KC

"KC! Now this is a guy who knows absolutely nothing about making decisions! And why? It's because KC lives by his wits day and day. Don't you, KC?" - Bray (while inebriated) of KC

KC (real name spelled Casey) is one of the members of the Mall Rats.

He was a cunning thief who snuck into Phoenix Mall only to be caught. As the Mall Rats were about to punish him, Lex opted for him to stay and become a Mall Rat as his scamming ways could prove useful. While KC mostly does bad things as Lex's right hand man and even indirectly causing Tribe Circus to invade the Mall, he has remained loyal to the tribe.

During The Chosen's reign, KC successfully tricked The Guardian into thinking that he had seen the spirit of Zoot. KC became his Oracle to the advantage of the Mall Rats, who were put to slave labour. KC was a leading factor in defeating The Chosen when he came up with the idea for Bray to dress up as Zoot in order to confuse The Guardian.

When the Technos invade the city, KC was one of the handful of Mall Rats to be captured and shipped off via plane. He is currently a captive of an unknown tribe. He briefly encountered Alice again before she was sold to The Collective and was separated from KC once more.

History

Series 1

KC entered the Mall as a petty thief, cunning, sweet faced and streetwise. He became a Mall Rat mainly because Lex took a shine to his cunning ways and saw potential in him as a protege of sorts. KC learned a lot from Lex and proved himself to be a worthy scam artist, which came in useful to help get everyone out of difficult situations. His real name is actually Casey but because of his lack of education, he thought his name was spelt 'KC'.

He also became a good friend with the other younger members of the tribe, Patsy and Cloe. Due to his allegiance with Lex, KC finds himself getting into trouble trying to frame Bray during the water bottle scandal. This backfires and KC comes clean in order to save Lex’s hide. Though the group agree that KC should be thrown out – since this was the punishment that Lex was about to dish to Bray – the entire event is quickly forgotten when Patsy brings an adult Glen back to the mall.

Though a liar, con-artist and a thief, KC finds himself getting the Mall Rats into trouble, but he is also able to get them out of it. When the Locos corner Bray, Amber and himself, KC thinks fast, telling them not to get close because they are all infected with the virus. Later, KC starts to gamble at the local casino, and soon finds himself on the wrong end of Top Hat, the leader of Tribe Circus. Under duress, KC eventually leads Tribe Circus to the mall and they easily take it over. Despite being afraid, KC proved his worth to the tribe when he saved Zandra from being raped by the evil Top Hat. He also attempts to help the Mall Rats steal the Antidote back from the Locos, but fails. KC later journeys to Eagle Mountain with the Mall Rats in search of the Antidote.

Series 2

When the Mall Rats find the antidote, thanks to the journey to Eagle Mountain, KC is one of the group who wants to sell it and forge a position of power for the tribe. However, the push-back from the group, including Bray and Danni, is relentless. KC cannot believe how shortsighted the leaders are – he can clearly see the money to be made but he is quickly voted down.

With a system being put into place, KC decides to then scam kids who come to the mall for the antidote – by getting ‘gifts’ off of them in return. He is soon found out and punished. KC also attempts to break into Tai San’s lab and uncover the secret formula that she is holding close to her chest. But in his clumsiness, he accidentally causes an explosion which almost takes Tai San’s life. Luckily, she only loses some of her memories briefly.

Though KC attempts to leave, he is caught by Lex who convinces him to come clean. The Mall Rats punish him by sending him to work on the farm. With the Market place open, KC continues scamming like usual. Despite his bad ways KC has always stayed loyal to the tribe and gotten them out of more than a few scrapes, including finding Ryan a wedding ring for Salene. He is also bossed around by Alice often.

Series 3

During events of the Chosen’s occupation of the City, and though KC spends some time as a slave, no one really trusts him when he attempts to get involved with the Resistance. Though he tries not to show it, this really hurts the young kid. Eventually he is finally allowed to help, KC was instrumental in getting Trudy out of the mall by claiming he saw Zoot, which created the prefect distraction. This event however puts him in the Guardian's path. With his quick thinking, KC manages to manipulate the situation, becoming the Guardian’s oracle.

