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This article researched/written by Alicia Ann Fox.
To avoid insanity, I'm not going to attempt to catalogue references to Avon's various skills; we know he's good with computers in general. See also Avon and weapons, by Linda J. Norman.
Neither am I going to attempt to represent his personality in a few quotes!
I am including only information about his past, particularly the one event we were presented with in detail, his embezzlement of funds and his relationship with Anna Grant.
Avon's first appearance is in "Space Fall," when we see him sitting in one of the launch seats on the London.
Later he appears sitting at a table, pulling a piece of paper from his pocket and studying it intently.
JENNA: What've you got there?
AVON: Nothing.
BLAKE: Do you know
how those door panels work?
VILA: No, not that type.
AVON: It's
simple enough. All authorised personnel have their palm prints
filed in
the computer. The blue sensor plate reads the print. If it
conforms, the
computer opens the door.
BLAKE: Neat.
AVON: Most computer-based
functions are.
VILA: Blake, Kerr Avon. When it comes to computers,
he's the number two
man in all the Federated worlds.
NOVA: Who's
number one?
VILA: The guy who caught him. [To Avon] You've got nothing
to be ashamed
of. D'you know, he came close to stealing five million
credits out
of the Federation Banking System.
BLAKE: What went
wrong?
AVON: I relied on other people. Why all the questions? Or is it
merely a
thirst for knowledge? [Puts note away]
I've always found it interesting that Avon's first line is "Nothing." A word that sums up many things about his character--you know nothing about him, he will tell you nothing, nothing will make him tell you if he doesn't want to.
Note that we do not know he worked FOR the Federation Banking system, only that he stole from it.
AVON: I saw my brother. It used him like bait. I had to go closer.
We do not know anything about Avon's brother except that he exists/existed. He appears to be blond, and he is mouthing the word "Avon," rather than Kerr.
AVON: Before I decided to put my talents to more profitable
use....
JENNA: And got arrested.
AVON: I handled the computer
analysis for a research project into
matter transmission. It was based
on a new alloy...
BLAKE: Aquatar.
AVON: That's right.
BLAKE:
Yes, I worked on that project too.
AVON: Small world.
BLAKE: Large
project.
JENNA: I didn't work on it.
IMHO, if Avon worked on a project like this, it's unlikely he worked for the Banking System, but who knows? Anything is possible.
Here, we get the first version of the Anna Grant story.
BLAKE: What's the matter?
AVON: Nothing. It's not important. I was a
little surprised, that's all.
BLAKE: Why? Do you know him?
AVON: I
once knew somebody called Del Grant, but it was a long time ago.
I doubt
that this is the same man.
BLAKE: You don't seem very eager to find
out. Why?
AVON: There are matters that remain to be settled between
us.
BLAKE: Like what?
AVON: I told you: it's not
important.
BLAKE: If it is not important, then why did his name have
such a strong
effect upon you?
AVON: Because the Del Grant that I
knew said that if we ever met again, he
would kill me.
Once again, Avon says, "Nothing."
AVON: Hello, Del. It's been a long time.
GRANT: I heard you were
dead.
AVON: I heard the same about you. Wishful thinking
perhaps.
GRANT: I'm glad the stories were wrong. I felt cheated. We
have some
things to settle.
Speculation: Note Avon calls Grant "Del," implying a reasonably close relationship--if they had not been friends, then perhaps being the brother of Avon's lover made Grant a close enough "relative" to be called by his first name. See also Del Grant.
AVON: That last day, when it was all over, did they hurt her?
GRANT:
They kept her under interrogation for nearly a week. They tried
everything but she never broke. If she had spoken, told them what
they
wanted to know, she'd be alive now.
AVON: She should have told
them.
[Unseen by Avon and Grant, Blake listens and watches them from a
distance]
GRANT: She held on because she believed in you. She didn't
know that you'd run out and leave her to face it alone.
AVON: That was
not the way it was.
GRANT: I know exactly how it was. She died under
Federation torture. But it was you who killed her.
