I just watched Normandy.

Way to wreck my headcanons haha.

Oh and James looked super weird without any kind of facial hair. He had the goatee in Revelations and of course the full beard in the flashback in For King and Country. I didn’t like it, he didn’t look like himself, but then the actor did play that villain in Stargate and he was clean-shaven like that so maybe that’s part of the problem.

Ok the backstory I set up in Our Darkest Hour isn’t potentially canon anymore but never mind. So new facts! James and Helen were never involved pre-Whitechapel based on John’s comments. If they’d all been together back then (how I wrote it) then John wouldn’t have said this:

You’re with her now. Aren’t you? I know you, old friend. Your passion… your passion for her, it just comes off you like a bad smell.

Unless … I mean there could be more than one way of reading it. The inference I got from watching was a bit of jealousy on John’s part, and it just felt like James and Helen’s relationship must be a new thing. I think I get that from the “bad smell” part and also the “with her NOW” as in ‘not then’. BUT John might well be jealous not because he didn’t know about James and Helen but because he’s no longer part of it – he lost them both. So it’s more bitterness and the ‘now’ could be a bit like ‘still, even though I’m not’.

Yeeeeah I know I’m twisting it but it’s not impossible.

Hang on I’m rambling too much (cut for length)

However, the thing that was definitely torpedoed, which I also put in Our Darkest Hour is a line (which I love), about how Helen couldn’t live with James’ pain and her own, which is why they were no longer together. BUT new fact is they were definitely together in 1944. Helen called him darling, neither of them made any protest (facial expression or otherwise) about John’s assumption when he told James to “treat her well”. Which this at least totally validated my headcanon that John deep down just wants them to be happy.

All the fics I’ve read about how James was Helen’s best friend and occasional lover over the decades make more sense now as there is definitely a basis for that. They weren’t together full time as they ran different Sanctuary’s (London and Old City) but this episode definitely suggested they were together.

There was more to the episode of course – Nikola! OMG he was great in this. I loved how he was all “I work alone” when that soldier said they had orders to shoot him if he tried to get on a plane. However, what he really wanted was to join Helen and the others (aka NOT work alone). Interesting how it seemed that Nikola was pressganged/drafted to work for the Allies, perhaps why they wouldn’t let him leave as they didn’t think he would come back.

I’d argue though that Nikola just doesn’t like being told what to do. They probably ordered him to help in the first place, rather than asking, and then when Nikola said no, they limited his freedom and forced him so of course he would be resentful about that. They didn’t know how to talk to him basically.

Oh I did love that out of the four of them, Nikola was the only one that knew John wasn’t a Nazi (the other three assumed it on seeing him there, Nikola was sure there was more to it and he was right!). Nikola said John might be a psychotic killer but has rules, and one of those is that he’d never let Helen come to harm if he could help it. I wonder if Nikola understands John’s “alternate moral code” better than the others because he has one himself. Nikola doesn’t follow laws and rules of society the way everyone else does, instead he does what he believes is right whether it’s considered illegal or not.

I did laugh though calling him “Professor” Tesla because seriously, did somebody let him teach?? I mean Nikola is an absolute genius but I wouldn’t have thought he had the temperament to teach, he’d be too frustrated by everyone’s idiocy because he’s so much smarter than everyone else. Maybe he was just a guest lecturer. I could see that. Nikola getting to brag about his genius in front of students, explaining all his brilliant inventions and impressing them with his brilliance. That tracks.

Anyway back to the important thing – my ship! There was no contradiction suggesting James and John couldn’t have been together in the past. In fact plenty of hints they were with the whole “I know your passion” “hurt her or you” thing.

So if I don’t twist the interpretation pre-Whitechapel John and James were together for a time, and so were John and Helen. James and Helen got together at some point post-Whitechapel and before 1944. Which means the three of them never came together as a trio in canon 🙁 BUT fix-it fics are wonderful because James has to live! and if John loses the energy creature/curse then they can reconcile. OR I can twist the reading so the three of them were together in the past how I headcanoned and then of course they can still reconcile in the present day too 🙂

The difference is James and Helen stayed together, rather than splitting up. Which actually is a happier thing, apart from the fact that they aren’t together a lot of the time, living in London and Old City. I think I had the theory that they weren’t together based on that separation, it just didn’t make sense to me that if they were together, why they weren’t ‘together’. I mean in the season one finale James said “our contacts are too brief and too seldom” and it had been about a year since “last fall in London” when they’d last seen one another. Which just seems wrong if they are in love.

They were on good terms, friendly in the season 1 finale, so they didn’t have a fight and split up like that – unless they did in a romantic sense and so their friendship was all that remained (which is then why they weren’t together). I did read a fic which broke my heart a bit about them splitting up due to James not being able to escape all aspects of aging, and Helen of course staying young and spry, and that caused a wedge between them. James felt like he couldn’t keep up with her and Helen felt smothered. I hate that interpretation because it’s sad but it’s very possible I suppose.

On the other hand it could just be a matter of time. One lesson I learned this year is when shit happens time flies, and then one day you wake up and realise exactly how long it’s been. For Helen who has forever (and James who doesn’t but has lived over two lifetimes and so probably feels like he has a lot of time), what is a matter of a few months?

I’m thinking perhaps Helen needed to establish Old City Sanctuary. It doesn’t say when in the wiki (between 1912 and the Titanic and 1951 when Helen met the Big Guy). My guess is post-world war two. London was the lead Sanctuary up until that point. Perhaps something went sideways with the British government and so moving HQ (or having an alternate one) seemed wise. For the good of the Sanctuary Network Helen decided to set it up herself. It’s supposed to be a temporary separation but perhaps politics intervened again, which is why James stayed head of house in London.

They intended to reunite once things were settled but at some point they realise it’s been a few years, and a few scattered visits, and it’s sort of become the ‘new normal’. James could offer to move to Old City, Helen could counter by saying he’s still needed in London, and so they are stuck – driven apart by duty. After a while they don’t even think about it anymore, it’s just how it is. The problem though is why James wouldn’t have moved to Old City when Helen decided to have Ashley. The decision for a family should have reunited them.

The only thing that I can think of which would have kept them apart is if staying separate kept each other safe. I don’t know why that would be though, beyond politics demanding James stay as head of house in London for some reason.

Perhaps I should watch more before coming up with a new concrete headcanon…