Helen Cutter is the main antagonist of Primeval. She is the ex-wife of Nick Cutter, the main protagonist. She also had an affair with Stephen Hart, Nick's best friend.
Profile
In the fictional universe in which Primeval is set, anomalies appear all over the Earth. Anomalies are time portals, linked to various time periods in Earth's history. These anomalies allow through prehistoric creatures, such as Dinosaurs, and even futuristic creatures, to our time. The problems these anomalies cause is tackled by the Anomaly Research Centre, lead by Helen's ex-husband Nick along with James Lester. Helen discovered the anomalies years ago, she was chased by a Gorgonopsid, a dangerous creature from the Permian period. She escaped through the anomaly and spent years travelling through time.
In Series 1, she is a trickster, sometimes fooling around when it's not needed. There is a hint of evil when in the third episode she expresses her disdain for humanity, saying we will soon go extinct and nature will not care about them anymore as the dinosaurs. In Series 2, she allies with Oliver Leek, an evil mastermind, she also manpiulates Stephen into thinking Nick is bad. This eventually leads to Stephen's death, which deeply affects her. In Series 3, she becomes pure evil, she will stop at nothing to save the world, even if it means wiping out humanity.
Biography
Series One
Helen and Nick met in college and they soon had a speedy romance, before getting married. Stephen Hart was one of her and Nick's students, and he later gots a job as Cutter's lab technician. Their marriage ran into difficulty, and unbeknownst to Nick, Helen had an affair with Stephen.
Eight years before the Anomalies were discovered by her husband, Helen was in the Forest of Dean where she came across an Anomaly to the Permian. She was chased into a supermarket parking lot by a Gorgonopsid before fleeing back into the forest and through the Anomaly. No trace of her was ever found and she was presumed dead. Years later, Nick went through the Anomaly to look for Helen, and only found a human skeleton and her camera. Despite the body belonging to a man, she was assumed dead, particularly as it had been 250,000,000 years ago. However Helen went into Nick's ofice at the Central Metropolitan University and left an Ammonite on his desk as a sign she was alive, and Nick saw her at the forest's edge, but she disappeared.
In the second episode, Nick begins to suspect that Helen had known about the Anomalies, and goes through her research to see if she had made any references. During a search of the London Underground, Nick and the team are attacked by an Arthropleura, and Nick was trapped in a side tunnel. He heard Helen whispering his name, and despite searching she is nowhere to be found. Helen appeared before Stephen when he attempted a rescue and had been poisoned by the Arthropleura, and gave him a message to give to Nick; that if he wanted to know the truth he had to go on the other side of the Anomaly. Nick considered going, but instead asked himself where Helen was and what she wanted.
In the third episode, Helen is later at a Cretaceous beach where she found the body of a Special Forces diver who had come through an Anomaly. She sent it back with a hankerchief with her initials H.C. on it as a message to Nick, but it was found by Claudia Brown, who was angered that Nick had kept her being alive a secret. Claudia informed her superior James Lester, who ordered Nick to go and bring hr back, as she was eight years ahead in understanding the Anomalies and clearly had information. Nick found her skinny dipping in a rock pool despite the Hesperornis nearby, and their reunion was far from a happy one. Helen revealed that she had known about the anomalies, but kept it to herself because she wanted to study them as Nick would expose them to the wider scientific community. Nick tried to convince her to come back to the present with him, but Helen says she has seeing many wonders exploring the anomalies and wants Nick to join her, but he cannot forgive her for letting him think she was dead all this time. Enraged by his rejection of her and the key to time, she stated that he should have moved on after her apparent death and remarks that humans will be soon be extinct. Nick realised that the Helen he knew is gone and went back alone. Before Helen could move on, she was confronted by a team of armed men who captured her and brought her through the anomaly, where she was arrested and sent to the Home Office under Lester's orders.
