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Date of birth : June 10, 1957

Date of death : September 24, 1987

Father : C.C. Capwell

Mother : Pamela Conrad

Raised by : Dr. Alex Nikolas

Brothers and sisters : Mason Capwell, Jeffrey Conrad (half-brother), Eden Capwell (half-sister), Kelly Capwell (half-sister), Ted Capwell (half-brother), Greg Hughes (half-brother), Channing Capwell III (half-brother)

Former known boyfriend : Pearl Bradford (1987)

Profession : Private investigator at the Last resort agency

Sherilyn Wolter :
April 15 1987 (# 691) to October 02 1987 (# 798), December 07 1987 (# 841), December 15 1987 (# 847)

Among all the murderers, psychopathes and other bad loved characters that Santa Barbara knew in nine years (Peter Flint, Kirk Cranston, Quinn Armitage...), Elena Nikolas is certainly the most dangerous. In fact, the most pernicious. Who is she, what are her motivations, everything is revealed to us only one act of destruction towards the Capwells after the other...

The first appearance of Elena Nikolas is done at the airport of Santa Barbara. One distinguishes from her only a silhouette who supervises Eden Capwell, come to take a flight for Salt Lake City where she wants to locate the favourable place for her imminent wedding with Cruz Castillo. This mysterious woman is found again on the plane with Eden, then a few hours later, making autostop at the edge of the road that Eden borrows, in her rented car. When Eden stops, the mysterious woman, covered from the feet to the head with a fair wig, skiwears and sunglasses, directs her with a revolver, forces her to get out from the car and pushes her from the bottom of a snow-covered cliff. Looking at Eden lying unconscious downwards, the young unknown women removes her glasses and gains the next airport, where she rents a helicopter. She escapes from it in full flight while jumping in parachute after having installed a bomb which immediately explodes. The police discovers the fragments of the helicopter and calls the Capwells to announce them the death of Eden in the explosion. Cruz, C.C. and Kelly Capwell arrive on the spot, in the mountains of Utah, as quickly as possible and, after days of search, go to the obviousness : even if her body could not be found, Eden is dead. Actually, she was welcomed in his cottage by Cain Garver who retains her captive, in fact easily because she is now paralysed due to her fall.

In Santa Barbara, Cruz has always difficulties to accept the facts, but decides to rebuilt his life. He leaves the police and with the assistance of Pearl Bradford, creates his own detectives agency, the Last resort. It is now that reappears the mysterious woman, who a fine day arrives at the agency, asking for a place of detective. She says to be called Eleanor Norris and to have worked a long time with the C.I.A.. Cruz decides to hire her, in spite of checks at the C.I.A. which inform him that the agent Eleanor Norris had been killed years ago. Whereas the suspicions of Cruz and Pearl are not attenuating, a certain Horace Slash seeks to contact Eleanor. He turns to be hired by the sister of the real Eleanor Norris and asks her some explanations. For any answer, she kills him.

During this time, Mason Capwell is harassed by phone calls, where a mysterious interlocutor repeats to him that Eden is alive. He even receives one day a photo of her, then a call so that he has to go to an isolated place in order to have news of his sister. There awaits him a gang of kidnappers carried out by Willy, an Indian, who kidnaps and sequesters him in an abandoned house. By torture, the kidnappers want to oblige Mason to sign a mysterious paper, without knowing what it is about.

At the same period arrives in Santa Barbara Dr. Alex Nikolas, the former lover of Pamela Conrad, who had sworn the loss of C.C.. He discovers one morning with stupor the presence in town of his daughter... Eleanor Norris, who he calls by the name of Elena ! She tries for a few weeks now to seduce Cruz. One night when she sleeps at his home, she makes a strange dream : at the Capwells mansion, in the medium of the corpses of all the children of the family, she announces to C.C. that she is the only daughter that it remains to him now, when suddenly Eden passes the door. Elena then awakes, after having let escape the name of Eden during her sleep. Pretending in front of a suspicious Cruz to remember anything, Elena has in fact revealed to the televiewers her true filiation...

