Tony Almeida’s fate to be revealed in 24: Live Another Day DVD Extra

Carlos Bernard Photoshoot
Carlos Bernard

Several months ago 24 writer David Fury tweeted that he and three other writers (along with composer Sean Callery) had a dinner meeting with actor Carlos Bernard. “Read into that what you will,” he said. That tweet sent the 24 fanbase in a frenzy with many speculating that Tony Almeida may return in 24: Live Another Day.

Unfortunately it appears the writers were unable to find a storyline for Tony Almeida this season. With just one episode left and a many storylines to wrap up, it seems unlikely that he’ll appear in the finale. David Fury responded to a fan on Twitter last night and said Tony is still “in prison.”

But there’s some good news for Tony fans. During a fan Q&A session today, executive producer Evan Katz said “Tony Almeida is still in jail. There will be a DVD extra scene on the box set coming out soon that tells you more about Tony Almeida’s fate.”

It’s unclear if Carlos Bernard will physically appear as Tony Almeida in this DVD extra or if his character will simply be mentioned by someone else. Two recent fan photos (here and here) show Carlos growing out a beard which could possibly be for Tony’s new “unshaven prisoner” look.

FOX is holding a “24” panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2014 on July 24th where they plan to give attendees an exclusive sneak peek at a “highly-anticipated Blu-ray and DVD featurette” so we’ll likely find out more information in just a few short weeks.

You can pre-order the 24: Live Another DVD and Blu-Ray set here.

100 Comments

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Will the DVD extra be included on this website?

Hopefully he’s in Day 10. I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around how they came to the conclusion that what the fans were really clamoring for was a Cheng return and Audrey in danger for the four hundredth time.

Yeah, Cheng really was the answer to a question very, very few people were asking. Yet Tony was being demanded constantly day in day out since LAD was announced.

With that in mind, I’ve noticed a trend of half-arsed endings since day 6.

Day 6: Doesn’t kill Cheng, takes the typical moral-high-ground approach to letting Phil die rather than the Jack Bauer approach of killing him.

Day 7: Instead of wasting Wilson, Tony is shot and carried off in a rage. Wilson is never seen again and the whole conspiracy surrounding him dropped.

Day 8: Instead of killing Suvarov and going beyond the point of no return, Chloe talks him out of it.

LAD: You’d better fucking kill Cheng Jack!

I feel like what really happened is that they have the overall idea of where the story goes in big, broad terms outlined in their heads but ironically it’s renewal that sort of kills them. Like, they’ve known they’re going to get not only a Day 10 this whole time but probably a Day 11 after that so even though they’re running around yelling that this is the end of Jack’s story, they’re then tampering that with “not wrapped up with a bow” and “always room for more” until officially picked up. But they’ve been *unofficially* picked up this whole time. (Just look at the merch tie-in deals that extend a couple of years out already that have been in place since the start, when they renegotiated contracts for 24 to overseas networks and probably began profiting off of LAD before it even aired. Making it a guaranteed success pretty much.)

Every time they get renewed, they have to stretch the story out longer. Tony went from coming back at the end of Day 6 to coming back during Day 6 to possibly the end of Day 6 to being his own season on Day 7 because they realize they can get more mileage out of him than most characters and they need reasons to draw in old fans every season. If this was *really* the last hurrah of 24– if they were absolutely, positively, never again doing another season of this show– then I think it would have put Day 4 to shame with returning characters. Instead, they had to hold out on the ones the fans want the most so that we’ll watch a Day 10… especially because they’re running out of those characters we still love.

It just burns a little since we already sat through cold, distant, unlikable Jack Bauer on Day 8 and Day 9 has done a great job of so far making him a jerk who treats his few remaining friends terribly. He’s not really evolved much since then at all and the characters who could get him back from that have been are nowhere to be found today. I was hoping Live Another Day was Jack coming back from the abyss not a whole day devoted to ‘hey, guys, Jack’s in the abyss, just FYI’. Yeah, 24, we get it. We asked for you to fix Jack with Tony which is probably too much of an endgame for the characters so instead we opened our stockings on Christmas morning and there was Cheng. Tony = Red Rider BB Gun, 24. Cheng? Is the bunny costume. Epic fail lol.

I wouldn’t count on anymore seasons…not with Kiefer anyway.

Unless he’s totally screwing with us, I don’t see him coming back without a serious pay raise. Besides his excuse of being too old, he probably wants to venture out and be known for more than Jack Bauer, (even though everyone knows that he probably won’t be in anything as successful as 24 again.)

I could understand wanting to do something different. I also think there’s no need for future seasons unless the series is seriously revamped. We also have to realize that not everything lasts forever…

He’s totally screwing with us. Probably trying to get more money to do future seasons. Just as often as he’s said he’s too old or whatever, he’s also said they’re all open to more, including him. They can’t say anything officially until Fox announces more. I really doubt Kiefer and Cassar are going to do a 24 panel at ComicCon for no other reason than to promote the DVD. They have merch tie-in deals extending out into early 2016. If there was never going to be more 24, anyone involved in it would say that flat-out instead of saying the dancing around it “you never know” and “there’s always talk of more” s that they have been saying. That’s also what has been said in the past before the show had been renewed for another season.

