Tuesday, April 14, 2009

24 Season 7: Tony Almeida Evil? Not So Fast!

Remember this scene from end of the 9PM-10PM hour:
Tony: Yeah.
Jack: Tony, it’s Jack.
Tony: Jack, I’ve been monitoring the FBI bandwidth. What the hell’s goin’ on?
Jack: Listen to me, I need your help. Where are you?
Tony: 3rd Street and B.
Jack: OK, listen to me, I need you to meet me at the Port of Alexandria. I need you to bring our weapons and a surveillance package. Get there as soon as possible.
Tony: Jack, wait.
Jack: I can’t. I’ll get back to you as soon as I’m en route.

(Special thanks to AlmeidaIsGod[dot]com for the verbatim transcript).

The red text is key here. Jack tells Tony about the Port of Alexandria, and this immediately makes Tony say "wait." That line always stuck out to me but now it's starting to make sense.

Tony wanted the weapon all along. And it's likely that Tony knew of the bioweapons coming into the Port before Jack even called him. So, what do you think Tony was thinking when he told Jack to wait? Was he going to tell Jack something about those weapons before Jack cut him off? Was Tony initially willing to fill-in Jack on this separate agenda?

Think of it this way- Tony never wanted Starkwood to have the weapon. He went way out of his way to blow up Starkwood's supply (for what we thought were the obvious reasons at the time). So, is Tony working with/for someone else? Why does he want the weapon? These questions will be answered, but until then we cannot assume Tony is evil. He certainly was not in league with Starkwood. There's an unknown player or group involved, I'm betting. Killing Larry Moss is bad (I think he's really dead, but I know a lot of you think he and Tony staged it on the fly). But if Tony is wrapped up in something more dangerous, Moss' death may have been a necessary evil. Let's wait and see.

18 comments:

Kasia said...

I'm starting to wonder whether the mysterious "contact" first mentioned in Episode 7, and then again as a foundation for Tony's intel on the White House attack even existed at all. If he is working with another group with some other as-yet-undefined agenda, it's possible they had moles in Starkwood, who knew about Burnett. We already know the man Tony hooked up with at the end of the episode was working with Tony and betraying Starkwood. Perhaps he got the intel that way, knowing that if they distracted Jack and the FBI with the White House stuff, they would have room to make a play for the weapon.

TheJackSack said...

You clarify a good point- there definitely was some breach within Starkwood based on Tony's co-culprit at the end of the last episode. Now that guy had no problem killing an FBI Agent, so we can assume he's not a member of the good guys club. And if Tony is associated with that type of guy, then we have to assume that whatever group that's out there is probably not friendly either.

So, maybe Tony is going for the really big fish. Either that or Tony is evil. I'll stick to the former until told otherwise.

Anonymous said...

I'm sticking with my original contention (remember?) that Tony's been deep undercover all along, since s-5, when a high govt. official recruited him into a small task force to track this group, based on info Palmer had shared with him; the same info he had tried to tell Martha about. (And I think the high govt. guy could be Ethan.)

Ivan said...

That's a pretty good theory and it would be an awesome comeback for Kanin.

Squish said...

Who knows what Tony's up to now? But yeah, how could he have known about the other terrorist attack without intel from someone else. What motives could he have for wanting the weapon though?

Though I'm wondering if he is trying to redeem himself as much as he can because of the things he did in Emerson's crew by keeping undercover and going for the "big fish" as Adam nicely put it. Sure he's still angry with the government, but he's still Tony. Tony is not a psychopath. He doesn't betray his friends. In the interview Carlos Bernard was saying that Tony played Bill and Chloe, but never said if it was in a good way or an evil way. So I'm keeping a little bit of faith and if he is really evil, well that throws all my theory out the window hehe.

TONYJUNKIE - I reckon that could be another theory, it explains why he would do everything he did. Perhaps Ethan Kanin was Tony's way back in to trusting the government again?? After all, Ethan was the one who allowed Jack to interrogate Burnett behind the president's back so he could very well be in with Tony and would've known about the threat. Maybe Tony is/was his intel? I don't know.. We'll see. I would hate to see it if Tony really is evil and Jack has to kill him. That would completely ruin 24 for me. So, here's to keeping a little faith. C'mon, faith!

Also, I agree with Adam on this : Larry's dead. Though Tony may or may not have killed him properly, he prolly bled to death. In the episode 19 preview, you can clearly see blood coming out his mouth, and Renee is upset. Sadly, I'm 99.9% certain Moss is pushing up daisies. (Not supposed to be a flowery joke..) But who knows. I'm purely speculating. I just hope Tony is still good. I coverted to Almeidaism at the start of this season. I hope it was not in vain.

jay toby said...

TJ-

It would be a terrific way to have Ethan return this season. What if throughout all those Oval Office meetings Noah Daniels and Jonas Hodges had, that Daniels realized Jonas was getting too crazy, and would not like once Taylor took office.

I know Daniels doesn't know Tony and don't know why he would contact him to be his super-mole deep-cover, but what do you think of it being Noah Daniels?

Brian Pelts said...

I'd be cool with it being Noah Daniels. Anything that gets more Curly Bill Brocius on my TV is aces in my book.

JustABill said...

I'm wondering if Tony and Olivia are in cahoots.

JustABill said...

And I kinda had a feeling that Daniels might be involved as well.

TheJackSack said...

I would love to see Daniels return- all this talk makes me think I should re-watch his scenes with Taylor from REDEMPTION.

And as for Tony, the rumor is he has a love interest. Could it be Olivia? I hope not, that would be disturbing...

Squish said...

Olivia?! That would be very disturbing indeed. I wonder how he could know her. He prolly does know her somehow, I just haven't been paying attention. Could it be Kim?

Unknown said...

I could buy him working with someone who isn't Starkwood. But I think they've committed to making him evil. If they don't kill him off (either by having Jack or Renee kill him), Season 8 is going to be 24: The Hunt for Tony Almeida.


Best case scenario, they've turned Tony into Alex Krycek.

Brian Pelts said...

Also, worst case scenario...they've turned him into Alex Krycek.

Damn you, crappy last few seasons of X-Files.

AgentRez said...

I think people are reading too much into when Tony said "Jack, wait". He probably just wanted to know more about why Jack wanted him to meet him there...Jack hardly told him anything, other than "bring a weapons and surveillance package".

I want Tony to be good as much as everyone and I have actually considered the possibility that he is in fact trying to infiltrate someone and Jack knows about it, but the preview and sneak peak clips definitely don't support that theory. It looks like he had someone inside Starkwood helping him but on behalf of someone other than Jack and the FBI. Maybe he works for a rival company or something like that.

TheJackSack said...

AgentRez-

I think you're correct- the subsequent previews, etc. for next week show that Tony is not "faking" being a bad guy. And I think having a few days to absorb last Monday's episode helped. I'm mentally prepared for this new twist- but at the same time they better have Tony going bad make sense. There's some explaining that needs to be done, and it ain't just "Tony did it for the money."

Peter said...
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Peter said...
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Peter said...

According to IMDB, in episode 21, on May 4, both Henry Taylor and Ethan Kanin will return. Noah Daniels is not set to appear in any episodes. Larry Moss will be in this week's episode, but no more.

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