Template:Quote 2
| Helena | |
 | |
|---|---|
| Biographical information | |
| Birthplace: | United Kingdom |
| Birthdate: | March 15, 1984 |
| Status: | Alive |
| Age: | 34 |
| Residence: | Canada Ukraine (formerly) |
| Other information | |
| Also known as: | Killer Clone (by Felix) Angry Angel (by Trevor) White Whale (by Leekie) Shark (by Kira) Meathead (by Sarah) |
| Gender: | Female |
| Hair color: | Blonde (dyed) |
| Eye color: | Brown |
| Height: | 5'4" |
| Relationships | |
| Marital status: | Single |
| Significant Other/s: | Jesse (boyfriend/lover) |
| Family: | Donnie (son; twin of Arthur; via Henrik Johanssen) Arthur (son; twin of Donnie; via Henrik Johanssen) Unborn child † (via Henrik Johanssen with Gracie as a surrogate; miscarried) Unborn children † (via Henrik Johanssen and various surrogate women) Amelia † (surrogate mother) Sarah Manning (twin sister) Kira Manning (niece; via Sarah) Leda clones (sisters/genetic identicals) |
| Series information | |
| Portrayed by: | Tatiana Maslany |
| Season/s: | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| First appearance: | "Variation Under Nature" |
| Latest appearance: | "To Right the Wrongs of Many" |
| Appearance count: | 30 |
Helena is a clone of Anglo-Ukrainian origin on Orphan Black. Like her twin sister, Sarah, she was taken from the system and thus is unmonitored, unlike the others. She serves as one of the antagonists in the first season, and from the second season onwards, a main protagonist.
Biography
Early Life
Helena is the product of a cloning project and was born around 1984. Her birth mother, Amelia, was apparently approached by scientists posing as a couple who needed a surrogate mother to deliver their child via in-vitro fertilization. Realizing that the children in her were special and possibly in danger, Amelia ran and delivered twins: Helena and Sarah.
Unable to provide for them and knowing the danger the children were in, she gave them away. Sarah became an orphan and was eventually taken in by Mrs. S, while Helena was given to a convent in Ukraine.
Eventually, when she was 12, Helena was found by Tomas and Maggie Chen. Under their tutelage, Helena was told about the other clones then led to believe that she was the original among them. She was harshly trained to be a killer, particularly a killer of her clones.
In Europe, she was able to hunt down and kill three clones: Janika Zingler, Aryanna Giordano, and Danielle Fournier. She also found Katja Obinger, who then traveled to Canada. She and her mentors followed her there, where they found other clones.
Season 1
In "Natural Selection", Helena finally managed to kill Katja with a sniper rifle. Seeing Sarah, then posing as the late Beth Childs, Helena tries to shoot her as well, and Sarah narrowly escapes.
In "Variation Under Nature", during a penultimate moment in the police investigation into the mangled body found in a quarry, Helena finally encountered Sarah. She attacked her and, in fear, Sarah blurted out that she was not really Beth. Surprised, Helena spared her.
Since their encounter, Helena developed an obsession with Sarah, initiating contact on multiple occasions, primarily for the purpose of extracting information from Sarah regarding the identities of the other clones, but also, it seems, from a certain innate curiosity about her doppelganger. She claims that Sarah is different from the other clones and insists that the two have some sort of connection.
After nearly dying from an infected stab wound Sarah gave her, Helena finally recovers, with Tomas's help. She contacts Sarah once again, even tracking her down to Beth's apartment.
In one instance, instead of killing Sarah, as instructed by Tomas, Helena demands names of other clones instead. Initially refusing, Sarah gives Helena her own name in exchange for her help. Helena then saves Sarah and takes out Olivier's tail.
Eventually, Helena finds Mrs. S' home. When Kira sees her outside their door, Helena convinces her to come outside with her, taking her knife along the way. Upon having a conversation with Kira, Helena decides to let her go instead of taking her to Tomas. Kira, though, is hit by a car, and Helena grieves in guilt.