If Kiefer wanted to be known for more than Jack Bauer, he never had to do LAD. No one was forcing him to do it and he has the rest of the year to do any projects that he wants, which he has been doing since 24 ended and I’m sure will do again in between seasons.

Sure, everything eventually ends. But shows revived that are successful do not end when they are making money.

Simply put, I don’t think the show needs anymore seasons after LAD and I hope the writers, as well as Kiefer and the rest of the cast and crew, know that as well.

I disagree. Even without seeing the finale and how they plan to wrap this up, I think there are miles of story left to go.

I don’t thin knew needed to have an overload of returning characters in this 12-episode season. That would be kind of gratuitous and self-indulgent (which Season 4 is already a bit guilty of). A Tony return was always the only real appropriate one, and I would have been perfectly content.

I’m interested in this ‘DVD extra’ but 24 DVD’s aren’t renowned for their smashing extra content so we’ll see if it’s substantial or not.

I don’t think it needed to have*

It didn’t need a ton but the self-indulgent is actually what made Day 4 work. It was about the characters they spent the three previous seasons with coming together to save the world and Jack. It made the previous seasons worthwhile. It was the payoff. Tony is the one character really needed on Day 9 that isn’t here but if he was here, it’d be a very different story. I guess I’m saying that this isn’t the story I think should be the final bit of 24. 24 doesn’t come down to Cheng. It comes down to Tony and Kim and give me a goddamned Palmer already lol.

What? Before season 7, 24 was known for amazing special features. Maybe some DVD sets pack more in NOW, but back in the day no show did DVD features like 24 did. Remember, 24 set the precedent for TV on DVD releases.

Yes the DVD features are great. No one’s saying they’re not. I’m sure this will be a great scene. Just would have been nice if it was, like… a plot.

Tony was the only one people really wanted and all they gave us was a big screw you. Same with Pierce, and yet they couldn’t work another american in london in with Pierce? He’d be the easiest of all. Pathetic.

The conspiracy theorist in me wants to say that keeping Tony out of Day 9 was a ploy they could use to convince Fox to greenlight a Day 10. “See, the whole fandom was dying to see Tony again, but shoot we just couldn’t work him into Day 9 in a believable way, and now, especially after that little taste we gave them on the dvd, they’re DYYYIIINNNG to see more Tony. So can we make a Day 10 and give the fans what they’re BEGGING for, pretty please?”

I like your mind, Phee. :)

I think we all shot ourselves in the foot. The more we begged, the more they knew we’d wait. Bastards, the lot of ’em lol.

I feel so used! But if it results in a full season of Tony in the future, I’ll get over it. ;-)

I disagree about Cheng. He was a question I wanted answered since his memorable exit in Day 6. He was in fact one of the most glaring non-closures the series left us with in my opinion.

Closure for Cheng storyline = great.
Cheng as the end of 24 in what they’re billing as the end of Jack’s story = really?

IMO, 24’s got to go out on a grand scale. Cheng is not a grand scale, he’s an interesting chapter.

What’s ‘grand scale’ then?

Full circle. Back to the beginning. A focus on a smaller, family-oriented story. They’re halfway there with this idea of one generation dying off in Heller as Jack becomes a grandfather and Morgan and Ritter are the young agents. Not the exact same plot all over again but one with the original elements that brings the story back to where it started: Palmer family, a Teri, Kim, Tony. Los Angeles.

How is a smaller story more grand scale?

Grand scale on a symbolic level, not a ‘the plot is a third world war’ level.

Day 10? This is the end, dude.

I don’t think so will it’ll be back

What I don’t understand, is if Wilson was this all-powerful connected man who controlled a president and multiple military firms, then how is Tony still alive in prison after all this time? He shouldn’t have lasted an hour in there.

probably Tony is in some protective custody cell………he is a former govenment agent……maybe they separate federal agents/cop away from criminals

System Admin.
July 8, 2014 at 7:05 pm
I am wondering why they included Tony (in physical appearance or not) in the DVD extra, would it be some kind of a tease of season 10?
may be they would pick up what the Wilson story line left off and that’s why Tony is involved once again?
may be the people who worked with/ for Wilson come back again and targeting Tony and Jack this time (because they brought down Wilson, including Renee but she is gone already)

really looking forward to see that DVD extra!

I think it might be a Day 10 Prequel, too. Like, especially if they show it at ComicCon. Maybe they’re announcing Day 10 then and the Tony scene is like first hint of a plot. If so, maybe Carlos’ll be with them? That was a hilarious panel prior to Day 7. Repeat appearance! *nods enthusiastically*

there has to be some reason why they are doing Tony Almeida fate now and not before…….has to be teaser for day 10…….probably be in a prison with Tony and some XX person having a conversation about out of jail free card……and Jack Family will be harmed if he do not help them…..would Tony still care for Jack?

I think Tony’s always going to love Jack, even when he wants to rip his throat out in frustration. Hopefully, he’ll be a tad miffed about having been left to rot while Captain Hypocritical Moral Compass gets out of everything and uses his freedom to do fun things like being too depressed to move home with his family (oh, poor him, at least he has one!) and then going on a killing spree and causing a series of international incidents. Possibly now even a world war! *giggles* But then Jack will make his sad puppy face and Tony’ll feel bad and they’ll go save the world together again.

