Helena Bertinelli

Helena Bertinelli
Biological Information
Status	Alive
General Information
Occupation	Vigilante (formerly; incarcerated) Member of Oliver Queen's team (in secret; formerly)
Family	Frank Bertinelli (father; deceased) Michael Staton (fiancé; deceased)
Alter ego	The Huntress
Actor	Jessica De Gouw

"Once you let the darkness inside, it never comes out"

—Helena to Laurel Lance^[src]

Helena Bertinelli is a vigilante. She is the daughter of the late Frank Bertinelli, the former fiancée of the late Michael Staton, and the ex-girlfriend of Oliver Queen. She was set on destroying her father's crime empire.

She tried to kill her father but Oliver intervened, and she was almost killed by her father with her own crossbow. Luckily Oliver managed to save her, and she left the city after realizing that Oliver wasn't on her side. She later returned to Starling city to kill her father, because he made a deal with the FBI and the justice department to avoid jail time, in exchange for him to testify against the East Coast family, and would go into a witness protection program.

She returned a second time, only to be stopped by Oliver, who was forced to let her go after she shot McKenna Hall.

She came back to Starling City for a final time, now publicly known as The Huntress, when The Arrow arrested her father. She almost killed her father, only for him to be killed in the crossfire caused between vigilantes and a police officer. She was ultimately arrested by Officer Quentin and sent to prison. She was widely considered as the "personal archenemy" of Sara Lance aka The Canary, due to having threatened Sara's sister Laurel and having bested Sara herself during their first confrontation; however it was because Sara was holding back, it was confirmed in their rematch, as she bested Helena very quickly and easily, and would have killed her, if Laurel had not convince Sara to let her live.

Biography

Taking down her father

Before the death of her fiancé Michael, Helena tried to turn her father into the FBI. However, her father mistook the evidence collected by Helena with her fiancé and had him killed. Following this, Helena decided to use her skills to take down her father by killing people close to him and taking down his criminal empire.

Season 1

In "Muse of Fire", Helena shoots down Paul Copani, a member of her father's mob, almost shooting Moira Queen, Oliver's mother, in the process. She later met Oliver during a meeting he set up with her father, Frank. Needing to attend to another meeting, Frank asks Helena to go to dinner with Oliver to help him seal a deal with Queen Consolidated. Although both were unwilling, they ended up enjoying the date. After they separate, Nick Salvati goes to Russo's, the restaurant they were just in, to collect protection money. Before her father's crew could hurt anyone, she and Oliver, as the Hood, separately step in and fight them. When they confront each other, Oliver manages to take off her helmet and sees her face. Later, Helena is at Michael's grave when Oliver drops by. Both are picked up by Nick and Frank's men. Nick had found Helena's cross at Russo's and connected her to the Huntress. He talks about how they found out about Michael, and threatens to kill her the same way he killed Michael. Oliver stops him and just then, Oliver and Helena free themselves and fight Nick and his men, killing Nick and a few others. Helena realizes that Oliver is the Starling City vigilante and that night, he drops into her room. Both admit that they like being able to tell each other the truth and Oliver sleeps with her.

In "Vendetta", after sleeping with Oliver, she leaves in the night and tries to shoot Zhishan to spark a conflict between the Triad and her father. Oliver intervenes and gets her to safety as Chie Na Wei and the bodyguards return fire. Oliver offers to help take down her father, however she declines and says she does not need his help. Oliver later visits her at her house and shows her Sara her grave and explains how he hurt people with his actions, she recognises herself in his story and decides to let him help her in her crusade. Oliver tries to learn her there is another way to take down her father without killing innocents. He trains her in archery which she considers impractical at first. He learns her archery is about patience and discipline. However he decides a crossbow is more suitable for her and he creates a costume and mask to conceal her identity. The two take down a drug warehouse of her father, without killing anyone. Helena sees her father who is angry because of the "loss" of his warehouse. Helena and Oliver go out in a restaurant, but run into Laurel and Tommy, whom Oliver invites to eat with them because the latter couple are still waiting. The four eventually bring up some memories, in which Helena realizes Oliver and Laurel were together. Tommy gets annoyed when Laurel mentions he needs a job. Things get awkward and the group disperses. Helena says he still has feelings for Laurel and walks away angrily. Realizing Oliver is not on her side, she continues her original plan. She kills Zhishan and some other high ranked members and tells one survivor Berinelli send his regards. She watches from a distance as Chie Na Wei and a hitsquad attack the mansion. Her father manages to escape and she shoots an arrow in his leg. He is schocked as he realizes she wants to kill him. She prepares to shoot him however Oliver disarms her with a shot. She angrily attacks him and the two engage in hand to hand combat. She manages to take him down and makes an attempt to overpower him. She is unaware her father grabs her crossbow. Oliver tries to shield her however the arrow hits her in the chest and knocks her down. She later wakes up in the Arrow cave and is angry that Oliver has saved her father from her. He tries to tell her that he tried to save her from herself and that killing her own father would destroy her, he says her father is in custody and will be in jail soon. She angrily says she will keep going after her father and walks off. Oliver tells her he did it because he cared for her and she replies she does not. 

