Kate Roberts

Kate Roberts is a character in Scream 4. She is played by Mary McDonnell. She is the mother of Jill Roberts and the sister of Maureen Prescott, therefore making her Sidney Prescott's aunt.

Scream 4
In the film she states to Kirby Reed her daughter's best friend that she suffers from emotional scarring thanks to the trauma that surrounds Sidney and the secrets, lies and grief that surrounds her with her deceased sister Maureen, Kate presumably was not aware of Maureen's brief career as an actress and her multiple rape at the time of her sister's death.

When Jill is attacked by Ghostface, Kate attempts to protect her by not allowing her to leave the house. Unfortunately for Kate, Jill disobeys her mother and escapes to Kirby's house. In a panic, Kate and Sidney decide, that they need to go and get her, but they are attacked by Ghostface before they can leave the house.

After the deaths of Deputies Anthony Perkins and Ross Hoss, Sidney and Kate think, that they were able to dodge an attack from Ghostface, only to have Kate die when she is stabbed in the back through the mail slot.

It is Jill, who is the killer, because, before Kate is stabbed, Sidney closes the door on the killer's arm and we hear a female groan come from the killer and during the climax of the film, she states that "My own mother had to die... no great loss there so I could stay true to the original". Jill also stated, that she wanted to go after the people close to Sidney in order to become the sole survivor.

As Jill states during the climax that all she ever heard was "Sidney this and Sidney that", Kate was most likely one of the many people that consistently mentioned Sidney much to Jill's dismay, as Kate suffers from trauma that surrounds the lies, grief and secrets that surrounds Sidney and Maureen. This would also explain why Kate's dying words are "Tell Jill I'm so sorry". It is possible she was sorry, because she was aware, that Jill was fed up of her cousin's fame and attention, or this could have been simply for not giving her permission to go to the Stab-a-thon.

Trivia

 * Kate's death represents her sister Maureen's, so that Jill "could stay true to the original"
 * Ironically Kate as a character in general is based on her sister Maureen as well.
 * Kate is the second person to be killed by a relative, namily her own daughter Jill Roberts. Jill would later be killed by Sidney.
 * Kate uttered the words 'I'll be right back', and few minutes later she gets killed.
 * A deleted scene on the DVD will show Kate arriving at Olivia's house after Jill and Sidney are attacked. It will show her being upset over Olivia's death. She, Sidney and Jill walk across the street as Kirby and Trevor look on.