Yeah Jack is pretty much a hypocrite haha do as I say not as i do thing.

The extra may just lead into another 24 12 hour season with Tony as the lead. Doubtful. But i think it will lead into season 10. Just like all the little ones, cough car commercials cough, Jack had in between seasons.

And they really need to do something with the Wilson storyline, dropping that was the stupidest thing ever, rather watch Kim and the cougar then them just dropping that.

Renee broke him. What else is there to tell? His scheming brought us 2 seasons of plot.

Trepkos is the thread dangling more. Assuming Max was Nina’s German employer in season 1, Trepkos’s influence goes back to the beginning, and he was never caught.

I can’t believe I never considered Tony’s vulnerability with Wilson’s group! I’d say he knew that they would try and have him killed, so he exposed them in exchange for witness protection.

For the last five years he has been living under an alias, until Trepkos (the only associate of Wilson that wasn’t caught) tracks him down and calls Mandy. He orders her to assassinate Tony, and she complies.

Tony is gathering firewood at his house. He hears something suspicious in the bushes, and catches a glimpse of Mandy. As Mandy moves in with a gun, he suddenly grabs and disarms her. After Tony puts a bullet in Mandy’s leg, she tells him where Trepkos is, then Tony kills Mandy.

Trepkos goes into a bathroom after having a meal. Tony comes out of a stall and tells him that he has to die in order for Tony to be a free man. Tony kills Trepkos, locks him in a stall and leaves the bathroom with a relieved look on his face.

Can you write this as a story? You’ve hit two big 24 kinks of mine here: conspiracy-laden stories and Tony doing things like chopping firewood. Take note, 24 ;)

If Mandy will be involved trying to kill Tony in said firewood chopping scene, I feel like he should be doing it shirtless…ya know, for old time’s sake and consistency. ;-)

So, if Tony is gathering firewood, and then disarms Mandy, does he use the ax that’s most likely NEXT to the firewood to do it? …

“You cut off my arm! Why?!”

“You came here trying to kill me. Turnabout’s fair play. However, if you tell me where your boss is, I might reconsider.”

“Is that the best you have. HA!”

Tony shoots her in the leg.

“Nah. I’m just getting started.”

So, Tony pulls a Jack Bauer and tortures her for a bit, using hot knifes to cauterize the WORST of the bleeding to prolong it. Knowing full well that if he doesn’t she’d most likely bleed out LONG before giving up any useful information.

By the time Mandy finally breaks, her remaining fingers are as well. Broken, I mean. Tony stands and goes to clean all the blood off himself.

“So, will you let me live now?”

Tony thinks for all of about one second.

“No. I said I would reconsider letting you live. But you’re just too dangerous to have around.”

Tony, pulls a gun and shoots her in the head. He then burns the house down and slips off through the woods.

Dude, Renee “almost killed him”, and she lived to tell. Tony did almost nothing, plus, if Tony was murdered, it would raise suspicious towards Wilson, and he wouldn’t want that. I think Wilson, if he’s still able to think, loves the fact that Tony is rotting in prison forever, thinking everyday about what happened and how he wasn’t able to have his revenge.

Wilson seems to have lost his world-controlling mojo after Renee “almost killed him”, per the justice dept lady’s comments on Day 8. I like to picture him with an eyepatch shaking his cane at the world. ;) I think one day they may do a plot where he tries to regain his power so that they could actually develop his character a little more but that plot kind of requires Tony and there was no way they could push Jack to the dark side a little on Day 8 if Tony was around so Wilson’s been fridged for awhile.

I do wonder exactly how long Tony’s been in prison for. I feel like Allison Taylor was on his side at the end of Day 7 and might not have been inclined to put him in prison, particularly because he was the only one who could corroborate anything about Wilson and his group. I sort of feel like Tony was pardoned by Taylor and helped Jack escape after Day 8 and that’s why he’s in prison. If that’s the case, maybe he’s not in American prison. Maybe he was given to the Russians in lieu of Jack. Maybe he *is* going to pop up somehow at the end of this day, somehow. I find it weird that he’s going to be a scene on the DVD if he never turns up on Day 9 at all. It might be a Day 10 Prequel kind of thing, sure, but what’s the plot of the scene? It has to tell us more than Tony’s in prison. It has to be a mini-story or connected to someone from Day 9’s story for it to make any sense to be included on the DVD.

This is kind of a weird, yet creative way of telling us what happened to Tony. There was just no way they could put him in the current plot, and hopefully this will give us closure on one of our favorite characters.

It’s just kind of cheap storytelling unless it’s a segue into a story for him on Day 10. While I wouldn’t want to see his character relegated to a footnote in an overcrowded story like Day 9 has been, Tony Almeida is the one character on 24 who always, always, *always* makes the show better. For them to have relegated him to a DVD bonus feature while we sat through a day that climaxed with *unladylike word* Cheng is just ridiculous. This show went off the air for four years after a subpar final season and their idea of a triumphant return was to redo the worst season of the show ever. I like LAD well enough but somewhere in the last few hours it took a turn into a land where Audrey in peril is apparently now a shocking twist.

