Kate is indeed nothing but eye candy now. her contributions this season have been to crawl through a vent at a convient camera angle, and to take a shower. Its too bad EL is a good actress, the kate character has kind of been hit and miss from about halfway through season1. I don't really care what she did but they've tried to milk that card for more then its worth.
This show needs to get its footing again, Last week was solid and they need to keep that up for the rest of the season because the first 6 were very uneven. Needs to get back its character driven strength and the way it use to juggle the characters so easily, because thats what is hurting the show the most, too many characters at the moment.