In "The Huntress Returns", Helena questions and kills her father's former lawyer. She returns to track down her father, who turned state to the F.B.I. She then extorts Oliver in to helping her by threatening to injure Tommy. Attacking the transport carrying her father, Helena is arrested by Detective Quentin. However, Oliver quickly breaks in and frees her, then orders her to leave the city. Ignoring him, she forces Felicity to track down her father's location. She invaded the safehouse and killed the US Marshals assigned to protect him. Before she can off her father, Oliver interrupts her. After a brief standoff, Oliver tries to shoot Helena and she catches the arrow. Furious that he tried to kill her, she attacks him. She disarms him and temporarily overwhelms him, before Oliver can recover his bow. They were interrupted by McKenna who tried to arrest both of them, but was shot by Helena. Helena promptly fled the scene, not to be seen again.

Season 2

In "Birds of Prey", Helena returns to Starling after her father Frank is arrested. She breaks into the courthouse where he is about to be trialed and takes everyone inside hostage, including Laurel Lance. The Canary, attempting to rescue Laurel, faces off with Helena. Helena stands her ground, disarms her and allmost kills her by throwing her out of a window. Sara avoids falling to her death and Helena prepares to kill her with her crosbow. Oliver manages to save Sara and Helena recaptures Laurel. Helena then contacts the Arrow and proposes a trade: her father in exchange for Laurel. She escapes the courthouse, taking Laurel along with her.

When she and Team Arrow meet to exchange hostages, she prepares to kill her father, but is interrupted by the SWAT team commander, who came to kill the vigilantes. She battles the Canary again, and this time Helena is defeated. Shortly afterwards, she is arrested by the police, lamenting that she was not the one to kill her father (who had been shot by the police).

She is last seen in the police station speaking with Oliver, reflecting about her father and the end of her vendetta. She admits that now that her father and fiancee are both dead, she feels all alone. Oliver reassures her that she isn't, just before she is taken away to jail.

Personality

It can be assumed Helena was once a kind, caring, and reasonable person, who tried to send her father to jail legally and discreetly, because she knows he thrives on other people's suffering. Her personality changed completely after finding out that her father murdered her fiancé Michael whom she deeply loved. Swearing to take her father's world apart and see him suffer, she turned unstable, vengeful, and volatile. She has no humane morals or remorse, meaning she is more than ready to hurt and kill people, even if innocent, if they get in her way of her exacting her revenge. She also readily manipulates and threatens innocent people if it means seeing her goal fulfilled, although she seems to not always want to as she begged Oliver not to "make her do something both of them would regret". Trying to justify her killings, she would even cite that her actions are for the sake of justice, despite them being done out of vengeance alone. However, she has shown she is still capable of love, as she still loves Michael years after his death, and simply does not want to be hurt again, such as when her and Oliver were dating, she only becomes angry when she realizes that he still loves Laurel. Helena also believes that she is obligated to fulfill her quest for vengeance as she claimed "Once you let the darkness inside, it never comes out".

After Frank is killed at the hands of a crazed police captain rather than her own, she gathers two feelings; first, regret that she wasn't the one who killed Frank; second, loneliness, because once he was dead, she believed that Frank and Michael are together now. Helena is also shown to be sympathetic and compassionate towards Oliver's cause as she hates being the daughter of a crime lord just as Oliver was the son of a billionaire businessman expected to take over the company. Despite knowing the truth about Oliver, Helena also seems to have residual romantic feelings for him as she has kept his secret from the police even after he attempted to kill her.

After the death of her father, Helena finally realizes that Oliver was right; killing her father would not change anything, and would not make the pain of him killing her fiancé go away. She seems to be beset by guilt and remorse for her immoral actions.