Palmers Ghost
July 8, 2014 at 7:19 pm
I’m really wondering if Mia Kirshner refuses to come back to 24 after Carlos Bernard’s prank. She probably deserves to be killed off more than any other character.

She apparently was in on it. They also considered having her back on Day 7 in what became the Cara Bowden role but they thought everyone would figure out Tony’s agenda too quickly if they saw he was working with her. Mandy is a very particular type of character. Use her too much and she becomes a cliche. They originally wanted her character to be a main character on Day 1 but if you take away some of her mystery, she becomes less interesting. Her appearances are specifically tied to the history of the main characters of the show and I think she’s been left out of it until she can have a highly symbolic type of return. Like, the next time someone comes gunning for Jack’s family on a revenge mission and we’re all hey, how Day 1 is all of this?!… Mandy will be around the corner.

Also? Apparently on the same AMA thing from where this Tony news comes from, the writers were asked if fans should have hope that Tony and/or Mandy would one day return and they said they want to go on record as saying that hope is a good thing.

So… read into that what you will… and by that I mean Mandy’ll probably be mentioned in the subtitles on a bonus feature of the Day 19 DVD lol

Yeah we need some resolve with the cabal/Wilson plot so hope this extra gives us that or a season 10 (which is unlikely)

I was really hoping to see Tony in LAD. He was my favorite 24 character for years and still is. Hopefully there will be some kind of a good conclusion for Tony that is interesting (and not just the usual “he was assassinated,” “he’s still in prison,” “he committed suicide,” ect.) Tony made a great “good guy,” but he also makes an excellent villain. If there is a season 10 (which I really hope there is), Tony should definitely be back.

Palmers Ghost
July 8, 2014 at 7:46 pm
I can accept Tonys Fate as being in prison forever, of course I thought the same thing about Cheng. Mandy just feels like the one villain that we know for sure got away with everything, being under Ctu’s radar was her main advantage however.

Tony is way too complicated and way too important to the overall story of 24 to have been relegated to prison for the rest of his life. He’s been fridged for awhile so that Jack could go bananas because Jack wouldn’t have gone bananas if he was around.

I also have a major Mandy hankering, too. She’s the best.

Loretta Lemos
July 8, 2014 at 7:48 pm
Big mistake! The writers are usually so creative that it is hard to believe they didn’t bring Tony back. My husband is still waiting to see him even though there is only one more episode left. They should have thought of some way to bring him back! Oh well.
We fans are clammering for another season even if Kiefer is not interested! C’mon producers.. make this work!

24 is all O denial, no climax. Not even at the finish lol.

Palmers Ghost
July 8, 2014 at 7:53 pm
If Wilson was alive and free, why wouldn’t he have had both Tony and Renee killed?

someone would eventually find a connection that he order the kill……..he might have money and is powerful but he won’t get away with it with Jack around

Wilson’s power came from the fact that he held a controlling interest in a dozen different defense contracting companies. He effectively controlled the military-industrial complex. If he was arrested and/or exposed, it would give those companies the power to boot him out of their companies. Without the Red Dots, Wilson really has no power at all.

If Tony Almeida is alive, there will be a Day 10 but I hate to wonder if he’s still going to be the bad guy like he was in Season Seven (Tony Almeida 2.0) the whole Jekyll/Hyde inside of him.

He wasn’t really the bad guy. He was the guy doing questionable things to take out the bad guys. It’s not so black and white as good or bad.

He kinda sorta stepped over the line into “bad” territory when he was all gung ho about framing an innocent man so they could orchestrate a biological attack on a bunch of innocent people. Yeah he had his reasons for taking it that far, but being motivated for a revenge kill of one person doesn’t really justify murdering a bunch of innocents. I felt for him because he was driven there by his heartbreak and torment, but boyfriend did turn bad for a bit there.

Yeah, like how he and Jack did with Kyle Singer on Day 3… both boyfriends be dark long time before Day 7 and Day 8/9. They were just nicer about it then.

Also he out right killed Larry and help blow up a bunch of FBI guys. So he definitely did bad things to get what he wanted.

Larry was already bleeding to death and his death was used by Tony to prove his scary merit to the kid who was going to wobble on giving him the last of the virus. Larry died for the mission. It wasn’t pretty but it was no less horrifying than its parallel scene– Jack shooting Ryan Chappelle in the back of the head. Jack also killed a bunch of his old CTU coworkers while undercover on Day 2 when he bombed CTU: LA, so really, there’s nothing on Day 7 that Tony does that Jack has never done. That even includes Kim. Because clearly Jack’s job has never put Kim at risk. *points at Day 1*

I’m not saying Tony was in a super-great state of mind on Day 7 or that he didn’t have some priorities that weren’t entirely about the greater good (more like greater good plus kill bastard who killed his family.) But this is no different than Jack and it doesn’t make him evil. He’s *never* been evil. Tony on Day 7 is ultimately so shocking to people because he’s the most human of all the characters and the voice of reason and conscience for so long that to see him take a darker turn is jarring. But that doesn’t mean what he did still wasn’t a lot more grey than black.

True, Larry was already dying and he seemed remorseful for doing it. But he still did it. Jack was ordered to kill Chappelle, Tony did it on his own. I’d say a better comparison would be Curtis, Jack didn’t have to kill him, but he did that on his own.