As the oracle, this puts him in a unique position within the Chosen, allowing KC to move around freely, get extra rations, and just as importantly, access to and from the mall. KC soon starts scamming again, but as usual, he is quickly caught for all of his efforts. KC allies himself with the newcomers Andy and Tally, becoming their mentor and showing them the ropes of being a scam artist. Though Tally doesn’t like him taking advantage of them, the three of them work well together in their small schemes.

When the Mall Rats have a final battle with The Chosen, it was KC who came up the idea of Bray dressing up as Zoot in order to stop the Guardian. No one has ever really gained KC's interest amongst the tribe, but when May was feeling down, KC developed a small crush on her although she only ever saw him as a sweet little kid. He also developed a crush on Cloe when she returned, but again the interest was not returned.

Series 4

As the Technos invade, KC along with Andy and Tally go to the airstrip to see the planes which are appearing over the city. None of them are seen again as they are captured by the Technos and taken to camps.

Series 5

As events draw to a close in the Mall Rat’s fight against Mega and the Technos, KC is revealed to belocked up in a cage with Alice and The Guardian on a far away island. He tells Alice that he saw Bray in one of the camps he had been in, before Bray was shipped off to another location.

KC was told that the place their currently in, Labour Island, is just a holding ground until they are moved to somewhere permanent. KC would be separated from Alice again when the latter is sold to The Collective in The Tribe: (R)Evolution.

The Tribe: A New Dawn

When Tai San was in captivity, she was shown images of Ryan, Patsy, Paul, Alice, KC and Danni. Possibly hinting that they are captives of The Collective.

Later, Eloise takes some of the Mall Rats to Eagle Mountain and it's revealed that the facility had 3 levels than previously believed. Amber wonders if the original Mall Rats like KC had been taken away by The Collective for their possible knowledge on Eagle Mountain.

The Tribe: (R)Evolution

When the Mall Rats are captured and sent to Eden, they reunite with Alice, Ryan and Tai San. The reminder of the missing Mall Rats like KC are not in the hands of The Collective. So KC's exact status is still unknown.

Gallery

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Series 5

Trivia

• Ari Boyland had originally auditioned for the role of Paul before he got the role of KC. ^[1]
• Although KC's name is actually spelt as "Casey" this naming was discarded due to his limited education, similar to Lex. Since KC insists for it to be spelt that way, all the characters seem to have decided to follow as well, spelling his name as "KC" instead of following the real spelling.
• KC is seen wearing an outfit with goggles in the Abe Messiah music video that is never seen in the show. However, KC does wear similar looking goggles in Series 2 Episode 31 but with different colours.
• In a 2020 podcast, Ari Boyland revealed that KC was written out in Series 4 because he wanted to return to normal life that he missed after 3 long years of filming. Particularly wanting to return to school and his friends. ^[2] He eventually returned near the end of Series 5, where his character is shown to be enslaved by an unknown tribe. In a 2024 interview, Ari Boyland confirmed he was intending to return for Series 6 had the show not been cancelled. ^[3] KC is present in the abandoned Series 6 scripts, excerpts of which were published in Keeping the Dream Alive. He is also present in the Series 6 scripts released on the Series 5 DVD, where he appears as the Don of the Discards.
  • But because the show was cancelled and continued in novel format, the storylines changed. KC has not been seen in any of the sequel novels yet.
• When Series 5 was still airing, an article was released on Tribeworld.com that teased possible storylines of how the season would end. One of them being that KC and Alice are living in an elite city of the Technos to breed a new population, but not wanting to be apart of it, they try returning to the City. Although none of these teases ultimately came to pass, this is similiar to the cancelled storylines of Series 6 where The Privileged intend to breed a new elite generation. The only difference is that KC and Alice are their Discarded slaves. ^[4]
• In a 2024 interview, Ari Boyland revealed he offered to return for the first few episodes of Series 4 to write his character out of the show properly. However, for unknown reasons Cloud 9 did not follow up on Ari's offer to resolve KC's story before the character was written out. ^[5]

References