Tuesday, April 14, 2009

"24" Day 7, 1AM - 2AM: Tony Goes Bad?

All photos from Fox

I have been trying very hard to stay “spoiler free’ for this season of ”24” (Fox), which has helped the season seem a little more exciting to me. Despite that fact, it seems there have been little surprises for me. Maybe since I’ve been watching this series since Day 1, and Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) has some very predictable behaviors, nothing has happened that seems unexpected.
That was until last night. It seems in the wee hours, Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) has gone over to the dark side.

Last night’s episode revolved around a meeting that President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones) is forced to have with business executive and terrorist, Jonas Hodges (Jon Voight) and his sidekick Greg Seaton (Rory Cochrane). It seems that Hodges wants a “seat at the table”, in fact, he seems to want THE seat at the table and the table along with it. His recent act of terrorism was his proof that he and his company needs more control with the military, and it was also his bargaining chip in the blackmail.

What Hodges doesn’t realize, is that despite the fact Jack Bauer has been exposed to the fatal toxin and his brain and body are starting to feel the effects, Jack is still on the job, trying to save his country. Likewise, his cohort Tony is still on the premises of Starkwood, Hodges’ company, and Tony thinks he can detonate an explosive to destroy the fuel tanks that is fueling the missile Hodges threatens to launch, carrying the deadly toxin. Jack successful convinces the President to let Tony blow up the tanks, which would render Hodges’ threats useless, and the President agrees – but not officially. Jack and the FBI must run the operation covertly in order to protect the President in the event their plan fails.

Meanwhile, the show takes a concerning turn when Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert) returns to see her father. I call it a concerning turn as Kim Bauer is one of those people I hoped never to see again on 24, because besides bad acting, bad storylines follow her. I was glad to see her father rebuff her – at least it seems for now – because I don’t want her to come back. Somehow I feel we have not seen the last of her.


While Hodges is trying to strong-arm President Taylor, Seaton looks on. Something about Seaton still seems wrong to me. He doesn’t seem completely comfortable with how this is going down. And when Hodges complements Seaton for his previous diversion, something tells me that Seaton is not completely on Hodges side.

Despite the fact that Tony runs into some interference which causes him to drop the detonator into a grate of some sort, he manages to grab it at the last minute and blow up the fuel tanks. While I am cheering, I am wondering what else the show has up its sleeve, since we have a few more hours remaining in Jack’s day. We get a glimpse of problems to come after the President is notified that Hodges’ fuel tanks have been destroyed, and the missile with them, and Hodges and Seaton are arrested. Hodges makes a threat that it’s not over until it’s over – that there are other bigger and badder people out there that won’t take kindly to these events.

When President Taylor congratulates Jack on a job well done, his health is beginning to falter. But he has enough strength to ask the President to consider the fact the Tony was the man who blew up the fuel tanks, and she should keep this in mind when Tony is taken in to answer for Tony's previous crimes. As Agent Larry Moss (Jeffrey Nordling) takes Tony into custody, Larry expresses his thanks to Tony. But their celebrations are all cut short when word gets out that someone has managed to kill two agents and escape from Starkwood with a canister of the deadly toxin. While Agent Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) works at the FBI offices to help shut down the escape routes, Larry makes chase in a helicopter, and since he was bringing Tony in to the FBI, Tony is also with him. When they catch up with the man and his canister, the helicopter lands and they are met with gunfire, the helicopter pilot being killed. As Tony and Larry try to gain cover, there is still heavy fire, and Larry is shot. Things take a shocking turn as the gunman with the canister approaches, his gun ready to fire, and as Larry tries to warn Tony, Tony seems unphased. Larry can’t seem to understand why Tony isn’t more concerned; that’s until Tony decides that Larry isn’t dying fast enough from the gunshot wound, and Tony begins to choke him.

Now that’s cold.

As Tony squeezes the life out of Larry Moss, Larry’s face turns to horror as he seems to realize that not only is he going to die, but maybe countless others as Tony seems to have been a traitor in waiting all along.

As I wonder about this twist – Tony going bad and murdering someone in such a cold fashion – I remind myself that this is “24” and there could be endless ways that this scenario could eventually play out. For example, if Tony really has gone over to the dark side, he will likely end up dead before the season is over. But, maybe there is a rational explanation for Tony’s actions. After all, the infiltrators in the FBI may not have all been flushed out. Could Larry have been one of the bad guys? Did Tony kill him for that, and also to further infiltrate Hodges’ organization to find out who really is pulling all the strings? Did Tony fake Larry's death in order to further infiltrate the group and give Larry a chance to live? Does Tony have another dark agenda that we are not privy to? With “24” anything is possible.



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