Also true about Jack blowing up CTU. I guess the only distinct difference is Jack was stopping the plot for country and blah blah, Tony was doing it for himself. The great good came second, he did it when it suited him, but when it didn’t, the whole virus release thing, he let it happen to get Wilson. Put his agenda first.

There was a lot of grey indeed, he wasn’t some bad guy like Marwan. He just had enough of Wilson and his shit and was going to get him no matter what.

Jack did many things for himself, killing Drazin, Henderson, Nina, and a bunch of russians. So he is a hypocrite, especially with Nina, he got to have his revenge on her, but nope, Tony wasn’t allowed.

In the end it just took Jack longer to wake up and realize he is no different I think. Was all self righteous, in a way, until season 8.

That’s great to here I wonder depending on the ending we get I guess if they’ll fill in a gap with Jack also. To give the ending kinda of a bridge….. For a possible season 10 if they decide to return. sense they were there threw june….. lol as far as Tony those pics don’t look like a prison look. His look in season 7 looks more like a prison look.

Actually, it looks like Victor Drazen meets Jack in China.

Day 10 should feature not only Almeida, but also Pierce, Mandy and Mike Novick as the president

I’m a big Tony Almeida fan, but honestly, what’s the point in putting in the DVD the supposed fate of Tony Almeida. With the exception of Chloe and Jack, Tony is the most popular character in 24 and they dropped the ball in LAD . Instead they bring back Cheng and Audrey . Who gives a flying s___t about Cheng !!! They couldn’t work him into the plot ?? Please, they’ve done crazier plot twists than bringing back Tony Almeida .
Unfortunately from the way Kiefer is whining about being too old this was the last of 24 .
They really could have made this season incredible but in my humble opinion it was pretty good but not great .

I think the writers have made the right decision to excluding Tony from Season 8 and LAD.

His story has been told, there is nothing else really for the character to do. He certainly cannot have any redmeption after Season 7.

Brilliant, brilliant character and he made Season 7 for me though.

Wow, you lack some serious imagination. :) I can think of at least four different scenarios for Tony off the top of my head. Tony is such an important character that entire seasons feature parallels and allusions to him when he is not even in the day. His story is not over.

What was the point in bringing back Audrey?
She is so boring .

Big time boring.

Agreed.

Heller looks far too old to be believable as president too.

Ronald Reagan?

They already said he’s still is prison, so I wonder what ‘more’ we’ll find out. They also said Martha Logan is alive. Hmm.

But regarding Tony, I was one of the few people that were worried about him getting the death penalty or hanging himself. It’s not like he had anything to live for. To realistically keep Tony in prison, they would have to put him on constant supervision and suicide watch. And someone like Tony could outsmart them eventually.

But if they say he’s still alive and there will be more to be revealed, they must know and are taking his fate very seriously.

Would Tony end up in a mental institution?

Was he unhinged in Season 7?

There’s a scenario wherein Day 7 actually resulted in giving Tony something to live for that would also give him a reason (besides just being a delightfully stubborn SOB) for killing himself. It would be kind of the absolute epitome of 24 irony and a few clues to that end have been dropped in Days 8 and 9 (particularly 8.) It would also explain why they’d give us a Tony scene on the Day 9 DVD but this didn’t happen on, say, the Day 8 DVD, when people were clamoring for Tony just as much back then, even though they told us flat-out he wouldn’t be in Day 8. (Of course he couldn’t be because Jack doesn’t go crazy if Tony’s around and they needed Jack to go crazy.) For this to really make any sort of sense as a DVD extra, it has to follow the events of the previous day and/or set up the next day, like all between seasons prequels/debriefs have in the past. Theoretically, they’re suggesting with this scene on the DVDs that the events of Day 9 having an impact on Tony being in prison. As much as I’ve just spent like 15 above posts snarking about how long it’s been since we’ve seen his character on the show, this extra existing actually gives me some hope that my theory about what exactly happened to him might be more or less accurate. Should anyone care, I could type it up later. Maybe uh three paragraphs. But I’ve got some watermelon-basil-feta salad with my name on it right now.

That should read a reason *NOT* to kill himself.

If Jack hands himself over to American authorities in the finale and rejects the Pesidential Pardon, he’ll be sent to prison.

Jack Bauer and Tony Almeida as prison mates?

What’s your theory on Almeida? I’d love to read it

Micah Mahaffey
July 10, 2014 at 4:11 am
You know what…? I think if Keifer doesn’t come back for another season that a season with Tony as the lead could actually work really well! Imagine Tony calling all the shots and with his past he has plenty of layers and dynamics to take over as the main hero! But of course Id rather just have another seasons with Jack Bauer kicking some @$$!

The only possible leads for this series other than Jack were/are Tony, Chase Edmunds, Curtis Manning, (but he’s dead now) and Aaron Pierce, (in some kind of 24: Secret Service spinoff, maybe?)

No Jack = No 24.
Do not be a doucher and say otherwise.

Same for me No Jack = No watch
And if Kiefer doesn’t want to play Jack anymore, to do another masterpiece like Pompeii :)..bring another actor !

