Helena's Gems






The Oedipal Plane Conversation

Wednesday April 10, 2000

Helena: Andreas!
Stefan: Andreas isn't here. none of your minions are available, mother.
Helena: how very inconvenient.
Stefan: and potentially fatal for you.
Helena: more idle threats.
Stefan: you give me lucky Spencer, or you will see just how serious I am.
Helena: he isn't mine to give.
Stefan: you're taxing my patience.
Helena: lucky isn't here.
Stefan: what have you done with him?
Helena: I released him, of course.
Stefan: you expect me to believe that? Helena: I delivered lucky to the haven of his choice -- a grim little diner outside of Vancouver.
Stefan: delivered him in what condition?
Helena: Healthy and vigorous, at the peak of his youthful appeal. If you don't believe me, ask his mother. they're probably reuniting as we speak.
Stefan: Well, that's a dream come true for Luke and Laura but not very satisfying for you.
Helena: Luke and Laura will soon discover the depths of my revenge. years of waiting and planning, patiently biding my time, all leading up to this moment. Oh, kill me if you like. I'll die content.
* * *
Stefan: don't move. you are strangely smug for a woman who's come away empty-handed.
Helena: my heart is full.
Stefan: with so much time and money wasted, what have you managed to gain?
Helena: the rush you felt when you poisoned me, watching me lie still and mute, standing over me with my life in your hands. that is the satisfaction I feel now.
Stefan: momentary exhilaration fueled by denial.
Helena: momentary for you, yes. you didn't inherit my tactical skills.
Stefan: oh, the skills you used to unite Luke and Laura in a desperate, dramatic search for their son?
Helena: it was a lovely touch, don't you think? my tour of their glorious past.
Stefan: brilliant. now they have everything. you've lost your leverage, mother. the Spencers have won.
Helena: the Spencers are ruined.
Stefan: you're deluding yourself.
Helena: no. but Luke and Laura are. no, their childish dreams will shrivel and die, not once but a thousand times.
Stefan: ah. how dante-esque.
Helena: You are as transparent as ever. you're curious, but you're too proud to ask. let me give you a hint. delegation is the key to lasting success. one must never handle the details. one recruits experts for that. now, poison, for example -- it's very effective when administered by a professional, but you made the mistake of acting alone. I hired competent staff.
Stefan: Faison.
Helena: yes! oh, you finally figured it out. after how long? eight months?
Stefan: it's too bad for Faison you're so literal when it comes to terminating the help.
Helena: I was very fond of him. he was very clever, unlike you. and it was very dear of him to unearth the drug that allowed me to speak and move. unfortunately, Cesar had a rebellious streak.
Stefan: so you killed your only ally?
Helena: you're speculating.
* * *



[continued]

Stefan: so what are you left with?
Helena: the joy of watching my enemies suffer.
Stefan: but for Luke and Laura the suffering is over.
Helena: oh, no. no. no, it has only begun. you wait and see. you may enjoy it as compensation for your loss. or haven't you admitted to yourself that Laura is permanently out of your life?
Stefan: you're right. I have lost Laura. and for that I sincerely thank you.
Stefan: they say men fall in love with their mothers. I never thought that applied to me.
Helena: isn't it a little late for oedipal mumblings?
Stefan: I understood too late that you molded the contours of my heart.
Helena: you were a stranger to me from the day you were born, like you were someone else's child, some insignificant person -- a tutor, a shopkeeper perhaps.
Stefan: a mortal born to a goddess with golden hair and luminous eyes.
Helena: you were a painful disappointment to me. sallow, puny, underweight.
Stefan: you were exquisite, poised, a feast for the eye, but toxic to the heart.
Helena: you wouldn't sleep. you wouldn't nurse. and you never smiled.
Stefan: how could I smile with a mother as cold as ice?
Helena: you barely acknowledged me. I could have been anyone -- the wet nurse, the maid who changed the sheets.
Stefan: I adored you. and I hated you.
Helena: Starvos was my saving grace.
Stefan: I promised myself I would find someone different from you in every way.
Helena: so you threw yourself at a silly peasant.
Stefan: I unwittingly returned to the source -- the golden hair, the luminous eyes. the porcelain skin that cried out to be touched. Laura had all that and something more. she needed me, I thought.
Helena: the comparison revolts me. I imagine that's the point.
Stefan: I fell in love with my mother -- a kinder version, but just as remote.
Helena: introspection doesn't become you -- or anyone else, I might add.
Stefan: I fell in love with rejection.
Helena: don't you dare blame me for your inadequacies.
Stefan: no. I'm not, mother. you gave me great strength. you taught me the seminal lesson of my life -- how to close my heart and turn my back on a woman who offers only pain. so you see, I owe you an enormous debt. and all my debts I repay.
Stefan: this is the fugitive, Helena Cassadine. these gentlemen will escort you to jail. following your extradition, you will again be escorted to Port Charles where you will be taken into custody, arrested, and charged with kidnapping. I believe this settles my overdue account.
* * *
Helena: how many times have you sent me away in handcuffs? haven't you noticed I always come back?
Stefan: gentlemen, be gentle with my mother. she's been very generous with me.
Helena: once a fool, always a fool. I promise you, you'll pay for this. officer: this way, ma'am.
Stefan: mother? thank you. thank you for breaking the grip of my obsession. I've never felt better in my life, proving that quaint old adage, "mother's love is the best love there is."




Helena's Murder Conversation