It was the “Showdown” episode of Freeform’s Siren when Aldon Decker (Ron Yuan) was caught in the middle between siren sisters Ryn (Eline Powell) and Donna (Sibongile Mlambo). When we saw this moment in the promos, we were 100% positive that mermaid antiquities shop owner Helen would show up just in time to stop the two from killing him.
“Stop!” She would say, coming into view. She would warn him to leave them and all mermaids alone, he would oblige, and in the end she, after discovering he went back on his word, would be the one ending up killing him.
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But alas, that did not happen. In fact, she was nowhere to be found in the forest during the whole fight. She wasn’t even at the fundraising gala that preceeded it. So where was she? OMFGTV got on the phone with Helen’s portrayer, international award-winning actress Rena Owen to get the information.
“There was a discussion [among the writers] about whether Helen would actually, as a member of the community, be at the fundraiser,” Owen tells us. “I think it was decided against because there was so much else going on. You’ve got the mother, the father, you’ve got the stem cell things, you’ve got all that conversation with Decker and Ben.
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“There wasn’t necessarily any story purpose for having Helen there. The audience knows, Donna knows, Ryn sort of knows, but no one else in the community knows about Helen’s mermaid thing, so being out the community with the mermaids is a huge risk for Helen.”
The actress says that though she would’ve loved to have been in on the action at the forest, it wouldn’t have had a story purpose, and her stopping Ryn & Donna from killing Decker would’ve prevented a more important character to do the same. “I would be taking Ben’s job away from him. Because that’s exactly what Ben does.”
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In the mermaid series’ last episode, “Dead in the Water,” we also didn’t get to see Helen, but in tonight’s all-new episode, “Being Human,” and for the rest of the season, we’ll see a lot more of her — and it will be in settings we’ve never seen her in before!
“You will see Helen out of her shop and home and within the community,” Owen says excitedly. “She has a life! You’ll see her interacting with other members of the Bristol Cove community and that will be the first time! When you think about Helen, because of having to keep the mermaids safe and hidden, we’ve pretty much stayed in Helen’s shop or Helen’s apartment and one time in the marine biology center, but we haven’t necessarily been out and jolly out in the community because I’ve been tending to them and keeping them safe and feeding them.
“When we got [the script for “Being Human”], I was like, ‘It’s great to see that Helen actually has a life,'” she continues. “Because it is easy to think does she ever leave her store? She could be very, very reclusive. She could maybe never leave her store. You see her actually out in the community and you see that she has relationships with members of the community!”
Siren airs Thursdays at 8pm on Freeform.