It is still at this moment that Eden succeeds in regaining Santa Barbara, pursued by Cain, fallen in love with her. The evening when she goes to the beach house to join Cruz, she sees him by the window discussing with Elena. Elena is acknowledging her love to him and then starts to remove her clothing. Eden cannot see some more and flees while crying. Cruz however rejects Elena. His reunion with Eden is made a very little time after at the restaurant the Orient Express, after a hostage taking led by Cain, in fact Elena's accomplice. Dr. Alex Nikolas ends up discovering that Elena knows now that C.C. is her real father. While speaking with her, he learns her intention to get rid of all the Capwells children. He then orders her to go to consult a psychiatrist or he will make her plans go to the end.

It becomes thus clear that Elena is also behind Mason's kidnapping, the day when she speaks on the phone about the document having to be signed by him, which confers her all the rights for the management of his heritage. She moreover learns than Kelly and Jeffrey Conrad decids to follow a clue which should lead them to Mason. Elena then orders to Willy to eliminate Kelly, while taking care to keep Jeffrey alive (this one not belonging to the Capwells clan and being her half-brother, Elena being C.C. and Pamela Conrad's daughter). Kelly escapes from death many times, even suspecting Jeffrey of wanting to get rid of her : she indeed has just found the private diary of Elizabeth, Jeffrey's first wife, where she accuses her husband to want to kill her. Mason is finally left free by his kidnappers, forsaken by their owner Elena Nikolas. He is found by Jeffrey, Kelly and Julia Wainwright thanks to Arcana, a medium whom had met Victoria Lane. Everyone succeed in escaping from the hut where Mason was retained prisoner before the bomb that the kidnappers had deposited explodes.

Elena, as for her, now seeks to get rid of Cain. She indeed fears that he, become amnesic, does not end up remembering the links which connect him to her. Pearl discovers her intention and tells about it Cruz who organizes a trap to confuse Elena. With the assistance of Carmen, his sister, he makes her believe that Cain is hidden in an abandonmed cellar because of the threats of deaths that weigh on him. Elena goes there and shoots the bed where she believes to see Cain sleeping. Now, the culpability of Elena in all the actions against the Capwells does not make any more doubt for Cruz. He tightens her a new trap and is locked up "accidentally" with her in a closed shelters where he makes her believe that no exit is possible and that they are intended to die there soon because of lack of oxygen. Elena then starts to tell Cruz that her father is Dr. Alex Nikolas, but discovers the trickery before going further in her confidences.

Cruz finally prepares his last guet-apens against Elena : he joins together all the Capwell family in the mansion and awaits the arrival of Elena, having made curled all the sector by the police. But Elena is delayed by the visit of Cain, who tries to kill her with a knife. Cruz then receives a message from Elena informing him that she retains Eden in the Laser Palace, a kind of mirrors house. Cruz arrives to the place and approaches what he believes to be Eden in her rolling armchair, when he realizes that it is only a mannequin. Elena is right behind him and acknowledges her error : to have wanted to replace Eden whereas it was obviously impossible. But she suddenly hears noises of steps and runs to lock up in a close room. Cruz tries to break in the door, anxious for Eden who he believes captive, when a blow of a fire resounds. Cruz succeeds in penetrating in the room and discovers the body of Elena, lain on the floor. C.C., acquainted of the clue of the mirrors house, enters then behind Cruz and approaches Elena, while Cruz leaves to call an ambulance. Elena raises the head and pronounces to C.C. her last words : "Cruz killed me, daddy"...

Such is the last Elena's misdeed, her death-blow. To summarize the facts which follow her death, it should be known that Cruz is quickly arrested for the murder of Elena and is considered as guilty at the end of a long lawsuit. Whereas Eden ends up finding the use of her legs, the truth about the identity of Elena is revealed to everyone : Mason and Jeffrey discovers a joint half-sister and C.C. a new daughter. But after many hesitations, Dr. Alex Nikolas acknowledges the truth : present the evening of Elena's death, he saw her bringing out her weapon and committing suicide before Cruz's arrival. Cruz is thus discharged. He discovers tapes of Elena with her psychiatrist who turns to be Kirk Cranston, Eden's first husband. Kirk acknowledges being at the origin of all the affair : he had encouraged Elena in her dark intentions and advised her to commit suicide by accusing Cruz if her plans turn badly.

A quite strange conclusion in form of forgiveness for the darkest and the more machiavellian character of all Santa Barbara...

Read also : Utah 1987 or Eden's false death