Ah, Tony. One of my favorite characters of 24, hes been on almost as bad of a ride as Jack has. The character with the third most amount of appearances (behind Jack and Chloe), Tony first appeared in season 1 as third-in-command of CTU and was mostly distrustful of Jack for most of the day, not only for his sketchy behavior, but because Jack had also slept with Nina Myers, Tonys current girlfriend, which I guess makes them wiener cousins (Scrubs reference anybody?). Anyways, by the end of the day Tony has already saved Kim and Teris life, and both him and Jack discovered that Nina was a mole this entire time, so the two of them were on slightly better terms by the time the clock hit 12:00. By season 2, Tony had risen to second-in-command and was promoted once George Mason resigned his post when he contracted radiation poisoning. It was on this day that he also grew closer to Michelle Dessler, the woman he would marry during the three year interim between seasons 2 and 3. In season 3, Tony was still in command, but was arrested at the end of the day when he supplied information to bio-terrorist Stephen Saunders in order to save Michelles life. Although Tony was released several months later, he became depressed and his turn to alcoholism led to his brief separation from Michelle, although the two reunited in season 4. Tonys descent to Jack Bauer-level awfulness began in season 5 when Michelle was killed in a car bomb that nearly took his life as well. When he regained consciousness hours later, he found out that Christopher Henderson, the man supposedly behind Michelles death, was in custody at CTU. When Tony is sealed off in CTU Medical with Henderson during the Sentox gas attack, Tony knocks out the agent guarding Henderson and attempts to kill him, but decides not to. That moment of hesitation cost Tony when Henderson wakes up and stabs him with a lethal amount of hyoscine-pentothal. Dying in Jacks arms (and ranking for me as one of the saddest moment of the show), we find out three years later (six in 24 time) that Tony was actually resuscitated by Hendersons men after they got him out of CTU. Reemerging in season 7, Tony has spent these years working as a homegrown terrorist, but defects when he finds out what they have planned for day 7. Honestly, I dont feel like going through all the double-crossings and triple-crossings that Tony puts us through over the course of the day, just know that it all culminated in him capturing Alan Wilson, the mastermind of both season 7 and season 5s events. We also learned that Michelle had been pregnant when she was killed, leading Tony on a revenge quest all these years to find Wilson for killing his wife and unborn son. Before he can pull the trigger, Jack stops him and Tony is taken away in FBI custody. I did not like what they did with Tonys character in season 7. Im glad they brought him back (although it slightly lessens the emotional power of his season 5 death"), but it started to get convoluted once he started switching sides left and right. The tipping point for me came when Tony suffocated Larry Moss just to keep his cover intact. I get that Michelles death affected Tony, but I find it hard to believe that Tony would so coldly murder an innocent man like that, let alone someone he was getting to know. Many of you might disagree with me on that, but Id like to think there was something left of the old Tony that would have prevented him from doing such a thing. My point is that to have Tony be taken away into FBI custody is not the ending he deserves. At the bare minimum, Id like to see him have a connection to the bad guys in Live Another Day so that he could be brought in to track them down and capture them. If I was really going far out, Id like to see a moment of redemption where he sacrifices his life somehow either to save someone (preferably Jack) or stop the bad guys so he can get a heroic death. Maybe hes too far gone to be truly redeemed, but I think that for all the years he had on the show, Tony deserves better than just wasting away in a prison cell.
Adam Holmes is a writer who loves a good story whether it's fact or fiction. When he's not day-dreaming about time travel, he's usually immersing himself in all things film, television and comic books. He hopes to one day break into the entertainment journalism industry. Yes, he is aware of his resemblance to Clark Kent and McLovin. Keep up on the latest geek news by following his articles at Unleash The Fanboy: http://www.unleashthefanboy.com/author/adam-holmes
