Lovers of lesbian subtext and unresolved sexual tension have long had their eye on the SyFy series Warehouse 13. There was just something about the way Agent Myka Bering and Helena G. Wells looked at each other. And, it turns out, there really was. At the Warehouse 13 Comic-Con panel over the weekend, series star Joanne Kelly confirmed what gay female fans of the show had long known, that the characters “fell in love a little bit.”
The series, about Secret Service agents who work for a super-duper secret government group that tracks down dangerous artifacts to bring for safekeeping to the eponymous warehouse, brought in Jaime Murray as the mysterious former British agent Helena G. (H.G., get it?) Wells in the beginning of Season 2. While only in a handful of last season’s episodes, Murray’s Helena exchanged lingering looks with Kelly’s Myka that did not go unnoticed by fans. And then, well, it doesn’t hurt when series co-star Eddie McClintock tweets pictures like this.
The show has established Helena’s character as bisexual, when she said “many of my lovers were men” in an episode. Many; not all. Murray, who some may remember vividly as Lucy Lawless’ lover, Gaia, on Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, confirmed the chemistry between Helena and Myka in a tweet last December , where she said Drew Z. Greenberg, a former Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer who works on the show, have her permission to play up the subtext.
And then, at Comic-Con, Kelly took it even one step further. When asked by a fan about the subtext between Myka and Helena, she said:
I mean, she’s a beautiful woman, right? …. Jaime is such a good actress and I have so much fun with her. I think it was one of the things that we talked about, how to make the dynamic interesting and different. And so, we fell in love a little bit.
Cue fangirl squeals. Executive producer Jack Kenny joked that the chemistry between the two characters was called “PLT — Pre-Lesbian Tension.” He went on to say:
We’re not saying that they’re going to have a relationship. But it’s nice to see women relating to each other on a level that is not competitive that is not attacking each other. One that is supportive and loving and caring about each other. There’s plenty of the other stuff on other shows. This is about two women who actually care about each other.
You can watch the entire Comic-Con panel yourself at SyFy.com (the Myka/Helena stuff starts with 11:45 left.)
Murray’s Helena has already returned this season, albeit not exactly in full corporeal form, to talk with Myka. And we can expect to see more of her throughout the season. In an interview with TV Guide, Kelly said “The relationship with Myka and H.G. will be even more interesting this season.” She went on to say:
If anything, I think the closest Myka comes to a romance is with H.G. Wells…. really welcome that dynamic. It’s interesting to see two strong and smart female characters developing such a really cool relationship.
The show got even gayer in the third season when in last week’s episode new cast member and Warehouse agent Steven Jinks (Aaron Ashmore) revealed he was gay. And this season a slew of famous guest stars will appear including Star Trek Voyage‘s Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan, Capricia‘s Alessandra Torresani and the return of Lindsay Wagner.
Of course, confirming the subtext is one thing. Making it maintext is another. Possibly complicating matters is the fact that the producer said they are in the “very early planning stages” of creating a Warehouse 13 spin-off featuring the Helena character. A script is being written and SyFy has expressed interest. And while that’s wonderful news because the character of H.G. Wells is endlessly fascinating, it would also probably mean she wouldn’t be making time with Myka anymore.
So, Warehouse 13 fans, happy to hear the subtext hasn’t all just been in your head?