Speculation: In this exchange, Avon appears not to know how Anna died until Grant tells him, though he has an idea. Whoever told him presumably had only basic news. Avon sounds as if he's been suppressing the possibility of Anna having been tortured. The following exchange is the first time Anna's name is mentioned.
GRANT: There's one thing I never understood. Why did you leave her
alone?
AVON: I had arranged to buy some exit visas, but I had to go
right across the city to collect them. It was safer for Anna to stay out of
sight.
GRANT: What happened then?
AVON: There were patrols out
everywhere looking for us. I was late at the rendezvous. And then the man
from whom I was buying the visas increased the price. He wanted ten times
what we had agreed. He said he could get even more if he turned me in and
collected the Federation reward.
GRANT: You should have killed
him.
AVON: I did.
GRANT: So you got the visas. Why didn't you go
back for her?
AVON: Killing the dealer wasn't quite so straightforward.
He was expecting something and fired first. I started back but I was losing
a lot of blood. Somewhere along the way I passed out. I was lucky. Some
people found me and got me under cover.
GRANT: You could have got a
message to her, told her to get out.
AVON: I was unconscious for more
than thirty hours....
GRANT: You used the visa and got out of the city.
You left her there.
AVON: That's right. But that was a week later. Anna
was already dead.
GRANT: You're lying. You left the city the same day,
before the Federation found Anna. You could have got her out.
AVON: No.
She came looking for me, the patrols found her. It was only
after we got
word that she was dead that I left.
GRANT: You expect me to believe
that?
AVON: Not particularly. But it happens to be the truth. If there
had ever been a time when I could have given my own life to save her, I
would have done it. The only grain of consolation that I have is that Anna
knew that.
GRANT: She died because of you, that's all that matters.
There's nothing changed between us.
AVON: I didn't really expect that
it would be.
and, later
GRANT: Why did you help me?
AVON: Perhaps because Anna was your sister.
Well. Speaks for itself. Blake overheard nothing of this, but at the end of the episode, he knows Anna's name, implying that Del Grant might have spoken to him on the subject, because Avon obviously didn't.
Speculation: Avon ought to have some kind of scar from a wound that bled enough to make him pass out for over 30 hours. I'm mad with curiosity to know who the "people" were who "got him under cover." Friends? Total strangers? Perhaps he doesn't mention them by name out of ingrained instinct not to report on anyone's dubious activities, ever.
The second mention of the Anna Grant story.
ZEN: ...Destination is the planet Earth.
CALLY: Why Earth? [some
dialogue not quoted]
TARRANT: As it happens, it's his idea. There's
someone there he wants to eliminate.
AVON: Execute.
CALLY:
What?
TARRANT: One of the Federation's para-investigators. Notorious
thug known as Shrinker.
AVON: One of his victims was a young woman
called Anna Grant. She was important to me.
CALLY: So it's just
revenge you're after?
AVON: Just and sweet.
Speculation: before this point, Avon did not know the name of the interrogator who killed Anna, though he knew someone had. This is the first mention of Shrinker.
SHRINKER: An attack on this place would be suicide anyway. Is there anyone
who thinks that you're worth dying for?
AVON: Not anymore, not since
Anna.
SHRINKER: Anna?
AVON: Dead. Anna...is dead.
SHRINKER: You're--you're really going to do it, then? In cold
blood?
AVON: Executions are always in cold blood.
SHRINKER:
Executions, I see, so that's it, is it? Execution? Justice?
AVON: You
tell me. [Hits the control switch. Lights come up in the cave, illuminating
a large poster of a woman]
SHRINKER: Well, who is she? [Avon remembers
Anna, leaning on a silver lame pillow. The woman is recognizable as
Chesku's wife, Sula.]
[in flashback]
ANNA: Who are you?
AVON: [out of shot] Isn't it a
bit late to ask that?
ANNA: Why do I never know what you're thinking,
Avon?
AVON: [O.O.S.] I could never say it.
ANNA: Not even to
me?
AVON: [O.O.S.] Especially not to you. [Anna smiles]
SHRINKER: I
never saw her before in my life. I'm telling you the truth. I don't know
who she is.
