Katherine Hale

"Grady was my husband. He was my partner. And here's how it works. You protect your partner, and you avenge them against people who do them wrong. That is something I strongly believe"

- Katherine to Wynn Duffy

Katherine Hale is an antagonist of seasons five and six of the TV show Justified. She is the special consultant to Wynn Duffy, the lover of Avery Markham and a business affiliate of Boyd Crowder. She is portrayed by Mary Steenburgen.

Biography
Before The Show Prior to the events of the show, Katherine's husband Grady Hale was murdered in prison after an informant exposed his criminal activities.

Season Five Katherine first appears in the episode "Weight", when Duffy asks her to help him deal with Boyd and Ethan Picker, to which she replies that she wants $50, 000 in advance.

In the next episode, "The Toll", Katherine, Duffy and Mike Cosmatopolis meet with Picker and Boyd in Boyd's hotel room, where Katherine berates Boyd for losing half of Duffy's heroin shipment and asks him for one good reason they shouldn't just shoot him. However, the meeting is interrupted when a group of US marshals arrive and take them all into custody. Later, they get released and continue the meeting. Boyd buys himself some time by offering to give Duffy the other half of the shipment as compensation, however he then detonates an explosive and kills Picker while Katherine and Duffy are conferring. Katherine then orders Mike to lock the door. She briefly appears in the episode "Restitution", in which she is shown in a car with Duffy and Mike, where she states that Boyd could make them a lot of money as he's good at bank robbery.

Season Six Katherine appears in episode two of season six, "Cash Game". In the episode, she is shown with Duffy, chastising Boyd for failing to find Calhoun Schrier's money, only his blackmail ledger, accusing him of stealing the money, which he denies. She is later shown talking to Avery Markham, Duffy's rival and her lover, who she steals money from for Boyd. Katherine confides in Markham that she thinks Boyd is stealing from her, to which Markham replies that she should torture him.

Katherine has a standoff with Boyd in "Noblesse Oblige", in which Boyd confronts her and Duffy for not telling him that Katherine was robbing Markham. Katherine tells Boyd that she's Markham's lover, and he comments on what Markham would do if he found out.

In the episode "The Trash And The Snake", Katherine and Boyd's fiancé Ava meet and start getting high on cocaine, as well as stealing an expensive necklace. Katherine then gets Ava to go and interrogate Albert Fekus to find out why he admitted that he stabbed himself and it wasn't Ava. However, when Katherine sends her out in the next episode, "Sounding", she's unable to get anything out of him.

While in a hotel room with Markham in "Alive Day", Katherine promises to consider it after he proposes to her. Markham then accuses her of informing on Grady, but she denies this. She later tells Duffy that she will kill whoever the informer was slowly and painfully.

Katherine visits Duffy in "Dark As A Dungeon", and he tries to make her believe that Markham is the informer, telling her that one of his men was involved in Grady's death. She later talks to US marshal Art Mullen, asking him why he's so interested in the informant and if being shot by Daryl Crowe Junior made him think twice. She also gives him a file Duffy has containing evidence about Grady's betrayal and murder.

"Burned", the next episode, sees Katherine in the hotel room with Markham only to be confronting by Markham's henchman Seabass, who holds them both at gunpoint demanding money. Katherine manages to trick Seabass into letting her reach into her purse and fires a handgun hidden inside, hitting him in the leg and bringing him down. Katherine then finishes the injured Seabass off by shooting him in the head. She is later seen with Markham at a party, where Loretta McCready infuriates Markham by offering people an alternative to selling their properties to him and referring to Markham and Katherine as "carpetbaggers".

Katherine calls Duffy and confronts him in "Trust", accusing him of tricking Boyd into trying to blow up Markham's vault in order to steal his money (with help from Ty Walker). Duffy admits this and claims that Katherine is in love with Markham, prompting Katherine to yell at him and hang up. She then informs Boyd of a money transfer Markham is going to undergo, only for Boyd to betray and kidnap her, holding her hostage. When Markham arrives, Boyd extorts $10 million from him to release Katherine, then informs Markham she betrayed him and leaves her to be killed by Markham.

However, in "Fugitive Number One", Katherine reveals something; she figured out that Duffy informed on Grady, and Markham lets her go to execute him while he tries to have Carl Lennon deal with Boyd. Katherine goes to Duffy's house and, after confronting him, raises her gun to shoot him. However, Mike intervenes and tries to talk her out of it, so Katherine shoots him. The injured Mike attacks Katherine, so she shoots him five more times. However, just before he dies Mike manages to hit Katherine in the throat and crushes her larynx, leaving them both dead. Markham visits her body in the morgue in the following episode, and vows to get Duffy.

Trivia

 * Katherine is one of the only Justified villains not to meet series hero Raylan Givens.