In the next few days, Tomas abuses Helena as she constantly refuses to kill Sarah and retrieve her child, Kira. Locked in a cage in "Unconscious Selection", Helena calls Sarah for help. Sarah helps her and locks Tomas in her cage. Initially planning on taking her to Leekie, Sarah changes her mind upon the revelation that Helena and Sarah are sisters.
Bound to the basement, Sarah introduces Helena to their birth mother, Amelia. Their reunion is cut short when cops arrive to arrest Sarah. Helena escapes and later meets with Amelia, knowing that they were going to meet at Beth's apartment. Helena, disguised as Sarah, entertains Amelia. As Helena soon stabbed her birth mother, Amelia pulled off Helena's wig, revealing who she really was. She then dragged Amelia's body to a warehouse, calling Sarah to come to them. Leaving her to bleed to death shortly after her last conversation with Sarah, Helena expresses her distaste of Amelia for leaving her to become what she was. She tells Sarah that, as family, they could not bring themselves to kill each other and so must stick together as she beats her. Infuriated, Sarah shoots Helena.
Season 2
In "Nature Under Constraint and Vexed", a gravely injured and heavily bleeding Helena walks into a hospital.
In "Governed by Sound Reason and True Religion", Helena is still admitted at the hospital, but detectives Angela Deangelis (Angie) and Art Bell are made aware of her, making her the fifth clone they know of. Angie then goes to the hospital to visit Helena, though she is too late, as Mark of "The New Order" had already gotten to her. He brings her to the Prolethean farm, where she is allowed to heal and recover. It is also revealed that Helena has "situs inversus," wherein her organs are mirrored from their normal positions, allowing her to survive the gunshot that would have hit her heart. Taken in shortly before her was Tomas, who is later killed after repeatedly stating his belief that Helena is a monster.
At the farm, Helena is given food laced with sedatives to make her more compliant. After the drugs take effect, Henrik Johanssen performs a wedding ceremony by Helena's bedside and marries her in front of the entire community. He then carries her down the hallway into a mysterious room.
Gracie Johanssen has trouble accepting Helena as a member of the Prolethean family and tries to smother her with a pillow. Helena fakes her death and chokes Gracie when her back is turned, using this opportunity to escape from the farm. She runs down the hallway that she recalls from her drugged state and enters the room, only to find that it is the Prolethean lab. She remembers that when Henrik carried her into this room, he put her feet up in stirrups and extracted her genetic material. Helena manages to escape the compound and runs past Art on her way out, leaving the latter bewildered and calling after her.
Helena finds Sarah in Rachel's apartment just as she is about to be tortured by Daniel Rosen. She kills him and approaches Sarah, who is terrified because she shot Helena and was sure that she was dead. Sarah displays extreme remorse thinking that she had shot and killed her sister and Helena comes up to her and wraps her arms around her, needing some comfort herself from having her eggs taken from her.
In To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings she appears in a bar. She becomes acquainted with Jesse and they arm-wrestle. Paul and Mark have tracked her down but they do not apprehend her. A bar fight ensues with another bar patron and she is taken into custody. Across the street, Sarah witnesses her arrest. In the police station, Mark has her released and it is revealed that her egg cells are at the farm.
Season 3
In the season 3 premiere, Helena has a vivid dream in which all of her sisters are celebrating the impending birth of her child with a baby shower. The dream turns into a nightmare however, when a black scorpion crawls out of her stomach. Helena wakes with a start in a large wooden crate. She panics when she sees the scorpion, though she has seen it before. It tells her that she is being tested again. Towards the end of the episode, the scorpion tells her to picture a "box inside a box, inside a box." As she is released from the crate, the scorpion (which only she can see) congratulates her on escaping the "first box".