Keep in mind that Tony went to prison for many different crimes, one being for the 1st degree murder of Larry Moss, a federal agent who ran the Washington D.C. office of the FBI. There is no possibility of a pardon other than one possible scenario, if 24 returns for a season 10 with Jack.
Jack could say that he has been in contact with Tony over the last 4-5 years and Tony is extremely remorsefulfor his actions in season 7, and has truly seen the errors of his ways. Jack would be put in a position where he is asked to come out of retirement to help stop a manor terrorist attack. Jack would agree to do so ONLY if Tony was granted a TEMPORY presidential pardon in order to help Jack. This is the only way I see a logical return for Tony, and it is a stretch. However, I think the entire point is a moot one, for I think that the chances of 24 returning for a 10th season are nill. A friend of mine is a TV writer and he told me in May that Howard Gordon said that 24 LAD is absolutely it for the series. I beleive him.

IF your friend is to be believed, all it could mean is 24 LAD is absolutely it for Howard Gordon. In which case, thank fuck for that!

Alright (err “a’right” ;)), here’s the Tony idea. It wound up a whole thing and is on the long side so if you don’t need an argument for why Tony could have gone free after Day 7 in order to roll with what could have happened to him beyond that, you can skip down to the underlined line and go from there, as that’s the bulk of the theory. Cheers for reading.

In order for it to make sense for there to be a scene on the DVD that tells us more about Tony, Day 9 almost has to have had an effect on his story. There also has to be something that, well, happens in the DVD scene, as I really doubt they filmed five minutes of Tony staring at his cell wall. If you go backwards off of this, there’s a way Day 9 actually gets Tony out of prison.

What we’re all assuming is that Tony went to prison following Day 7 but the show actually never tells us that he did and, instead, suggests subtly that he may have been free up to and including the events of Day 8. Technically, we never saw Tony get arrested. Even in the final splitscreen where we see him for the last time to date in canon, we (likely intentionally) cannot see his hands. He’s sitting there looking despondent but he’s been given medical attention (no shirt, arm in a sling) and someone’s been nice enough to drape their overcoat over his shoulders. The way it is filmed, however, makes it so we can’t see whether or not his hands are cuffed and the background is completely black, making it impossible to tell where, exactly, he is. The last shots of Tony on both Days 3 and 7 are structurally the same with the pertinent details altered. On Day 3, he’s clearly there in handcuffs in holding. On Day 7, his hands are off-camera and the background is black, leaving him in the state of perpetual question mark that he’s been in ever since.

There’s also that, as far as I can remember, no one involved with the production of the show said *where* Tony was between Days 7 and 8. They’ve only just said in the last few days that he’s in prison. Prior to Fury, Katz, and Coto all saying in the last few days that there is where Tony is, we technically didn’t know where he was. All they said about Tony’s character between Days 7 and 8 was that they got that we wanted him back but that he wouldn’t be in Day 8– something they told us flat-out prior to Day 8 beginning, just as they also told us that Logan would return. (Which… instantly made a lot of people realize that Day 8 wasn’t going to be Shiny Happy Sunshine Day. When Jack’s soul has gone AWOL and Beezlebub returns, things ain’t lookin’ too good for Jack.) Anyway, the point is that no one ever actually said Tony was in jail after Day 7, they just said he wasn’t going to pop into the Day 8 story, which totally made sense because Jack had to go to the dark side a bit as a character and he wouldn’t have gone there if Tony had been around.

Also keep in mind that President Taylor at the end of Day 7 had just lost two kids to Alan Wilson with Olivia’s arrest and that she was in Tony’s same boat. Alan Wilson was the man behind the people who murdered her son. In Allison’s last scene on Day 7, she says to Ethan “His name is Alan Wilson!” in this “let’s go get the bastard!” tone of voice and seems determined to do whatever is necessary to do so. In the meantime? Renee locks herself into the interrogation room with Wilson and tortures him. She “almost killed” him, according to Day 8, and we can imagine he was in pretty rough shape after she was done with him, considering we’ve seen her rage issues. Since she and Tony both escaped any retaliation from Wilson, it’s likely that the guy might be so bad off that he’s virtually a vegetable at this point. This leaves Tony as the only person left alive as of the end of Day 7 with any information on Wilson’s associates and any plans the group had in-progress. He didn’t know everything but he knew enough to be valuable to Allison Taylor, whose life Tony helped to save on Day 7 with his White House attack tip. Not to mention that he outed hundreds of moles within the federal government. People have been pardoned for a lot worse crimes on 24 than Day 7 Tony. Let’s say that in exchange for Wilson cabal info, Taylor pardons Tony and he goes free.

