24 fans have seen the trailer for season 7. The most important part of the trailer, the thing that FOX wanted to accomplish, was the re-introduction of Tony Almeida as a bad guy, and the newest target of Jack Bauer. As 24 fans are well aware, things are not always as they seem, and the first few episodes of any season are rife with misdirection and red herrings. Good guys turn out to be bad, bad guys turn out to be good. For some reason, however, the prevailing train of thought is that Tony will be this season’s bad guy on 24. Maybe it’s because I love Tony as a character, but I’m just not buying it. Tony Almeida is no bad guy.
In the season 7 trailer, Tony sports a new, very evil look. That’s the first giveaway. If 24 wants you to believe something in the first couple of episodes, they’re really going to sell it. Tony’s evil facial hair was a dead giveaway to me. If Tony really were the bad guy in season 7, there’s no way he would show up so early in the season, and 24 has only finished filming the first four or five episodes at this point. There’s one possible scenario I can fathom where Tony truly is working against Jack and the United States: He’s the initial threat, the pesky bad guy on the surface of a larger conspiracy, which means that Jack would take him down, arrest or kill him within the first couple episodes and he will become the first piece of the larger puzzle which Jack and crew will untangle as the season moves along. However, I believe that the 24 writers respect Tony too much to make him a one-dimensional baddie for a few episodes and then toss him aside.
More likely is that Tony is set up to look like the bad guy at the beginning of the season, but is soon revealed as having good intentions, trying to right some sort of wrong within the government. I see Jack Bauer eventually joining this cause, along with Chloe. Given the sheer number of new actors cast as FBI agents, it makes sense that the old CTU team would simultaneously attempt to thwart some terrorist threat while being on the run from the Feds. Though this is just a theory, it makes the most sense to me.
Tony, though, does have motivation to hate the government. Michelle Dessler is dead, and Tony almost died as well (I don’t know how they’re going to explain Tony not dying, but I’m betting it will be well-contrived). Still, I don’t think Tony would betray Jack, and vice-versa.
What do all you 24 fans think?
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
