Helena Cain
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- For information on this character's Original Series counterpart, see Cain (TOS).
| Helena Cain | ||
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| Age | ||
| Colony | Tauron | |
| Birth place | {{{birthplace}}} | |
| Birth Name | Helena Cain | |
| Birth Date | {{{birthdate}}} | |
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| Nickname | {{{nickname}}} | |
| Introduced | Pegasus (episode) | |
| Death | Shot by Gina aboard Pegasus, in Cain's quarters (Resurrection Ship, Part II). | |
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| Family Tree | View | |
| Role | Commanding Officer, battlestar Pegasus | |
| Rank | Rear Admiral | |
| Serial Number | {{{serial}}} | |
| Portrayed by | Michelle Forbes | |
| Helena Cain is a Cylon | ||
| Helena Cain is a Final Five Cylon | ||
| Helena Cain is a Human/Cylon Hybrid | ||
| Helena Cain is an Original Series Cylon | ||
| Related Media | ||
| @ BW Media | ||
| Additional Information | ||
| [[Image:|200px|Helena Cain]] | ||
Admiral Helena Cain, hailing from the colony Tauron, is the commander of the Mercury class battlestar Pegasus during the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. She is a hard woman not afraid of hard decisions and unflinching in her will to do what she sees as right. Sometimes, these traits conspire so that she sees that she has been left no choice but to take controversial, unpopular or morally questionable decisions.
Biography
Cylon attack, and guerilla warfare
At the time of the Cylon attack, Cain's battlestar was stationed at the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards for 3-month overhaul with upgrades and shore leave. As the Cylons attacked, destroying other battlestars and support ships there, Cain orders a blind jump, gambling that the result of such an impromptu (and inadvisable) escape would be better than the alternative of destruction.
Despite the impossible odds, Cain intended to sustain a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the occupying Cylon forces. Shortly after her escape, however, Pegasus encountered a small refugee fleet of fifteen ships. Unwilling to be shackled down by the responsibility of protecting them, she stripped the refugee fleet of useful hardware and personnel, and left them stranded without FTL engines. She then led the battlestar away from the Twelve Colonies, following a Cylon fleet that trailed what they discovered as the fellow battlestar Galactica.
Galactica
Upon meeting up with Commander William Adama's Fleet, she assumes command and transfers personnel from Galactica to Pegasus, including Lee Adama and Kara Thrace, indicating that Adama has let military discipline become too lax. Cain is more interested in fighting the Cylons, seemingly oblivious to the point that she and the ships around her are all that was left of the human race, whose survival is more paramount than offensive assaults. While Adama initially welcomes such attacks against a mysterious Cylon force that followed the Fleet (to stop it from following them), his attitude begins to cool about Cain's very strict and unmerciful leadership.
Cain's actions also raise concerns with President Laura Roslin. Cain recognizes Roslin and her former role as Secretary of Education. After the Fleet command transfer from Adama to Cain, Roslin makes several attempts to call Cain to request supplies for the civilian fleet, but all of Roslin's calls are ignored.
Cain may also show brutal behavior when commanding her own staff, according to a conversation over alcohol that Colonel Saul Tigh has with his Pegasus counterpart, Colonel Jack Fisk. Fisk comments that, after Pegasus initially escapes, the battlestar once tries to attack a Cylon communications relay -- an easy target. On arrival however, it turns out the target is a Cylon staging area, filled with 15 squadrons of Raiders. Admiral Cain ordered her previous Executive Officer, a man she had served with for years, to carry out the attack anyway, but he refused the order in the face of such odds. Admiral Cain asked the XO for his gun, and shot him in the head in front of the crew in the Pegasus CIC. Cain then turned to Fisk and ordered him to launch the attack, which he did. After relating this story to Col. Tigh, Col. Fisk says he is joking about the incident.
Although the story could be unreliable because Fisk is drunk at the time, Tigh relays the story and his suspicions of his likelihood to Adama. Adama cautions that Galactica's crew has also made some questionable actions since the attack, and they don't know if the story was taken out of context or not. Even if the story is true, Adama is willing to give Cain the benefit of the doubt and not question the matter further.
