Avon: The Kiss of Death

SPOILER WARNING: Rumours of Death is one of the main "game changer" episodes of Blakes 7. This blog post will give away the plot twists of the story so do not read on unless you know them already.

In the show, however, no female guest star wanted to kiss Avon. Almost every woman he kissed - apart from Dayna, Cally and Servalan, who were regular characters - ended up dead. Avon, therefore, equalled the Kiss of Death.
'No offence, Paul, but if you kiss me I'm unlikely to survive and won't get to appear in another episode.'

    -- Paul Darrow, You're Him, Aren't You?

Serious Face. Serious Business.

While Pressure Point changed the rules of Blakes 7 by killing a main character, Rumours of Death changes them again without having to do so.
I have already reviewed Rumours of Death in 2010, so today I will just look at the key scene, where Avon is changed forever afterwards by the events in the basement of Servalan's house.

This scene, one of the best in the entire series, is masterfully played by all the actors, and the quality of the dialogue speaks for itself.

Servalan: "Why should I tell you anything? What can you threaten me with?"
Avon: "I spent some time with your interrogators."
Servalan: "It's too late for that, Avon."
Tarrant: "Your dead major there might have given the alarm. Help could be on the way. Don't you want to be alive when they get here?"
Avon: "And unchained? Who is Bartolomew?"
Servalan: "Why?"
Avon: "Tell me who."
Servalan: "Tell me why."
Tarrant: "He killed someone. A girl. Anna Grant."
Servalan: "Anna? Release me. I'll tell you anything you want to know."

Servalan's instant change of attitude the moment she hears the name "Anna Grant" shows us that she does indeed know the truth, but she doesn't have to tell them. Enter Anna, as if on cue.

Tarrant: "That's far enough. Don't."

Avon: "Hello, Anna."
Anna: "Avon. Avon ... Avon! Oh! I was afraid they'd kill you. I heard there was someone with Blake, but I didn't know for sure, and I didn't dare let myself hope. Oh, Avon, Avon. Why didn't you come back for me? What's the matter?"

Is it suspicious that Anna doesn't call Avon by his first name, Kerr? Or is it just that nobody - nobody - calls him Kerr?

Avon: "I didn't come back, because you were dead."
Anna: "Well, as you can see, I'm not."
Avon: "As I can see."
Anna: "You don't seem very pleased about it. It's been a long time, I suppose there's someone else, is that it? Is there someone else, Avon?"

Avon: "No, no, there's no one else."

Let's not forget that Tarrant is in the room with them at that moment, but I'm sure he will forgive Avon for this fib.

Anna: "What then? What's wrong? Why won't you touch me?"
Avon: "Perhaps because I can't believe that it's you."

Anna: "Have I changed so much?"
Avon: "I don't know. Have you, Anna?"
Anna: "Not the way I feel for you. Nothing's changed since you left me. There hasn't been one single moment when I wasn't alone, I want you to know that. You must see that. Avon, look at me. Look at me."

 Avon remembers Shrinker's words from earlier in the episode.

Shrinker's voice: "Anyone you so much as looked at was marked for collection."
Avon: "How did you get away, Anna, that last day, the day I got myself shot? How did you get away?"
Anna: "I waited for you, and when you didn't come back, I ran."
Shrinker's voice: "Bartolomew was running you."
Avon: "Where to? Where did you run to, Anna? Not to your brother. He thinks you're dead. Who hid you, Anna?"

That's a reference to Countdown, when Anna was first mentioned and Avon met her brother, Del Grant.

Anna: "My husband. I didn't love him, he knew that. There was only you. But he wanted me and I was afraid."
Shrinker's voice: "Bartolomew stayed close and let you run... close and let you run... close and let you run..."
Avon: "He wasn't Bartolomew, was he?"

Servalan: "No, he wasn't. Not even Chesku knew who Bartolomew was."

The way that Servalan waits until this moment to interrupt them is superb timing, dramatically. Even though Avon was coming to the inevitable conclusion on his own, to have him tipped over the edge by Servalan is very powerful.

Servalan: "But you do, don't you Avon?"

And then...

Avon: "At least that was honest."

Anna: "I knew when you found out, you would kill me."
Avon: "Unless you killed me first."
Anna: "We were well matched, Avon."
Avon: "You weren't even real. Bartolomew, Central Security's best agent, one of your colleagues told me that."
Anna: "Anna Grant. I was only ever Anna Grant with you."

Avon: "Of all the things I have known myself to be, I never recognised the fool."

Anna: "It wasn't all lies. I let you go ... my love."

Her last words. The implication is clear - that Anna was telling the truth and she did love Avon. And he shot her. And she would have shot him. Even though they loved each other. These events will influence his character all the way from now until the last episode of the series, which they parallel and foreshadow closely.

Avon: "Oh, no, you never let me go. You never did."