AVON: Anna Grant. Her name was Anna Grant.
and
ANNA: This man you're buying the exit visas from...do you trust
him?
AVON: [O.O.S.] Trust him? Of course I don't trust him.
ANNA:
Well then?
AVON: [O.O.S.] Trust is only dangerous when you have to rely
on it.
ANNA: That's very profound, my love.
AVON: [O.O.S.] As long
as I know I can't trust him there's no problem.
ANNA: Do you trust
anyone? Do you trust me?
AVON: [O.O.S.] Oh, yes. I'm afraid I do.
AVON: I'd found my way around the security programs in the banking
computers. I was about to undermine confidence in the entire Federation
credit system. Anna and I were going to be so rich that no one could touch
us. And we were almost there.
SHRINKER: You were never even close. I
remember you now--you're Kerr Avon, the great bank fraud.
AVON: That's
what I just said.
SHRINKER: Bartolomew was running you.
AVON:
Running me?
SHRINKER: Central Security--Bartolomew was their best
agent. They were on to you from the start. But they were convinced that you
were political, so Bartolomew stayed close and let you run. Anyone that you
so much as looked at was marked for collection.
AVON: You expect me to
believe that?
SHRINKER: You, you dropped out of sight, after you killed
the man who was supplying you with exit visas. I'm right, aren't
I?
AVON: I was shot. I was stupid enough to let him fire
first.
SHRINKER: Once Bartolomew lost sight of you, all your contacts
were pulled in.
AVON: So. You remember her now.
SHRINKER: No!
That's just the point! I never saw any of them! It was Bartolomew, he was
in control. I didn't kill her. Bartolomew did.
Speculation: WHY did the Feds think Avon was political? Perhaps he had done something political once, or perhaps he was just too smart to be trusted.
SHRINKER: ...Bartolomew w-was Central Security's top agent.
AVON: So you said.
SHRINKER: No one knew who he was. That's why no one was safe from him. He
was free to hunt anyone in or out of the service....
We assume Avon was out of the service, but it is never stated. He might have worked for Space Command in some capacity at some time; or perhaps ALL jobs were considered government, since the Feds controlled everything.
SHRINKER: Well, I, I, I'd finished questioning him--he, he was dying--and
suddenly I got curious, so I hit him with one last order: Identify
Bartolomew. And HE said: "Councilor Chesku is still--" and th-then he
died.
AVON: Chesku...
SHRINKER: He's one of Servalan's closest
advisors. She'd know the answer, I mean, why don't you ask her?
Earlier in the episode we learned that Anna was married to Chesku. It isn't clear whether she was married to him while involved with Avon, or married to someone else, or not married at all.
And the finale:
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?
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. 'Course, 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.
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.
SHRINKER: [V.O.] 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: [V.O.] 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?
ANNA: My husband. I
didn't love him, he knew that. There was only you. But he wanted me and I
was afraid.
SHRINKER: [V.O.] 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. But you
do, don't you Avon?
[Anna
goes for her gun.]
CALLY: [O.O.S.] Avon!
AVON: [Wheels and fires.
Anna falls and he catches her, sinking to his knees, cradling her.] At
least that was honest.
ANNA: I knew when you found out, you would kill
me.
AVON: Unless you killed me first.
ANNA: Huh. 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 recognized the fool.
ANNA: 'Twasn't
all lies. I let you go...my love. [Dies]
AVON: [Kisses her temple] Oh,
no, you never let me go. You never did.
[Sets the body down. Removes his
bracelet and drops it on the floor]
Avon doesn't mention her husband when he lists people she might have run to--it is unclear if he knew she was married or not. It is also unclear if her marriage to Chesku was part of another assignment, as she is using the name "Sula." I assume Anna Grant is her real name because her brother's name is also Grant.
AVON: Blake sent us. The Federation have started transmitting A-line
messages using a new pulse code. We need to break that code.
TYNUS: That's impossible.
AVON: Not impossible, Tynus. Remember, we trained together.