Abilities

• Peak of human physical condition: Helena is physically fit, as she managed to break her father's right hand man's neck, and has demonstrated very good reflexes. She caught an arrow Oliver shot at her (a feat demonstrated only by the highly skilled Billy Wintergreen, Slade Wilson, Malcolm Merlyn, Al-Owal, Oliver Queen and the formidable Roy Harper have demonstrated).
• Advanced hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Helena is a very proficient and formidable hand-to-hand combatant. She fought and killed Nick Salvati by snapping his neck. She was able to easily beat multiple thugs. Her martial arts skills seem to rival Oliver's, as she was able to fight and disarm him on 2 separate occasions, but not enough to actually best him. In "Birds of Prey", Helena was even able to disarm, defeat and almost kill Sara Lance (as The Canary) in single combat. A noteworthy feat, given Sara's past membership to the League of Assassins. However, Sara later claimed that she held back on Helena the first time they fought, and true enough, she defeats the Huntress in their rematch. Helena is shown to be a unpredictable fighter, using a variety of grappling moves she was even able to suprise Oliver and almost subdue him. 
• Advanced stick fighter: Helena is shown to be skilled in using a stick in close combat. When fighting Sara (under the guise of The Canary) she was able to quickly disarm her. She then used Sara's own baton against her to quickly take the advantage and beat her.
• Skilled markswoman: Helena is shown to be proficient with firearms as well as crossbows. Though at the her first appearance her skills are noted to be at a rudimentary level by Quentin and Oliver, the former saying that the shots she fired at Paul Copani were the work of an amateur, and the later giving her a handgun-sized crossbow due to the significantly reduced need of training and discipline involved in using one, unlike a recurve bow. She goes on to become highly proficient to the point that she could take out a team of well-armed US Marshals using a single crossbow.
• Expert manipulator: Helena has shown to go to great lengths to achieve her goals. She even went as far as to threaten Oliver’s family and Tommy, and tries using his feelings for her to help her.

Equipment

• Helena Bertinelli's Crossbow: Helena uses a Cobra 80lb Self Cocking crossbow as The Huntress, to achieve her goals of vengeance against her father, and will kill anyone who gets in her way, it was later taken from her after she was arrested by Quentin and McKenna. It is unknown if it was designed by Oliver.
• Helena Bertinelli's High-Powered Crossbow: a High-powered crossbow served as Helena's replacement crossbow after her customized crossbow was taken from her by Quentin Lance and McKenna Hall. She stole this crossbow from a sporting good store, however she lost it when she was disarmed by Oliver after attempting to kill a US Marshal. It is unknown whether or not she recovered this particular crossbow after Oliver let Helena go in order to save McKenna Hall. If she did recover this crossbow, it most definitely would no longer be in her possession now that she is incarcerated.
• Huntress Costume: Helena wears a costume as her villainous alter-ego The Huntress, to achieve her goals of vengeance against her father and stay anonymous, despite her identity eventually being uncovered. It is unknown if it was designed by Oliver, and it is also unknown what materials it is made from. As of "Birds of Prey", this costume of Helena is no longer in her possession, now that she is incarcerated.
• Huntress Mask: In order to stay anonymous, Helena wears a black mask as her villainous alter-ego The Huntress. It is unknown if it was designed by Oliver, and it is also unknown what materials it is made from. As of "Birds of Prey", Helena's mask is no longer in her possession now that she has been incarcerated.

Appearances

Arrow

Season 1

• "Muse of Fire"
• "Vendetta"
• "The Huntress Returns"

Season 2

• "Three Ghosts" (mentioned)
• "Birds of Prey"

Season 3

• "The Calm" (mentioned)

The Flash

Season 1

• "Flash vs. Arrow" (mentioned)

Comics

Arrow

• "Falling"
• "Huntress Year One"

Arrow: Season 2.5

• "Outnumbered" (hallucination)
• "Haunted" (hallucination)

Trivia

• The Helena Bertinelli of the comics is the third Huntress, created to replace the second, Helena Wayne, daughter of the golden age Batman and Catwoman, after the Crisis on Infinite Earths negated the character. In the comics, Helena Bertinelli became the huntress to avenge the death of her family at the hands of the mafia at the age of 19 (later retconned to 8). While excessively violent, she was in fact a hero, and not the murderer portrayed in Arrow. (Excepting one incident where Batman prevented her from murdering the villain Prometheus, which then led to her being fired from the JLA.)
• The original Huntress was a golden age villain named Paula Brooks. She was later retconned as being named Tigress and the original golden age Tigress retconned as being her mother. Her daughter, Artemis Crock, is the third Tigress. Much as Helena Bertinelli was rewritten as a villain for Arrow, the third Tigress was rewritten as a hero for the animated series Young Justice, using the codename "Artemis" until she went undercover as "Tigress".
• She is the first person to leave Oliver's team.
• In "The Huntress Returns", the stripper costume that Helena wears at the start of the episode are reminiscent of her DC comic book costume, including a purple leotard with a white cross over her chest, exposed legs and thigh-high boots, and long gloves.

Gallery

Concept artwork