A Few Helena Thoughts (Orphan Black)

This is another musing I made the last time I rewatched Orphan Black, looking at Helena this time.  Note:  I’m not attempting to woobify her – her past has some seriously heinous stuff in it, and being on the side of the sestras now mostly means her loose cannon is pointing towards the bad guys – but this particular thread I’m pulling does delve into what I feel is a rather tragic aspect of her character.  A few Helena spoilers, along with the inevitable Orphan Black premise spoilers.

The life of a clone seems filled with people who want to own them and/or want to kill them.  Dyad sequenced copyrights into their DNA, uses monitors (often their lovers) to collect information on them, and has been known to perform a bloody clean sweep when a group of clones strays too far outside the bounds of the experiment.  The folks over at Project Castor want to study the Leda clones in hopes discovering the key to repair Castor’s genetic defect.  Brightborn doesn’t want any pesky clones meddling in its business and will go to great lengths to keep them out of it. 

Helena is no exception to this (although, aside from Olivier’s “white whale” comments in early season 1, Dyad doesn’t seem too interested in her.)  She spends some time as a belligerent lab rat for Castor, and she draws the particular attention of the Proletheans.  A follower of the anti-clone cult takes her at a young age and brainwashes her with Prolethean dogma, raising her to assassinate her sisters to cleanse the earth of unnatural creations, and she’s later kidnapped by a Prolethean group sending some pretty contradictory messages; Helena is somehow an honored guest and an abomination at the same time, and the leader does her the “courtesy” of marrying her in a sham wedding before drugging her and artificially inseminating her with his own sperm.  Shudder.

What strikes me, though, isn’t just the people who’ve abused her, who’ve lied to her, violated her, or used her for their own personal gain (not that that’s not terrible, because it absolutely is.  The image of Thomas caging her like an animal is haunting, and my heart breaks for her after she escapes the Prolethean compound unable to fully comprehend what they did to her as she explains it to Sarah.)  It’s the people who are allegedly on her side that still care so little for her.

When other clones find themselves in someone else’s grasp, it’s because they’re captured or exchanging themselves to protect a loved one being held as leverage, or the nefarious party has something they need so desperately they can’t turn away.  After Helena’s initial abuse at the hands of Thomas, however, she tends to be traded by a purported ally.  Paul is technically Team Dyad through much of season 2, but even though he’s at Rachel’s side, his ultimate loyalty is still to Sarah.  And when he and Mark run into each other while both tail the twins, Paul so casually offers Mark Helena in exchange for leaving Sarah unharmed.  She’s taken by the Proletheans because Paul’s not interested in fighting for her the way he fights for Sarah.  And it’s Mrs. S. who outright gives Helena to Castor in season 3, swapping her for intel and not even telling Sarah about it until pressed.  (To be fair to S., Helena caused the family tremendous grief in season 1, and at this point Helena is still very new to the fold.  But still, S. – cold.)

This is where the sisters – especially Sarah, but the others get there as well, along with extended family members like Donnie and Felix – are the saving grace.  Because they gradually learn Helena, figuring out how to trust her and vice versa, and that means they go to bat for her when others won’t.  They’ve seen the intense (volatile) loyalty Helena displays to those who let her be their family (Alison calling her their “avenging angel” is so sweet,) and they’re not about to condone those they love treating her like a bargaining chip.  I love when, after all the awful Prolethean stuff that goes down, Helena is finally introduced to Cosima and Alison, and Sarah’s righteous anger and immediate proactiveness when she finds out about Castor is beautiful.

When you think about it, part of this is Helena falling victim to Sarah’s Protagonist Syndrome.  Both the twins are fertile (and immune to the clones’ defect,) meaning both of them are the top prize for most of the people who are after them at any given point.  And to be sure, Sarah gets into plenty of dicey situations of her own.  But Sarah often tangles with the bad guys of her own volition and then has everyone who loves her fighting to help her out of the situation, whereas some of those same people are willing to hand Helena over to get them off Sarah’s tail.  What is this, Paul, S.?  All clones are created equal, but some are more equal than others?