Helena during her neurological test ("Transitory Sacrifices of Crisis")
Once released, Helena is medically examined (off screen) and is forcefully put through a "stress test", or torture by waterboarding. The test is abruptly stopped, however, when Dr. Virginia Coady informs the men administering the test that Helena is pregnant and is thus unable to physically withstand the test without the possibly of damaging the fetus. Afterwards, Helena is put through a less abrasive neurological test. She sees the scorpion once more and does not cooperate with her captors. Once again, the test is interrupted by Dr. Coady who brings Helena outside for some food. During this conversation, Dr. Coady tells Helena that her family sold her out. Though Helena is disbelieving, Dr. Coady assures her that she is important and strives to understand how Helena has survived her difficult life thus far.
Season 4
In "Transgressive Border Crossing", we see Helena staying at the Hendrixes' house.
When Helena goes to the doctor with Donnie, posing as Alison to avoid raising suspicion, for a pregnancy checkup, she learns she is carrying identical twins.
While Alison and Donnie are in their garage (and, unbeknownst to Helena, digging up the decaying body of Dr. Leekie), Helena answers the front door and is mistaken by two detectives for Alison. The detectives are in the area investigating the triple homicide of the Puzhinos, as they had found one of Alison's campaign posters at the scene of the crime. Donnie comes in and, realizing there are detectives in his living room, tries to help Helena answer their questions, which is commented on by one of the detectives. However, much to Donnie and Alison's surprise, Helena displays a surprising amount of knowledge about Alison's campaign staff.
While they are both happy for Helena, Donnie and Alison, in particular, are both painfully reminded of their previous unsuccessful attempts to have their own children (as Alison is infertile). After Donnie eventually confides in her that they have to be mindful about Alison's feelings, Helena decides to leave to spare her sestra any more pain.
Unbeknownst to Donnie and Alison, Helena packs her bags and, after saying goodbye to and burying her "science babies" in the Hendrixes' backyard (as they have died since Helena was not aware they needed liquid nitrogen to remain preserved), leaves the house.
Personality
Helena is at once psychotic and childlike. Despite being a proven killer, capable of firing a sniper rifle and wielding a unique fish pommeled dagger as her close range weapon of choice, she enjoys sugary products and exhibits childlike mannerisms at times. She appears to have spent much of her time in the ramshackle abode with Tomas and Maggie, who possibly trained her cold-heartedly and have been psychologically manipulating her. Helena self-mutilates, and has multiple scars on her back that somewhat resemble wings.
Appearances
| Season 1 appearances | ||||
| Natural Selection | Instinct | Variation Under Nature | Effects of External Conditions | Conditions of Existence |
| Variations Under Domestication | Parts Developed in an Unusual Manner | Entangled Bank | Unconscious Selection | Endless Forms Most Beautiful |
| Season 2 appearances | ||||
| Nature Under Constraint and Vexed | Governed by Sound Reason and True Religion | Mingling Its Own Nature With It | Governed As It Were By Chance | Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est |
| To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings | Knowledge of Causes, and Secret Motion of Things | Variable and Full of Perturbation | Things Which Have Never Yet Been Done | By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried |
| Season 4 appearances | ||||
| The Collapse of Nature | Transgressive Border Crossing | The Stigmata of Progress | From Indistinct to Rational Control | Human Raw Material |
| The Scandal of Altruism | The Antisocialism of Sex | The Redesign of Natural Objects | The Mitigation of Competition | From Dancing Mice to Psychopaths |
| Season 5 appearances | ||||
| The Few Who Dare | Clutch of Greed | Beneath Her Heart | Let the Children and Childbearers Toil | Ease For Idle Millionaires |
| Manacled Slim Wrists | Gag or Throttle | Guillotines Decide | One Fettered Slave | To Right the Wrongs of Many |
Trivia
- Helena can be told apart from the rest of her sisters even in disguise. This is due to the redness around her eyes and paler skin.
- Helena respects two men aside from her boyfriend: Art and Donnie.