Like their strongest parallel on Day 7 (the Taylors), Tony and Jack “get divorced” between Days 7 and 8. They’re both a little miserable but can barely look at one another over how completely awfully they both behaved, so they each go their own way. This results in Jack doing pro-active things like napping while he’s supposed to be babysitting and loafing around like an aging beatnik in his Hotel Chelsea penthouse. But, at the onset of Day 8, what happens to Jack? He gets a little love letter from his other half when a guy from the Salazar mission shows up at his front door with (unbeknownst to Jack) a pocketful of (Sangalan blood?) diamonds and tells Jack exactly who Jack is– that he’s “the guy who always does the right thing.” Oh, and this guy’s last name is pronounced “a ruse.” (Oh, and Jack ignored the living hell out of this accurate statement for the rest of the day. Next time, Tony, send flowers.) On a day where the main theme is Arlo’s “Who is Jack Bauer?” question from 8.01 that ends with Logan comically gasping in cartoon villain-esque horror “THAT’S JACK BAUER!” in 8.24, the question is really answered by the Tony-proxied, professional identity forger Victor Aruz, who showed up in 8.01. Jack Bauer is the guy who always does the right thing. Even when his story arc on Day 8 is about him ignoring that truth and making a series of colossally terrible decisions. None of which he would have made if his relationship with Tony wasn’t going through a messy and kinda broken stage. (See also: Allison Taylor telling Ethan on Day 8 that she’s trying to get world peace not just because it’s an awesome thing but because it’s what she and Henry used to stay up nights dreaming about. Yeah, Allie… Henry’s really proud of all the great choices you made on Day 8…)

There are a couple of other moments on Day 8 that also suggest Tony was not in prison, including a comment on Jack’s life made by Renee, but to get into them here is a whole other thing on Tony and family and irony and Day 7, so just roll with the Allison Taylor and Victor Aruz suggestions above because here’s where we get to the real meat of it all: when Tony did go to prison.

Following Day 8, Jack is desperate and has to get out of the country. While he would never have called Tony to help with his revenge spree (because he knew Tony would talk him out of it, uber-ironically), he now can contact him for help because what’s Tony going to say? Not like he hasn’t been there, done that. Tony owes Jack one and Jack is desperate and there’s also a whole conspiracy here that Tony would be happy to help screw over, so he helps Jack flee to Eastern Europe. Document and identity forging, money, plane tickets, etc.. All stuff Tony could do in his sleep. (Plus, it’s hilarious: Tony sent Jack an identity forger from their secret mission as a message, Jack ignored said message and went crazy, and now he needs Tony to forge him a new identity so he can go start a new life like it’s a nightmarish version of the end of Day 4.)

So, now, both Chloe and Tony are culpable for helping Jack following Day 8…

…and Chloe is totally screwed. She and Morris don’t have a lot of money (something mentioned canonically in early Day 8 when Chloe talks to Renee) and they are shown to have few options for people who could help them during Chloe’s Arrest, when their best chance is Morris’ ambulance chaser lawyer acquaintance who might know a good defense attorney. The minimum sentence for aiding and abetting a federal fugitive per the FBI guy who arrests Chloe is fifteen years. On Day 9, Kate reads from Chloe’s file that Chloe spent time in prison for helping Jack escape after Day 8. But Chloe herself tells Jack a story of domestic bliss gone wrong, where she was at work when Morris picked Prescott up from soccer practice and they were killed. The little boy that Chloe sees at the train station looks barely older or taller than Prescott did during Chloe’s Arrest– maybe a year or so older– implying that this is what Prescott looked like when he died, making him maybe seven, if that. So a max of two years after Day 8 when the accident happened. As of Day 9, Chloe’s been with Open Cell for at least a couple of years, per her relationship with Adrian and the group. In four and a half short years, Chloe has served a prison sentence, gone home, found and started working at another job, lost her family in a tragic accident, and spent at least a couple of years with an anti-government group. For this to work, Chloe couldn’t have spent more than around 18 months in prison and maybe not more than a few months. How did a fifteen year sentence become a year and a half or less? Tony.

After helping Jack after Day 8, Tony turns himself into the FBI and cuts a deal to get Chloe a greatly reduced sentence while agreeing to take the fall for both of them. For Tony, it’s for having owed Chloe one, even if he was kind of just trying to protect her on Day 7 by leaving her out of his end game plans, and it’s also karmic repayment for what he did on Day 7. He lost his family and sought out revenge– something that Jack and Chloe both subsequently do after Tony does– and his way of making it right is to save Chloe the way he couldn’t save his own family. His wife and son were murdered but after revenge failed and he was able to see that it didn’t change anything, Tony’s on the other side of that pain and begins to use it for good. He won’t let Morris lose his wife or Prescott grow up without a mother or Chloe not to be able to see her son, so he gets them to greatly reduce Chloe’s prison time to a slap on the wrist and takes the hit for her. (This idea is also paralleled/foreshadowed a bit by Morris on Day 7 when he cuts a Jack-related deal with the FBI in order to free Chloe. Chloe and Morris are extreme versions of Jack and Tony and a pair of major paralleling characters to their story. Switching tactics from revenge to trying to do something good with the pain is also akin to what Jack has been doing the last 11 months with his position in Rask’s organization and also now on Day 9 with trying to save the Hellers. It also ties into Day 9 themes like “making it right”: Boudreau has to make it right with his family, Jack has to make it right with the Hellers, Chloe has to make it right for helping to create the override device, Kate has to make it right with helping to stop Cheng because she failed to see what was going on with Navarro. Everyone’s a traitor in some form or another (to their government, to their spouse, to their principles, etc) and they all seek to make it right. This Tony idea is also full-circle back as far as Chloe and Tony on Day 3 when, ironically, it was Chloe who was the least empathetic to what Tony went through to save his wife on that day. On the other side of Michelle’s death, Tony winds up back in prison… to help Chloe and her family.)

