Helen the seed of her own undoing
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
Lammasuswatch — 11 years ago(January 02, 2015 12:55 AM)
As someone else has said somewhere in these threads, the mismatch between Lynley and Helen is one of the tense subplots that run through the series. You wonder continually how such a hopelessly mismatched couple could even want to get together, as they seem totally incapable of even understanding much less meeting the other's needs. So we wonder through the series how that's going to play out?
It's interesting that one of Helen's faults (and yes, she has so many) is her wilfulness at doing things almost to spite Tommy. So in the episode when she loses the baby, what other than this wilfulness makes her ignore Tommy's request that she do nothing further on the case? OK, he may have been sexist and condescending, but she WAS hardly in a condition to go looking for a potential murderer. And she never seems to want to be told what to do by him, even when it's eminently sensible.
That in itself is not an issue - it's her behaviour AFTER she loses the baby that is so unpleasant, treating Tommy as if he were responsible for the loss of the baby, leaving him without a word and refusing to discuss anything. Perhaps he was also somewhat upset? But every time previously, anything going wrong has always been 'his' fault. And yet, who made the decision to go to the station and sneakily look up the file? Who then made the decision to pursue it herself, while heavily pregnant? Not greatly sensible. In fact, you can say that her behaviour is almost unconsciously self-destructive.
Then in this episode in which the "new" Helen is killed, that same unthinking wilfulness about putting herself unnecessarily in harm's way resurfaces. Honestly, putting yourself between a person with a gun and the intended target? OK, there were problems with credibility in the way everyone just relaxed but did nothing to secure the gun after the Bosnian girl lowered it. But Helen's staying in and actually moving back into the line of fire?
Somehow, it was always going to end this way. -
morganseer — 10 years ago(August 18, 2015 11:10 AM)
Yes, all true. Helen was such an unpleasant character that the writers had to get rid of her.
Actually, I believe she was always meant to be a temporary character, someone to make Havers jealous, and to highlight the sexual tension between Lynley and Havers. IMHO. -
SkiesAreBlue — 10 years ago(November 21, 2015 04:21 PM)
I am catching up on The tv series now and the more I watch it the more I also cannot understand the character, Helen. So different from the books. She always seem to be sniping at him, looking for a fight. They had to kill her off as she was killed in the books but a very different story. Her demise can't come soon enough for me, then Lynley and Havers can get on with catching criminals.
SkiesAreBlue -
perfect_peony — 9 years ago(October 06, 2016 04:24 AM)
I just watched that bit and seriously Helen's death was one of the silliest and most contrived I have ever seen on a tv show. Her "psychology" skills sure deserted her here. And
who sneaks a gun into a police station?? No x-rays or pat-down to get in?