After the loss of her daughter Christina, who was killed in a robbery while vacationing with cousins in Paris, Helena became obsessed with finding a way to turn back time and save her.
The subject is cast in bronze in a special machine and thereafter remains conscious, but in a state that resembles cryogenic sleep where the aging process is stopped.
While in this state she persuades Myka to return to work at the Warehouse in the premiere "The New Guy" and is not seen again until she is brought in for a consultation on a case she had unsuccessfully worked in 1893 as shown in "3...2...1...." In the finale episodes of Season 3, "Emily Lake" and "Stand", the main antagonist, Walter Sykes, pursues finding Helena's physical form as well as her consciousness in order to reconstitute them.
Myka Bering and Pete Lattimer find Helena's physical body in the personage of Ms. Emily Hannah Lake – a high school literature teacher living in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
They are unable to save her from being abducted by Marcus Diamond and their under-cover Warehouse agent Steve Jinks who deliver her to Sykes.
Shortly afterward, Helena chooses to sacrifice her life in order to save the lives of her fellow agents from an explosion that obliterates the warehouse.
In the Season 4 premiere, Artie Nielsen uses an artifact to turn back time 24 hours, and successfully finds a way to defuse the bomb that would destroy the Warehouse.
[3][4] Helena becomes aware of this alternate timeline in "Second Chance", after she deduces, in the previous episode ("Endless Wonder"), that Artie used a time travel artifact to save the Warehouse.
Helena's character was created within the series to have a remarkably tuned quality of deductive reasoning, extremely calm focus, and extraordinary attention to detail.
Two of her many inventions are the Imperceptor Vest (allows faster-than-humanly-detectable movement) and Cavorite (a fictitious metal with anti-gravity effects, as described in the real H.G.
It is implied the character has a fluency in languages as she depicts a fluent grasp of French and a recognition of Demotic Egyptian upon hearing it spoken per "Buried".
Her professional relationships from her dealings at the current Warehouse are depicted throughout Seasons 2, 3, and 4 and are with Artie Nielsen who serves mostly as her chief detractor until the Season 4 premiere, Claudia Donovan who serves as a mentee, Pete Lattimer a fellow-agent with whom she has some difficulties, and Myka Bering who is her fellow-agent, friend, and a romantic interest of sorts.
[6] While never explicitly shown or stated on the show itself, Joanne Kelly addressed the Warehouse 13 panel discussion's audience at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con to assert "Myka will always love H.G."
She lives with a man named Nate and Adelaide, his 8-year-old daughter – to whom Helena has taught the arts of deductive reasoning as well as Kenpo.