Marian said: <What's confusing is what motivates him. The short answer can only be he needs Blake.>
And Nathan: Well, yes, he has worked out by now that just because he was 'rid' of the man, he wasn't *at all* rid of the other baggage (the crew, the Federation, Her Supremeness etc ...) which IMO was what he really *wantted* to be free of ...
What motivates him is IMO very simple - he cares about the man and 'needs' to know that he's alive and all right. I also think he misses Blake on a personal basis (and not only because only Vila is *anywhere near* as good at creative arguing). I'm afraid <g> you'll never get me to agree to
<he makes a conscious an overtly determined effort to reacquire the very person he was the least fond of>
... since (as most of the Lyst is well aware) I'd put Blake at the top of Avon's very very brief 'people who matter' list. (And yes, since he *is* stuck with fighting for his ship, Blake would come in decidedly handy for said fight.)
And Marian again: <Apart from the last episode, I don't see any evidence in the series for Avon needing Blake. And in "Blake" he gives a rational reason - they need him as figurehead.IMO in Terminal Avon doesn't go looking for Blake because he needs him but out of a sense of duty.>
Well yes, that's his rationalisations, neither of which stands up to scrutiny. A figurehead he could exploit? Come on, Avon couldn't manage Blake beforehand, I can't see him even in his wildest flights of fancy thinking he could do it with the man Orac's been telling him about. And remember, Orac's been looking for Blake for some time - before the figurehead idea was even formulated. *I* don't think Orac decided to do it all on his own ...
And Terminal? A mere sense of duty towards Blake doesn't explain [a] 30 hours on the flight deck without sleep and yelling at the rest, [b] keeping it *from* the rest, [c] forcing them to risk the ship by going through the cloud of ick, [d] almost killing Tarrant when he tries to stop them, [e] going down alone although he's 99% sure it's a trap, [f] the depth of emotion in the scene with the faux-Blake, [f] refusing to give up the Liberator, first with a gun at his own head, then with one at Tarrant's, and [g] the emotion in that last 'you promised me Blake' and the whole 'Blake's dead' dialogue - he's too shocked to hide it as he normally does.
Or if it does, I wouldn't mind someone feeling that dutiful next time *I'm* in trouble.
My own view ... he did search for Blake for quite a lot of s3-4 - not continuously, certainly not obsessively, but seriously. He stopped soon after Volcano, believing that he believed Blake dead or permanently lost, and didn't start up again until after Rumours; stopped again after Terminal and then sometime mid-S4 began to believe that Servalan had lied and directed Orac to search again.
He didn't mention it to the others (thus making sure we didn't hear about it :-)) since [a] in S3 it would have been rather embarrassing - even for Avon - to admit he misses and is worried about the "HIM" he so loudly said he wanted to be free of and[b] in S4 it would have been even worse given what actually happened at Terminal.
The evidence is indirect and mostly based on outside evidence (Servalan's change of attitude towards Blake-as-bait in S3, Avon's reactions any time Blake gets mentioned :-), and his partial thawing mid-S4, round about when Orac *would* have begun the long chase for that 'one point' ...) but it's there and makes sense to me (and makes sense of Terminal, too).
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