So, Chloe goes home after a super-minimal sentence, and starts her life over with a new job and her family, before an accident kills Morris and Prescott. It’s because of Tony, though, that Chloe got time with them that she wouldn’t have if she had been behind bars. Meanwhile, the Heller administration can’t do anything to help the guy who volunteered to take the hit for everyone involved in this sticky international crisis Jack left in his wake, other than maybe to help make Tony’s sentence not the maximum, so Tony was probably looking at fifteen or so years behind bars. Having saved Audrey’s life probably got him some brownie points (and would also continue to tie Day 9 back into Day 4, which the Hellers + suicide theme + jihadists + Audrey’s husband + drones have done pretty spectacularly already.)

Jack, meanwhile, has been on the run, and he probably has no idea that any of this ever happened. (It would be helpful, since someone has to explain it to the audience at some point, which means they have to say it all out loud, which means someone doesn’t know and needs to be told. Jack makes the most sense here.) Because Chloe’s story about the death of her family (curiously) didn’t mention that it had happened after she’d been released from prison, it would seem like she doesn’t want to mention to Jack the fact that she was ever in prison. (Especially since because the moment she does, Tony would have to be revealed as the reason why she’s not in prison any longer, so the writers are just not having the characters chat about it until they want to reveal it.) Since Jack has said nothing about it to anybody and we the audience were told it happened but not given an explanation for how Chloe is now out, they could be holding off on that explanation until it comes up in Tony-related discussion either in the finale (Katz & Coto on Reddit AMA thing implied there might be mention of him then) and/or in the DVD extra scene.

Best of all is how this fits into the DVD extra scene existing post-Day 9 in the first place. If Tony’s been in prison since post-Day 8 for aiding and abetting a federal fugitive in Jack, then what happened a few hours ago to the charges against Tony when President Heller decided that Jack is no longer a federal fugitive and gave him a Presidential pardon? The U.S. government no longer has any grounds to hold Tony in prison. They can’t keep him in there for aiding and abetting a guy they’re no longer saying is a federal fugitive. Keep in mind that, as of the end of 9.11, Chloe doesn’t know that Jack’s been pardoned. Jack hasn’t told anyone about it yet. If he mentions it to Chloe, she help him to realize that there’s a bigger, overall plot reason why Jack had to wind up with a pardon…

Cut to Day 9 DVD Extra Scene: Tony goes free.

If there’s never any more canon, then the story for Tony becomes he saved Chloe and took the hit for Jack by going back to prison. The cost of Jack’s revenge spree became the freedom of his formerly revenge-spreeing other half and Jack’s actions on Day 9 that begin to lead him back to his old sense of self also free his soul Tony in the process. If there’s a Day 10, then they just explained why Tony’s been benched for awhile while everyone else went bananas, as well as unlocked the door– literally– to bringing him back.

Send this to HoGo!

Palmers Ghost
July 12, 2014 at 1:59 pm
I’m under the impression Cara Bowden knew who all the red dots were, so if Tony hadn’t murdered here , she probably would have given them up for some kind of deal. She seemed more like a mercenary motivated by money than by ideology.

24marathonman
July 13, 2014 at 9:00 pm
What would make sense is a series of “closure” seasons where one by one all the open ends left in s1-s8 are given closure.. S9 closure on Cheng, Heller, and Audrey. S10 – how about closure on Tony and Mandy (after all they have a history together). S11 – closure on the s7 cabal of anonymous conspirators. S12- ? etc.

That’s a good idea, I think S-12 would be closure on Jack.

I want to say this was a good season. They seem intent on shutting all story lines. If memory serves right Chang was still a question mark. Plus the Russians, so if u want to reboot and get a new target audience u have to start over. They told a new story with new characters and closed remaining plot holes. Still for a limited run I got the feeling that it was very open ended. The shows ratings where good enough to bring it back. I think the Tony storyline would be a season 10 story he’s the only character besides chole still left. Fox is a toss up though they may say hey we can make more money on this. Or hey good run but no. So really its up to them. I’m sure if us fans show our support 24 will see another day cause that final was way too open ended

Tony in Season 10, I’m believe! Go Tony, go save Jack in Russia!!!

Fazil's Beard
July 16, 2014 at 2:46 am
It just hit me. I wondered How Tony could possibly be connected to Day 9 such that the writers thought it appropriate to include him in an extra scene for the DVD. Now I have a prediction:

Mark Boudreau meets Tony in prison.

What does everyone/anyone else think?

That’s a pretty good prediction actually. But it seems like it is just Tony, no other characters that the scene involves

Fazil's Beard
July 16, 2014 at 4:32 pm
Thanks.

And it doesn’t say that no other characters will be involved, it just doesn’t say that any other characters will be involved, unless you’ve seen something I haven’t?

Good point. And as the information about an update on Tony was released before the finale, they couldn’t say it would include e.g Mark because the audience haven’t found out what has happened to him yet,

The end of 24 LOD left us with a cliff hanger!

Bring me back damn it!

Restie Magallanore
August 7, 2014 at 8:34 pm
Will 24 live anothere day coming back?

The only thing to bring Tony back for is to kill him. He passed the Moral Event Horizon back in day 7.

Tony is confirmed in DVD extra??