Court-martial, standoff
After the suspect fatal assault of one of her crew members, Lieutenant Thorne, Cain arrests Chief Tyrol and Lieutenant Karl "Helo" Agathon and flies them to Pegasus, under Adama's protest, since traditionally a trial is held on the ship where an incident has occurred. Cain uses Galactica's log against Adama when he asks for a tribunal; Cain notes that Adama dismissed the last council unilaterally when the verdict did not suit him. Cain summarily court-martials the prisoners herself in a matter of hours, sentencing them to death. Commander Adama is far from pleased, and orders an assault crew to head for Pegasus to bring his men back. Cain responds by deploying her squadrons of advanced Viper Mark VIIs against Adama's museum collection of Viper Mark IIs in a tense standoff (Pegasus).
The tense game of chicken that begins is ended by Starbuck, flying the Blackbird as she returns from her unofficial recon mission on the unknown Cylon ship. Starbuck transmits the pictures she took of the Resurrection Ship back to Pegasus's CIC. Upon Thrace's return to Pegasus, Cain is so impressed with her performance that she promotes Thrace to Captain and Pegasus CAG, replacing the competent but uncreative and inflexible Captain Taylor. Cain tasks Starbuck with planning the joint strike on the Resurrection Ship.
Attack on the Resurrection Ship, and assassination
After Captain Thrace briefs both Adama, Apollo, and Cain on her plan to attack the Resurrection Ship, Adama pulls Starbuck aside and outlines a plan to assassinate Cain following the attack. At the same time, Cain instructs Jack Fisk to lead a detachment of marines to "terminate Adama's command" after the battle (Resurrection Ship, Part I).
When the moment arrives, neither commander decides to send their execution orders, leaving Thrace and Fisk visibly relieved. Cain survives Adama's plan, ironically, because Adama solicits advice from the second copy of Sharon Valerii, who reminds him of his decommissioning speech that asked whether humanity asked itself if it deserved to survive (Miniseries). That is, Adama's actions in assassinating Cain would be a good example of why humanity deserved what the Cylons dealt to them so many months ago. Although it may have been due to realizing Adama's value as a commander during the battle, the reasons for Cain staying her hand were never revealed, and remain a topic of debate among fans.
Unfortunately for Cain, shortly after Adama's window to assassinate Cain had passed, Baltar helps the Cylon agent Gina escape from the brig. Gina makes her way to Cain's quarters and shoots Cain at point blank range. A soldier to the last, Cain's final words are "Frak you."
Cain's funeral is given full military honors, with Fisk and Thrace giving eulogies. Though Thrace only knew Cain briefly, she obviously admired the woman, stating "We were safer with her than we are without." (Resurrection Ship, Part II).
Notes
- Helena Cain is inspired by the character of Commander Cain from the original Battlestar Galactica, portrayed by the late Lloyd Bridges.
- Unlike Commander Cain in the Original Series, Admiral Cain is a superior officer to Commander William Adama. The Original Series character of Adama held a higher rank than Cain, relieving him of command for a time in the two part episode, "The Living Legend".
- Actress Michelle Forbes said on her character, "She’s lost perspective. People ask, ‘Is she insane? Is she psychotic?’ I hope that’s not how she came across because that was never the intention. I think some individuals can appear to be that way, but this is a woman who did what she had to do in order to survive during some very brutal conflicts. Along the way, Cain lost her sense of judgment as well as her sense of reason and rationale. That was all very interesting for me to play. Usually in TV you’re given one characteristic and you dare not stray from that, so it was neat to have such a difficult, fascinating woman to play. In "Resurrection Ship" it really comes to light the path of sadism that these people have gone down and we’re fully able to see exactly what happened to this group aboard the Pegasus. There were some pretty difficult choices they had to make, too, in regard to the Cylon prisoner Gina and that whole dynamic." [1]
- Forbes guest starred as Dara Timicin in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Half a Life" and had a recurring role as Ensign Ro Laren during the last three seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore, also a TNG veteran, wrote for her character in the episodes "Disaster" and "The Next Phase".
- Cain's first name, Helena, was not spoken in dialogue but was posted in episode summaries on Scifi.com.
- Cain's habit of expediting meetings by conducting them without chairs is borrowed from UN Ambassador John R. Bolton (Source: Podcast:Pegasus). Within the show, the lack of chairs is said to stem from her preference to stand because of her back problems (Resurrection Ship, Part II).