Trained as what, we are not told, but they are speaking of a complex communications system.
TYNUS: You know you're asking me to commit suicide.
AVON: Is there
something wrong with your memory, Tynus? You owe me, remember?
TYNUS:
Not enough to put my head on the block.
AVON: [To Vila] We were in a
fraud together. When I was arrested, I kept my mouth shut. [To Tynus] If I
hadn't, old friend, you would be sweating out the rest of your life on a
convict planet, and that could still happen if I were to let the
authorities know.
TYNUS: So that's the way it is?
AVON: Well, let's
just say I did you a favour and now I'm collecting.
VILA: Nice. When
Avon holds out the hand of friendship, watch his other hand. That's the
one with the hammer.
I assume he is speaking of the bank fraud, as it is unlikely he was arrested more than once. If we accept Avon's statement as true, he had experience with Federation interrogators prior to "Rumours of Death," after this initial capture, and managed to thwart them.
Just before Avon kills Tynus:
AVON: So you're going to kill me?
TYNUS: It's nothing
personal.
AVON: [Smiles] I shall try not to hold it against
you.
TYNUS: You know too much about me.
AVON: I should have turned
you in when I had the chance.
Tynus works for the Federation in a position of some responsibility, though he does not seem to think it is worthy of him. Speculation: he was a co-worker of Avon's; they do not seem friendly, or as if they were friends in the past.
SOOLIN: So who is this Keiller?
AVON: An acquaintance.
TARRANT: He
says he's an old friend of yours.
AVON: Well, he's wrong.
Keiller is possibly a pre-Liberator acquaintance, since Vila does not know him, and Keiller repeatedly calls Avon "Old Friend." Speculation: Keiller is a shady acquaintance from the bank fraud days, perhaps someone Avon had to contact in the process of getting exit visas, which would be a reasonable explanation for Avon's obvious dislike of the man, as the visa dealer betrayed him.
My question is how did Grant learn what he knew about Anna's death? Especially since it isn't true. Did Anna make sure that false information was leaked to him?
I'm recalling how Avon sounded when he talked of Anna's death to Del Grant. It wasn't a normal Avon voice. That may have been because it was a stressful subject. Or...what if...the memory was planted? That might make his voice sound odd. He might have been captured before any of this happened? He didn't really kill the man with exit visas. Because doesn't he say something in "Spacefall" or maybe "Cygnus Alpha" about having never killed anyone. That was a real memory surfacing. We know Avon was susceptible to memory implants ("Terminal") and maybe a record of earlier memory tampering is why Servalan decided to use that method again.
"My husband. I didn't love him, he knew that. There was only you. But he wanted me and I was afraid."
The way Anna answers this question suggests to me that she was married to Chesku while she knew Avon. She didn't run to "Chesku, and later we were married." She ran to her "husband," as if Avon would know who that was.
Sarah Thompson
I think the notion that Avon had worked for the banking system comes from something he says in =Spacefall=, where he comments that if he had a job in the system, he could steal (I think) 10 million. My interpretation of that remark is that the first attempt was a outside job, and perhaps that was partly why it failed; now that Avon really knows how to do it, if only he could get into the system as an employee, he could steal twice as much.
I'm inclined to think that he was a research scientist, and that the bank job was done as a hack, in his spare time.
Maybe it started out as just a game--seeing if he could break the security systems just to prove how smart he was. Then perhaps it was because of the affair with Anna that he realized that money would make it possible to run away with her and decided to do it for real.
In the vision of his brother, I have the distinct impression that Avon is fond of him and is perhaps attempting to save the brother from some terrible illusory fate. I'm not sure why so much fan fiction postulates that the brother was abusive in one way or another.
"WHY did the Feds think Avon was political?"
I really liked Judith Seaman's explanation in her series prequel, =Aquitar=. It was because Avon had worked on the Aquatar Project--and because of Blake, everyone who had had an important position in the project was followed thereafter by the political branch, just in case. "Just too smart to be trusted" is a real possibility too--sort of like top scientists in the old Soviet Union.
