(Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on the Island)
- You may be looking for her counterpart in the flash-sideways timeline.
- Helen is the name of two women from John Locke's flashbacks. For the unseen woman who Locke spoke to on a phone sex/chat line, see Helen (Walkabout).
Helen Norwood was Locke's girlfriend for a period during his life before the plane crash, who he had intended to marry. After Locke returned to the mainland in an attempt to bring back the Oceanic Six, Matthew Abaddon revealed that she had died of a brain aneurysm in 2006.
Relationship with John Locke
John and Helen at dinner. ("Orientation")
Locke and Helen met at an anger-management support group they were both members of. After his outburst at the group about their whining, Helen approached Locke outside and told him that she appreciated his candor and shared his frustrations. She also flirted by telling him that she liked bald men - despite Locke not being bald she said that she was prepared to wait.
Their friendship moved to the bedroom fairly quickly and continued to blossom. During a meal at a restaurant, Helen gave Locke a key to her flat as a six-month anniversary present. She told him that she'd followed him and discovered that he was sneaking out at night to lurk outside his father's house. The gift of the key was given on the condition that he stopped going there, to which Locke agreed.
Despite his promise to stop, Locke continued to spend long periods in his car waiting outside Cooper's house. Helen followed him again and shunted her car into the back of his, stormed over to his window and snatched his keys from the ignition. She threw the keys over the security gates in the drive and implored him to give up on his obsession and take a "leap of faith" with her. Shortly after, Locke moved in with Helen. ("Orientation")
John Locke, proposing to Helen. ("Lockdown")
Locke eventually started making plans to propose to Helen over a romantic picnic. Unfortunately on the morning of the picnic Helen spotted Anthony Cooper's obituary in the newspaper and that the funeral was scheduled for that day. Helen accompanied Locke to the funeral to support him.
Some days after the funeral, Cooper revealed to Locke that he was still alive and convinced him to participate in a criminal financial scheme in exchange for a share of the money. Locke's suspicious behavior and a run in with some crooks searching for Cooper led Helen to follow him again. She turned up at the motel where Locke was meeting Cooper to hand over the money. She demanded of Cooper: "Are you him?", slapped him and berated him for his treatment of Locke before leaving to go back to her car. Locke caught up with her in the parking lot outside and pleaded for forgiveness, went down on one knee and proposed. Helen shook her head and drove off. ("Lockdown")
After the relationship
Some time afterward, Locke began calling a phone operator he called Helen with whom he developed an obsession. ("Walkabout")
After having crashed on the Island, during a brief moment of confusion after being knocked over by a boar, Locke shouted out at Kate, calling her "Helen." ("Walkabout")
Post-death
On April 8, 2006, Helen died of an apparent brain aneurysm. She was buried in Santa Monica, California.
Helen's grave. ("The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham")
After he returned from the Island, Locke used the assistance of his driver Matthew Abaddon to track down Helen's whereabouts. To Locke's dismay, he discovered that she had died and was buried in a Santa Monica cemetery. ("The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham")
Afterlife
Helen and John share a tender moment in the afterlife. ("The Substitute")
In the afterlife Helen and John are engaged and plan on getting married in October 2004.
Being very sick of the wedding planning, caterers, bands, and picking out fabrics for chair backs (both a shade of green), she asks John if they can "do it shotgun style" in Las Vegas instead. She also mentions taking her parents and John's father with them, to which John replies that Helen deserves better than that and he knows they can do it.
She is a woman of faith, believing that John meeting Jack Shephard (a spinal surgeon from the same flight) may be destiny and thinks that John should call him. The next day she overhears John on the phone with Dr. Jack Shephard's office but he hangs up. She is glad John calls and wants to know when he is getting a consultation from Dr. Shephard.
John initially lies to Helen about skipping the conference in Australia, but eventually confesses that he was fired from the box company. When his case of lost knives is returned, he tells Helen to open the case and explains what happened when he tried to go on a walkabout but couldn't. John acknowledges that she wants him to go to more consults about his back and "needs him to get out of this chair", but also that he doesn't want her to wait for a miracle, because he believes there is no such thing. She replies there are miracles, but assures him that he is the only one she ever needed, and rips up Jack's business card. ("The Substitute")
After John's hit and run accident, Helen rushes her fiances bedside at St. Sebastiens hospital. She thanks Dr. Shephard as she and John embrace. ("The Candidate")
Trivia
- Helen is of Greek origin, and its meaning is "sun ray; shining light". Mythology: the abduction of Zeus's mortal daughter, Helen of Troy, resulted in the Trojan War. Hers was "the face that launched a thousand ships".
- Helen was born exactly one year and one month after John Locke.
- Helen died on 04/08/06. This date can form the numbers 4 and 8.
- Helen was 48 years old when she died.
- Helen has appeared in 4 episodes to date - Season 2's "Orientation" and "Lockdown", and Season 6's "The Substitute" and "The Candidate". She was also mentioned in Season 5's "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" when Locke visited her grave. Her surname was revealed to be Norwood in that episode.
- An alternate version of Helen appeared in The Substitute and The Candidate. More information on this appearance can be found on the page of the flash-sideways Helen.
- In 1928, Richard Strauss wrote the German Opera Die ägyptische Helena, The Egyptian Helena, which is the story of Helen and Menelaus's troubles when they are marooned on a mythical island.
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