In the fourth episode, Helen was interogated by Lester and Claudia, but refused to say anything other than Lester looked like a Utahraptor she had once seen, and said she would only speak to Nick. He was brought in and the two argued about the situation, as Helen assumed he had authorised her capture before she told him that Sabre-Toothed Killers would soon rampage through Central London, but refused to say anything more but would lead them to the Anomaly. Nick, believing she only wanted to gain Lester and Claudia's trust, convinced them to allow it, and Helen led them to a walk-in-fridge at a Football Stadium. She pretended to try and help by saying they had to remove the meat pies or they would attract the Smilodon, only to escape through the Anomaly into the Spaghetti Junction and quickly went through another so that the pursuing Stephen and Captain Ryan could recapture her. The threat of Smilodon had been a ruse to allow her the chance to escape.
In the fifth episode, Helen appears at the golf course club house, where she saved the nearly-blind Claudia from a swarm of Anurognathus. After leading all of them into a kitchen, she filled it with gas and placed a metal bowl inside of a microwave, which triggered an explosion that killed the tiny pterosaurs. Helen outran the flames and dissapeared.
In the sixth episode, Helen comes to Stephen, asking him to set up a meeting with Nick and Lester, as she had information on three killings caused by a creature, and before she left she kissed him, stating that she missed it. She informed them of an incredibly dangerous predator, which is lightning fast, ruthless, almost invisible until the moment of attack and has near-human levels of intelligence. Nick asked what it was, but Helen made him guess the truth; the creature is from the Future - a Future Predator. She claimed she had seen it in the Permian, where it must have come through an Anomaly into the Permian and then into the present. She decided to stay with Nick at their old house where he confronted her about lying, so she admitted she had gotten too close and that it had chased her to the present. When the team failed to kill it, she said they would need dogs, and although Claudia thanked her for saving her life, they argued about Nick's feelings for them. Helen went with the team to the Wellington Zoo's animal crate storage area, where the creature was raising its young.
The Predator was killed and its young captured, and Helen convinced Lester to use the offspring to lead them to the Future Anomaly, as it was too dangerous to allow more Predators the chance to change the timeline. She attempted to get Nick to slep with her, but he rejected her. Helen could only watch in shock as Claudia and Nick kissed passionately before they went through the Anomaly. While in the permian, Helen assumed Nick had only kissed Claudia to punish her, but he said it wasn't about her, and then asked Nick to take a picture of her. Nick realised that they had arrived back years before the previous Permian Anomaly had led to, as Helen still had her camera and their camp was in the same place as the body. The Future Predator babies began to make a commotion, and Helen thought the Future Anomaly must have been nearby, and Nick realised she had only wantd to find the future for herself and kept her from kissing him. They were then attack by the mother of the babies, as the other had been a male, and the soldiers were killed.
She assumed that they were all dead, unaware there were still two left, and tried to convince Nick to continue trying to find the Future Anomaly, but he decided to head back, and Helen followed. In front of everyone, she revealed that she had once had an affair with Stephen, and attempted to get him to go with her, as she didn't want to be alone. However Stephen refused and as Nick was clearly no longer going to want to be with her, Helen stormed off through the Anomaly.
Series 2
The previously mentioned actions in the Permian caused history to be changed, with Nick and Helen being the only ones to be aware of the original timeline. In the new timeline, Claudia Brown, who Nick had feelings for, dissapeared and was replaced with Jenny Lewis. Helen Cutter returned from the Cretaceous period, where she was injured by a Pteranodon after attempting to steal an egg. She seeks out Stephen at his flat for his help, and h agreed to help her, but wanted her gone by the time he returned. Helen did leave, but later watched from a car as Nick unsuccessfully tried to convince Jenny Lewis that she was Claudia Brown.
It is revealled that she is working with Oliver Leek, a man who works with Nick and Lester. He in his car and after some discussion, it becomes clear that Helen and Leek were up to something with a soldier.
Helen returned to Stephen's flat for a shower, having been slimed by something in the Devonian. Helen then told Stephen that the Anomalies were getting worse, and said that there was a conspiracy within the ARC, and implied that Nick knew about it and that Lester was involved. Leek called her to say that the mercenaries had gone through the anomaly, and became worried when they didn't return, and cut off Leek when he tried to assure her that Nick wouldn't find out.
