Helen Bryce

From Smallville Wiki

Helen Bryce
Family	Stanley Bryce (Father), Lex Luthor (Estranged Husband)
Occupation	Physician (Smallville Medical Center)
Played By	Emmanuelle Vaugier
Status	Unknown Whereabouts (Phoenix)
Appeared In	Dichotic, Visage, Fever, Visitor, Precipice, Calling, Exodus, Exile, Phoenix

Dr. Helen Bryce was a physician at the Smallville Medical Center and the wife of Lex Luthor.

Helen is the daughter of Stanley Bryce, a renowned Metropolis plastic surgeon. ^{[citation needed]} She graduated from Harvard Medical School and spends two weeks per year serving children in Rwanda. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Life in Smallville

It took me five dates to figure it out...you're delusional! - Helen Bryce, Visage

Helen was a physician at Smallville Medical Center. She claimed that a small-town hospital made her remember why she wanted to be a doctor in the first place. ^{[citation needed]} Helen treated many of the town's residents, including all three members of the Kent family. When Jonathan Kent crushed his leg underneath a tractor, she gave him a good prognosis.

Helen treated Martha Kent after she inhaled meteor rock spores in the storm cellar. She revealed Martha's pregnancy to Jonathan, and witnessed her miraculous recovery. When Clark inhaled the same spores, she took a blood sample and studied it. She found it very unusual, but she maintained her patient's confidentiality like a true professional and so earned Martha's trust. Martha continued to see Helen for prenatal care.

When her ex-boyfriend Paul Hayden showed up in Smallville, Lex suspected him of stalking Helen. When Helen was found in the pathology lab beaten nearly to death, Lex went after him in a murderous rage. At the last moment, when Lex was about to pull the trigger, he found the strength of will to restrain himself. He realized that Helen had made him a better person and he proposed to her.

[edit] Relationship with Lex Luthor

Lex and Helen's relationship was fast and intense. They met in late 2002 and were engaged by Spring 2003. Helen actually first met Lex many years ago when he visited the emergency room in Metropolis. She was the intern assigned to sober him up. Experiences like that helped her decide to leave Metropolis and her father's offer to join his practice and move to Smallville.

Lex did not recall this encounter the next time he met Helen while visiting Jonathan Kent in the hospital. Lex offered to have a specialist flown in from Metropolis to mend Jonathan's broken leg. Helen was a bit offended that he didn't think her capable of the task.

They ran into each other again in an anger management class. She was ordered to attend after "drop-kicking" an orderly. Helen turned down Lex's first invitation to go out together saying that she had met him before. Later, Lex sought her out at the hospital; apparently he did some research to jog his memory. He apologized for his previous behavior in Metropolis explaining that she met him during his self-destructive phase, and she agreed to go out with him and they began dating.

However, their relationship was further complicated by Lex's scheming father Lionel. Lex received photographs of Helen with Lionel Luthor as part of his surveillance of Lionel. He ordered a complete background check on Helen and discovered that she received $100,000. He accused her of spying on him. She was so angry that he had her investigated that she broke up with him on the spot. Later, Lex found her at the Talon and asked for an explanation. She told him that Lionel offered her money to stop seeing Lex, she refused, but Lionel wired the money anyway.

Lex apologized, but Helen didn't want to be a pawn in Lionel's game with Lex.

I can't even begin to fathom the depths of the Luthor family pathology… I'm glad that this happened. It showed me who I was really dealing with. You know, I've done some pretty stupid things in my life, but this could possibly win the Nobel Prize for stupidity. I fell for someone who never really existed. -Helen Bryce, Visage

Lex approached her again at the hospital and begged her to take him back. He said that he needed her to help him resist becoming his father, and they reconciled.

Helen considered accepting a research grant at Johns Hopkins but Lex asked her to move in with him. She had reservations, and postponed a decision, but after she moved in, she found a locked room. She asked Lex about it. He didn't want to show it to her, and she thought she could be okay with that, but she finally decided that if they were going to be more than roommates, he had to show it to her. It was filled with Lex's evidence of his suspicions about Clark and his family.

When Clark's blood sample was stolen from Helen's office, Lex denied knowing anything about it, but finally revealed that he was the one who broke into her office and stole the blood sample. She called off the wedding and left Smallville, but ultimately decided that she loved Lex and forgave him just hours before the wedding.

[edit] Corruption and deception

After her plane crashed in the Caribbean she returned to Smallville to tell Lionel that she and Lex woke up to find the pilot missing and there was only one parachute. Lex insisted that she use it and Lex went down with the plane. Lionel searched everywhere, but when he couldn't find Lex, he organized a funeral service. Helen spoke at the funeral, but Lionel was convinced that her story was a lie, and she murdered Lex, so he refused to stay and hear her words. He vowed to expose her lie. He sucessfully uncovered her plot with Morgan Edge.

She told Morgan about the blood vial that she sold to Lionel. She did not tell either of them whose blood it was. Morgan hired Clark (who was then under the influence of red meteor rock) to steal the blood so that he could sell it back to Lionel again.

When Lex returned to Smallville, she apologized for lying to everyone about how he insisted that she take the last parachute. She told Lex that she really did wake up to find the pilot missing, and there really was only one parachute, but she couldn't wake Lex. She guessed that the pilot drugged the champagne, and she remembered that Lex drank a whole glass, but she only had a sip. When she couldn't wake Lex, she decided to save herself, and she left him to go down with the plane. When Lex confronted her about selling Clark's blood to Lionel, she admitted that she did that in order to get him out of their lives. She offered to have the marriage annulled, but Lex suggested they give it a second chance, and they tried again to take their honeymoon trip.

On the plane, Lex revealed that he did some research and discovered that when they left Smallville, they didn't have enough fuel to reach the island where he was rescued. He also discovered that the plane landed in St. Croix the night it disappeared. He speculated that Helen switched pilots and disembarked when the plane landed. The pilot refueled and parachuted away before crashing the plane.

At this revelation, Helen pulled out a handgun. She admitted that the only reason Lex didn't get a bullet in the head that night was because Helen really did love him. The two struggled for the gun, which went off and killed the pilot. Lex rushed to the cockpit to fly the plane; when he turned around, Helen was gone, presumably having either jumped or parachuted away. Lex organized search parties, but if she survived, he didn't expect to find her before she wants to be found.