Watching this episode back the other night I had a bit of wobbly lip...in that one moment of touching hands, Tesla is showing Helen his undying love for her. Fantastic hand acting by Mr J Young!
I don't think he is. I spend too much time psychologically analyzing characters and I'm quite sure a lot of his SHOW of arrogance is just his way of compensating for feeling inadequate underneath. Plus he's really subtle about it but he's shown that he really cares about Helen - I mean, he was willing to get himself blown up by the particle accelerator in "Animus" so she could escape, and in season 2 he knew the ray gun he made to fight the Cabal wouldn't work unless he made it fatal (which would've killed Ashley), but he didn't do it until Helen specifically asked him to. Obviously I think in some part he is kind of full of it, but a lot of it seems like a way of preventing himself from getting emotionally hurt. In "Sleepers" he practically had a breakdown because being a vampire was the only thing that made him feel special
~Mimzy