In the sixth episode, Stephen was getting a gun out of his car so that the team could go up again a Mammoth when Helen appeared again. She hid from Nick's view as he drove by, and asked Stephen to come with her to discuss the conspiracy and going public about the Anomalies. However Stephen wanted to give Nick another chance, to which Helen reluctantly agreed to do, but when they confronted him, he refused to speak to Helen and dismissed Stephen. During an argument at the ARC, Nick punched Stephen, and Helen realised Nick still cared about her, but told Stephen it didn't matter before they kissed. Leek later rang to report that he had tried to blow the ARC up, and she threatened to leave him on his own, and had to leave to confront him, telling Stephen a lie that she was going to see a journalist about the Anomalies. Nick, Jenny, Connor and Abb were captured by Leek's men and Helen revealed that she was working with Leek, and that they had various creatures from the past and future captured as an army.
In the seventh episode, Helen watches Nick and Jenny in their cell via a hidden camera, and through his words gathered that he was still in love with her. She releases them and has them brought to her, and examines Jenny, fascinated by the similarities between her and Claudia. She tells Nick she wasn't responsible for the change in the timeline, but wanted to experiment by using the Anomalies to change the past to see what happens in the future, which was why she used Leek for his resources and helped to supply him with creatures and with Mind Control Devices for the Future Predators. Helen tries to stop Leek from having the others killed, but he said he no longer answered to her, but the creatures got loose when Nick revealed Leek had loaded a virus onto the facility's mainframe. She knocked out one of the guards, thinking Nick would take her back, but he had known the cell was bugged and had played on her feelings. She escaped before he could lead her away, and hid in a storage room where she called Stephen and told her Lester had kidnapped her and killed the others. Stephen arrived shortly and she tried to convince him that they should go through an Anomaly to hide for a while, but they came across Nick. Stephen was confused by what was going on, and Nick forced Helen to reveal the truth. She said that the Future Predators were too powerful, and if they escaped there would be nothing they could do, but led them to the containment room where they could lure the creatures with a siren signaling food. However Helen was attacked by a Raptor, and the locking mechanism broken. Helen pleaded for Nick not to go back in and close the door on the other side, but Stephen did it instead, and Helen walked away sadly as he was killed and Nick cried. She later appeared after Stephen's funeral had finished and placed an Ammonite on his grave, saying that things could change before she looks to her army of Cleaner Clones.
Series 3
Some time later, Helen travels to a future version of London with her Cleaner Clones when she spotted soldiers. She watched them get attacked by Future Predators, and stole an Artefact from the bag of one of Christine Johnson's troops before she returned to the present and began setting up her own base in an abandoned building, and set aside the artefact until she could figure out what it was.
In the second episode, Helen bumps into new ARC employee Sarah Page and took her I.D. card so that she could use it to gain access to the ARC. She sent in one of her clones to go through Nick's things, but it was found and killed. As she had hired the Cleaner before with Leek, Nick realised Helen was back in the picture. She later snuck in Nick's house and took one of his hairs and taking a swab out of one of his glasses with water in it. Nick returned home, but Helen got outside before he could find her.
In the third episode, Helen prepares her Cleaner Clones for an invasion of the ARC, even forcing one to jump to its death as they all have to obey her commands. As soon as a new Anomaly was detected, Helen led her Clones to the ARC, and revealed that she had created a clone of Nick. She used this clone to gain access to the ARC, and confronted Lester and Jenny and had them put in a storage room with Sarah. She waited until the real Nick returned and after taking Connor and Abby away, confronted him about what she had discovered. She had learned that the Future Predators would be made in the ARC by Nick and she had come to stop him. However, as she didn't understand the artefact she asked Nick if he knew what it was - he lied and said he did but refused to say anything. She ordered the Cutter Clone to shoot him if he didn't comply, and Nick reluctantly agreed. But at that moment Helen's voice came over the intercom, telling the ]clones to stand down; a remix of her voice made by Sarah and Connor. Helen couldn't get the clones to respond so she told the Cutter Clone to blow up the ARC. She fled, but not far enough to avoid getting knocked out. The real Nick found her and took the artefact off her and hid it before waking her. Helen was grateful to Nick, but pulled a gun on him, claiming the future was more important than either of them. Before she shot him, Nick said she wasn't as smart as he'd first thought. After pulling the trigger, Helen left the ARC in a flood of tears.
