I hope you all tuned into Thursday’s Season 2 premiere of USA Network’s witty spy series Burn Notice, which marked Tricia’s debut appearance as Carla, Michael’s new handler and the face of the people who burned him. Here’s our quick recap of the episode, please highlight to read:

Disavowed spy Michael’s long-desired meeting with the people behind his burn notice doesn’t go as planned, when instead of a meet, Michael gets a smokey female voice at the other end of a phone line calling herself Carla and a new “job” as assigned by her — assisting a blackmailed computer technician in obtaining heavily secured data from the databases of private security firm Security Associates. Eager to get his life back and driven by what’s at stake, Michael completes the job with the help of his friend Sam and trigger-friendly ex-girlfriend Fiona, but is again snubbed of an opportunity to meet the mysterious Carla, whom he narrowly misses at a local cafeteria, where he’s left with only a filled out crossword puzzle and the message, “Enjoy the puzzle. I’ll see you soon.”

I’m afraid Tricia contribution to the season premiere mainly consisted of voice work as the “smokey” voice on the phone, but she does make an onscreen appearance right at the end of the episode — and as always, she looks amazing. Roughly 40 medium-res screen captures have been added to the gallery.

Don’t forget to tune into episode 2.02 “Turn and Burn” next Thursday (July 17), in which Tricia will make her second confirmed guest appearance as Carla. If you can’t wait that long, check out the weekly preview clip (feat. Tricia!) of the upcoming episode on the series official site index page. Please visit Tricia Helfer Fan again next week for more coverage! Meanwhile, enjoy the caps.

New Photo Albums:

• ‘Burn Notice’ Episode 2.01 “Breaking and Entering” Screen Captures

Don’t forget to check out Tricia in her recurring role of Carla in Season 2 of USA Network’s Burn Notice! Season 2 will premiere today at 10/9c. We here at Tricia Helfer Fan will, of course, do our best to cover it.

While you wait for the season premiere to air, you might want to check out TV Guide’s Burn Notice Season 2-oriented article with some interesting details about the show and interview quotations from the series’ production team, including Tricia. Don’t worry, the article should be rid of any major spoilers. From TVGuide.com:

When presented with the opportunity to make the cast a party of five, Helfer enthusiastically signed on, even though it means whirlwind commutes to the Battlestar set in Vancouver while both shows are in production. “You can’t be a Cylon forever,” laughs the 34-year-old Canadian, who’ll soon shoot Battlestar’s series finale, due in 2009. “And I tell ya, we were starting to get to the point where we’d have to discuss how Cylons age. Because I don’t really look like I did five years ago.”

Someone on YouTube has posted a short Burn Notice Season 2 TV spot featuring Tricia as Carla. Go check it out while you still can!

There’s been a lot of press coverage on Tricia and Burn Notice of late — and there’s more. The Chicago Tribune recently sat down with Tricia to discuss her involvement in Burn Notice as well as the 4th and final season of Battlestar Galactica. Although there’s been a lot of press coverage on all this throughout the year, this interview is a touch more insightful and interesting than the average article; I’d have a look if I were you.

Here are some news tidbits on the aforementioned series, as revealed by the Chicago Tribune interview:

• Filming of Battlestar Galactica will in all likelihood wrap up this month, either on Jul 7, 10 or 12 (exact date varies with source), after which Tricia will return to Miami to shoot more Season 2 material for Burn Notice until October ‘08. While she keeps all Battlestar Galactica series’ finale secrets to herself, Tricia promises Red Eye Chicago the concluding episode will answer a lot questions.

• Tricia will appear as Carla in the first two episodes of Burn Notice, after which Carla again returns in the series’ mid-season finale, episode 9. Carla will also be featured in some of the post-hiatus episodes, but which these episodes are is yet to be revealed.

• Tricia confirms she has signed on to do Fox’s Inseparable pilot, for which filming takes place in August ‘08.

Press Links:

• Helfer of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ puts the sizzle in ‘Burn Notice’ (Chicago Tribune)
• Helfer on ‘Battlestar’ finale: It’s awesome (Red Eye Chicago)

Another quiet day in terms of Tricia news. However, Entertainment Weekly has a really great preview of the upcoming second season of USA Network’s spy series Burn Notice, in which Tricia will have a recurring role as the mysterious Carla. The article is particularly useful for those who are not yet familiar with the show, and those who need no introduction to the series might want to skip to the Tricia-part of the interview, which includes interview excerpts as well as a more detailed description of Carla and her position in the story. From EW.com:

That doesn’t mean Nix doesn’t feel pressure to keep Burn Notice red-hot, and to that end the series will introduce a new character this season: a mysterious spy played by Tricia Helfer, best known as Battlestar Galactica’s slithery Cylon Number Six. ”I had coffee with her yesterday; it was ridiculously exciting,” says Nix with a laugh. ”She plays Carla, the public face of the folks that burned Michael. It was made clear at the end of last season that Michael is being recruited into something, that people have plans for him, and she’s the one who delivers those plans. And it puts him in this interesting relationship, which is, in order to find out more about who burned him, he has to play along to find out what they’re doing, and get some leverage with Carla, to get off the blacklist. It’s a fun tension — he has to play nice, but not too nice.”

As for the 34-year-old Helfer, as much as she loves Battlestar, she also appreciates working in a more earthly environment. ”I’m still finishing up work on Battlestar Galactica,” she says, ”and any offers I’ve been getting for jobs after that have been, as you can imagine, very sci-fi, and I don’t want to get pigeonholed in that genre, as well as knowing that I’ll probably never get sci-fi material as good as Battlestar. I’m a fan of Burn Notice, and I also know I’ll probably never get offered a role in a thriller that’s as smart and funny as this.”

