary Margaret (with whom he had been having an affair a few days prior) and decides to tell his wife about the affair.

When he speaks with her, he opts out of mentioning Mary Margaret and instead says that he can no longer be with her. Kathryn becomes tearful and goes to Regina to let her know that David left her. Regina casually mentions Mary Margaret's name and shows her pictures that Sidney Glass took of the two together. Kathryn becomes furious and lashes out on Regina, saying that she was never her friend, or she would have told her, and leaves.

She is then shown to be storming toward the schoolhouse where Mary Margaret teaches. She confronts Mary Margaret in the middle of the hallway (smacking her across the face), running into the Jim, the gym teacher, in the process, and reveals to her that David never told her about the affair. After another stormy rant, Kathryn leaves, leaving a shaken Mary Margaret behind her.

After she comes to terms with the affair, she writes a letter for her ex-husband and Mary Margaret and goes to Regina's office. She apologizes for her behavior and tells the mayor about her plans to move to Boston alone are still going to happen. Then she tells Regina about the letter she left for David, dropping several too-close-to-home hints about the Dark Curse's effects. Then she leaves for Boston.

Once she's gone, Regina enters the Nolan house using the skeleton keys she kept in her desk. She grabs the letter, brings it back to the office, and burns it. Kathryn is shown driving away from Storybrooke in the middle of the night.

She disappears the moment the letter is burnt completely, and her empty car is found by Jim. The car is later discovered in the episode Red-Handed. Mary Margaret goes to search for Kathryn in the woods, and finds David in a trance-like state, wandering aimlessly. She reports this to Emma.

Emma convinces Ruby to go down to the Toll Bridge to search for clues. Ruby does, albeit unwillingly, and discovers a box with a human heart inside by the side of the creek. Emma runs some tests on it and discovers that the fingerprints on it belong to Mary Margaret.

To add further to the mystery, David consults Dr. Archie Hopper about his blackouts, and under hypnosis tries to recall his last conversation with Kathryn. He remembers her telling him to be with Mary Margaret if it would make him happy. However, he has flashbacks memories of Snow White, mistaking her for Mary Margaret, in which he yells at her, "Don't kill her!" He confuses the memory of himself telling Mary Margaret not to kill Kathryn when it was actually a memory of Snow trying to kill the Evil Queen.

Emma runs DNA tests on the heart, which matches Kathryn, proving her death. However, it is later revealed that Kathryn is still alive when she is found in an alley by Ruby, Emma, and August. So far, it is unknown how or why the results from the DNA tests on the heart matched Kathryn's.

Kathryn is found in the alley behind Granny's diner by Ruby, who screams upon seeing her. Emma and August run back to investigate and find Kathryn laying on the ground wearing the now-filthy clothing she was last seen in. A closer inpsection by Emma reveals Kathryn disoriented, but very much alive.

After she is taken to the hospital, Kathryn is questioned by Emma. Kathryn reports that she can only recall the car crash, and that after that she must have been drugged.

Trivia

 * Kathryn means "pure" in Greek; Nolan means "famous".
 * She lives at Number 44.
 * Her name might be derived from the Grimm fairytale "Frederick and Catherine."

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