By murdering Nick, Helen hoped to prevent the rise of the Predators that would one day ravage the Earth. When she returned to the future, she found that nothing had changed, and then realised it all began with one power hungry little civil servant, Christine Johnson.
Sometime later, she used her Eve disguise to fool Johnson's soldier, Captain Wilder, when he came to the future, but he brought her back to the present, both unaware that they were seen by new ARC team leader Danny Quinn whilst he and the team went through another anomaly to the city. Wilder took her to Christine, who took another device Helen had found in the future from her person.
In the ninth episode, Eve is interogated by Christine as to who she was and what the device was. In exchange for showing her how the device worked, Eve asked Christine to take her to the ARC so that she could warn them about an imminent danger. Danny ws then discovered to be in the building, and Eve was taken back to her cell, but was freed by Danny, who offered to take her to the ARC after he had helped the rest of the team deal with a new Anomaly. However the Anomaly closed and the Embolotherium begin charging towards a nearby campsite. Eve asked Danny to take her to the campsite, where she opened a new Anomaly with the device she had taken back from Christine and sent the Embolotherium back. She was taken to the ARC, but Christine was there, and Sarah, Connor and Becker burst in with their guns pointed at Eve, having figured out who she was. She removed her digital mask and held Christine at gunpoint and took the artefact after answering Connor's question of why she had killed Nick. Helen flees to Johnson's Headquarters with her hostage, along the way saying that it was Christine's fault but didn't kill her as she claimed none of this would have happened soon. She pushed the civil servant through the future anomaly and closed it with her device. As she made her way to the Future ARC, Christine was killed by a predator.
In the tenth episode, she begins working on a future computer, but Danny, Connor and Abby arrived, but she took Danny's gun after tasering him and forced the other two to watch as she began to use the artefact to plot her route through two Anomalies. Before she opened one with her device, she told the others to enjoy the time they had left and smashed the artefact to Connor's horror as she left. Arriving in the Cretaceous, Helen began making her way to another Anomaly site, which she opened with her device before she dropped it after a Pteranodon swooped down on her. She made her way through the Anomaly into the Pliocene and began to search for the hominids that would evolve into humans so that she could kill them and prevent humans from ever evolving and hence the lack of Future Predators and the destruction she had seen. She finds a group of twelve at a river, and poisons the water they drink and they begin to die. Atop a cliff, she then encountered
Helen's reign of terror comes to an end
Danny again, having followed her and they threw words at each other about what they though about nature and humanity. As Helen was about to shoot Danny, she was confronted by a Troodon that had followed him. The creature pounced on her, inadvertently knocking them both off the cliff. Danny felt for a pulse on Helen, but found none, and was relieved that it was over, and left her body among the dead hominids with a remark ("Good boy.") to the raptor.
After Death
After her death, Helen is mentioned several times:
In the first of five Prequel Webisodes for Series 4, Lester says that although the rescue attempts to retrieve Connor and Abby failed, the mission achieved it's goal as there is no sign of Helen, he says to his interviewer that he's lucky he doesn't know who she is, Lester describes her simply as a "nasty woman" and says that she "wore a lot of khaki".
In the fifth webisode, Jess is confused because she thought the old team followed Helen Cutter into the future, but she's heard people talking about the past and early humans. Becker explains in private that when the others didn't return, Sarah deciphered something in Helen Cutter's diary about Site 333 in the Great Rift Valley, where the ancestors of Humanity evolved, Sarah was always certain that Helen was trying to find her way back somehow to murder Humanity's ancestors, wipe out the Human race before it even started. Jess remarks that Helen was "seriously messed up", a rather fitting description of Helen.
Gideon later mentions her to Matt in episode 5 of Series 4, saying Helen was dangerous to humanity due to her knowledge of the anomalies.
In episode 7, Danny Quinn read Helen's documents while stranded in the past. It shown Philip Burton's name several times and asking questions about the anomalies. He later warns Matt that Burton and Helen knew each other, and that he is not to be trusted.