10 Characters From 24 You Totally Didn't Appreciate The First Time
9. Walid Al-Rezani
Walid is an unsung hero of the show. His willingness to put himself in harm's way, while naive, is not celebrated or championed at all. Something you don't consider until the season is over.
24 was a pioneer in countless areas. Capitalising on its privileged position of a serial with 24 episodes to explore real world issues, season 6 saw them introduce a new aspect of racial profiling. Walid Al-Rezani (played by the wonderful Harry Lennix) finds himself victim to a false conviction as a result of terrorist threat.
From here Walid rapidly evolves into a character akin to others from our list. He displays zero hesitancy in his willingness to aid the authorities and place himself into a dangerous situation, at the behest of his friend Sandra Palmer.
In "blink and you'll miss it" fashion, Walid is a character that is on screen in short spurts, however his message speaks volumes. In Walid, 24 produced a conduit between themselves and the fans to showcase the benefit of diversity. It is with characters such as these that messages can be sent to audiences and education can happen. With Walid we have a powerful messenger. In the face of adversity and prejudice a scorned man stood up with an unwavering belief that he could still impact positive change.
As a member of the season 6 narrative, Walid provides a key piece transition within a short period of time on screen which is required to progress the story for. As a piece of societal-based storytelling he instantly becomes a much more prominent figure, one which fans should appreciate greatly.