Stephen wrote re Cally: <But she does volunteer to go down to the planet with Blake which, to me at least, is a sign that she wanted to atone in some way for being taken over.>

I saw it more as she believed that, as they were Auronar, she was more 'qualified' to deal with them (once she was 'prepared' <g>).

And after my: <it's possible that - as long as any damage was contained - they saw it as no more her fault than Blake's (yes, even Avon :-). He's still detached enough from Cally to look at the whole thing unemotionally).>

Stephen: <Again, this runs counter to what we see in the Web when Avon's reaction to Cally's possession is to advocate dumping her.>

In the first flush of anger, yes he got a bit vicious (but then, she did make a bit of a fool of him as well with the flirty bit :-)) but, while he's short with her in the teleport room, he's hardly still treating her like a potential threat, is he? (and neither he nor Jenna bring up the ditching proposal later, by the end of the episode it's all forgotten).

<Avon isn't very good at cutting people slack for their mistakes.>

Oh agreed, but there's a big difference between a real betrayal and breaking under pressure. And actually, unless his own loyalties or emotions are involved (as with Blake, Anna and maybe Tynus) he tends to view shades of 'betrayal' rather more dispassionately than it seems at first (and at this stage, he's *not* very emotionally connected to Cally). Look at the lack of reaction to the way Tarrant and Soolin go behind his back, risking the Warlord plan; in Headhunter, he loses his temper at the end over the others' actions (and whether or not one thinks they were right, I doubt Avon ever did, or that they had the right to deceive him) but by Assassin he shows no sign of mistrust - well, no more than usual :-). Vila cracks under Travis's interrogation in Hostage - sure, he gets a knee in the groin from a guilt-affected Avon, but there's again no later sign that Avon or any of the others still resent it , *and* he's still taking Vila with him on missions both official and extremely *un*official, as in Gambit. (Hostage is interesting because of Avon's position as seeing what *he* did as a betrayal - albeit with good intentions - and the mess it makes of his detachment.)

Then there's Voice from the Past, and Blake's ations there; is he any more to blame than one of the others who cracked under interrogation? (especially since it appears that, though the *compulsion* to act was externally driven, Blake's actual words and actions came from his own mind and drew on his own knowledge of his crew and ship).

<So once Avalon is hooked up to one of the machines indefinitely it is overwhelmingly likely that she would talk. Cally was released fairly early on so it is entirely possible that she told the Federation little or nothing.>

This I agree with, actually; if Cally told them anything, it wasn't much (and as I said, she may not even be aware if she did). *Like* Avalon, her primary purpose during the scenes we see is as bait; by the time they plan to get round to the heavy stuff, it's too late, as the bait's been rescued :-)

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