Sounds like my kind of series! Don’t forget to tune into the season premiere on July 10 at 10/9c. We here at Tricia Helfer Fan will of course be sure to do our best to cover it. Stay tuned!

There’s been a lot going on with Tricia of late, hasn’t there? There’s more; here’s today’s last, Burn Notice-oriented update.

Maureen Ryan of The Chicago Tribune recently sat down with Burn Notice creator Matt Nix to discuss the series second season, and naturally, Tricia’s involvement came up in the discussion. According to the article, Tricia will appear in multiple episodes of the season, including 2.01 and 2.02. From ChicagoTribune.com:

This season, Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer has a recurring role as Carla, a representative of the person or people who “burned” Michael. She’s in the first two episodes of Season 2 and her character will return just before the mid-season finale arrives (USA is airing nine episodes of Burn Notice this summer). Helfer will also appear in some of the seven Season 2 episodes that will air in 2009.

Maureen Ryan: Not to change subjects, but how did you become aware of Tricia Helfer [who plays Michael’s mysterious “handler,” Carla, this season]?

Matt Nix: We were all aware of her from Battlestar and we adored her from Battlestar. We were racking our brains trying to figure out who would be Carla, and co-executive producer Alfredo Barrios saw in the Hollywood Reporter that she’d just signed a deal with Fox, and he ran in and said, “She’s perfect!” And I was like, “Yes, that’s it!” But she had just signed a deal with another network. I thought it would never work, but then it did [in part because Burn Notice is made by Fox’s TV studio].

She just kind of got the show immediately and she has that kind of attitude, she talks the right way, and everyone was just immediately comfortable. And we’re just fans of other shows, it’s not an accident we’ve got a Battlestar person [the show also had Battlestar's Lucy Lawless as a guest last season] and we’ve cast a few people from Dexter on our show.

Furthermore, for those interested in the series, TV Squad recently visited the series’ production on set in Miami. The article doesn’t contain anything Tricia-specific that we haven’t heard before, but you might want to have a look nonetheless.

Finally, in other news, voting for the 2008 SyFy Genre Awards has begun at SyFyPortal.com. You have 30 days to vote Tricia and Battlestar Galactica to victory. Vote now!

Promotion for USA Network’s spy series Burn Notice Season 2 is definitely gearing up! The series official site at USANetwork.com has been updated with new information and media on Tricia as Carla, which is definitely worth a look. Here’s Carla’s character profile, courtesy of USANetwork.com:

“Michael, we’re so looking forward to meeting you,” a woman with a smoky voice says as Michael drives into the back of a container truck. Now, that smoky voice has a name… Carla. Or at least that’s what Michael calls her until he can find who she really is…

Her background is a mystery, her motives are unclear, and Michael’s not even sure who she works for. All he knows is that she’s a lethal combination of brains and beauty. Carla is Michael’s only link to the people that burned him, and if Michael ever hopes to get his life back… he needs to find out more about her.

Sounds interesting, no? The site was also updated with new medium-res photos of Tricia as Carla, five of which have been added to the gallery. Enjoy!

New & Updated Photo Albums:

• ‘Burn Notice’ Episode 2.02 “Turn and Burn” Promotional Stills
• ‘Burn Notice’ Season 2 Promotional Footage

At last, we get a good quality look at Tricia as Carla in USA Network’s spy series Burn Notice, Season 2 of which premieres on July 10 at 10/9c. I’ve just uploaded 2 fabulous hi-res promotional stills of Tricia in episode 2.02 “Turn and Burn” — and Tricia looks absolutely fantastic!

New Photo Albums:

• ‘Burn Notice’ Episode 2.02 “Turn and Burn” Promotional Stills

Just a quick heads-up to all that Tricia and Battlestar Galactica co-star Katee Sackhoff recently talked to IGN.com about the series coming to a close and their projects post-Galactica. The article shouldn’t contain any major spoilers, so everyone should be all good here. Check it out at IGN.com!

There hasn’t been any big news on Tricia of late, probably because she is reportedly currently filming the final Season 4 episodes of Battlestar Galactica, which will air some time in 2009. Speaking of the series, more hi-res S4 screen captures coming up soon. Stay tuned! And now onto today’s Burn Notice-oriented update.

Burn Notice-star Jeffrey Donovan recently discussed the show and Tricia’s involvement in the series’ second season with EclipseMagazine.com:

Panel: Season two, though, it seems like it’ll be a different dynamic. Now that he’s sort of taking orders as far as Tricia Helfer’s character is concerned. How does season two find him? What is the new dynamic?
JD: I guess you’ll have to watch. [laughter] Ummm, did you talk to Matt Nix? What’d he say? [...] There always has to be the bad guy that is against Michael. It can be Tricia. It was Phillip Cowan in the first season. It’s Carla this year. I don’t know who it’ll be next year or if there will be or if it’s always Carla. I don’t actually know but there’s always going to be a kind of manipulative secret force that is forcing Michael to do things he doesn’t want to do. But the great thing about Matt and all the writers and what they do is that Michael accepts the job under those conditions but somehow manipulates it to his own benefit.

Panel: How is it working with Tricia? I know you’ve only done couple a days together…
JD: I’ve only done a couple of days. She’s great. I really haven’t gotten to know her that well. Her dynamic is unique in the sense that I’m now face to face with a force that’s keeping me down and I have to just keep getting information from her whether she knows she’s giving it to me or not and that’s going to be the fun spy stuff.

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