IMO Anna was married to Chesku while involved with Avon but told Avon that she was permanently separated from her husband. That would explain why Avon doesn't seem surprised to hear of a husband, even though he did not mention such a person when asking who Anna might have run too; an estranged husband would not be a likely prospect as a refuge.
I think Avon did recognize Chesku's name, but did not immediately realize that it was more than a coincidence, since he thought Anna had already left Chesku when she was involved with him. But the little wheels in Avon's mind do start to click at that point....
Andrew Williams
On the other hand, there are references within the series which suggestion Avon was working for the Banking Cartel; terms such as "swindle" and "embezzlement."
Vickie McManus
In "Cygnus Alpha," Jenna asks him if he could kill someone face to face and he says, "I don't know. Could you?" Which doesn't tell us much, as he sounds almost flippant. Shooting someone is self-defense no doubt feels differently than killing someone in cold blood.
Harriet Monkhouse
"Anyone that you so much as looked at was marked for collection."
So why are they still about? I'm thinking particularly of Tynus, who is in a position of some responsibility, even if he doesn't like it. He trained with Avon, evidently they were still in touch and, anyway, assuming only one fraud, Anna would know about him....
My theory (which, no doubt, someone has written up) is that he was a lesser Federation agent - either he reported Avon early on, or Anna turned him to protect her own cover when he spotted something indicating she wasn't quite what she seemed to be. Then Tynus could be the person who takes in Avon (as part of the conspiracy, he'd know where to find him) and could give false information about Anna to Avon (and maybe to Grant, too, explaining why Grant has been led to believe Avon left at once, before Anna was arrested).
After that, the Federation don't quite trust him enough to keep him in the vicinity of any tempting banks, but might think it's worth sending him off to mind the sort of cypher that rebels might be interested in. cf keeping Keiller around and ultimately using him to bait a trap for Avon...
In fact this seems to be the only sensible reason to keep former associates of the rebels alive, to bait traps. What did happen to the brother?
Robin H.
I always thought Shrinker was referring to himself and the interrogation department with the "anyone in or out of the service" line--doesn't this fall right around the "Paranoia is the occupational hazard of the torturer" line? I thought Shrinker might have been afraid of Bartolomew hunting HIM. But read the other way, it does make for some interesting speculation as to what Avon did when he wasn't hacking into the bank computers.
When Avon repeats "Chesku," I hear it as him registering and storing the name for future reference. I can't see any kind of reaction that suggests to me that he knew Chesku was Anna's husband. Actually, I can believe that Avon knew Anna was married and didn't care about who the man was--Anna clearly had Avon believing that he was the only one she really loved and that she was going to run away with him; under those circumstances, I can imagine Avon being so contemptuous of the husband that it doesn't matter who the poor fool is or how highly he's placed. (Anna must have told Avon some small things about her "real" life, explaining why she couldn't meet him at such and such a time, or something like that, unless EVERYTHING she told him was a lie.) I see the wheels start to click when Anna walks into the basement. But it takes Servalan's prodding to make all the gears finally mesh. A particularly nasty move on Servalan's part, IMO, reaching out of her own private hell to tumble Avon into his. And from the way her expression changes when Tarrant mentions Anna's name, I'm sure she knows what she's doing.
Vickie McManus
Have we considered the possibility that the bank fraud was actually Tynus's plan at first, and he brought in Avon because he needed someone who could carry it out? If Tynus were a government agent, and Security needed money the President wouldn't give them, perhaps they would steal it, if they had a suitable scapegoat such as Avon. If so, then Tynus's position on a backwater science station might be the result of his having failed in doing this. This is getting a little too complicated, though.
Judith Proctor
I see Servalan's reaction to Avon when he learns the truth about "Anna" in that scene as pity. She knows he's going to find out whether she tells him or not. She's (in her own way) trying to tell him gently.
Watch her face when she says that Avon knows who Bartholomew is. At that moment, she's sorry for him.
The chemistry between Avon and Servalan is complex--there's more to it than just lust and hate.
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