Tony Almeida

I'm going geek speak now.

Last night I came home to find a message for me on Facebook regarding a trailer for the new series of 24. Now, people who watch will be familiar with this, as for the people who don't, well, you should be watching - there are no excuses.

Tony Almeida played by Carlos Bernard started life on 24 as a bit of an asshole type character. Him and Jack Bauer played by Kiefer Sutherland did not get on at all,
A) because they had both porked the same co-worker (not each other)
B) because they were both alpha males
C) because Jack broke the rules while Tony followed them
During the course of Day One, Tony grew to identify with and help assist Jack Bauer, and by the time Day Two hit, they had grown to respect each other. By Day Three they were friends, by Day Four they were best friends, and then by Day Five Tony was abruptly killed in a halfway point episode that shocked a legion of 24 fans.

I myself was relatively expecting his demise, since they had killed off everyone else from previous seasons. He dies in Jack's arms, in an unspoken moment of homoerotic love, and as Jack breaks down into tears, Tony slips away into the unknown. Now... two years and one and a half seasons later, Tony returns to 24. How? Nobody knows. Half the people who believed he was still alive have now been vindicated after so much lambasting from those who believed he was dead. A trailer online finally validates the theory that he never died and now Tony is back... as a villain by the looks of it. The 24 writers always start their seasons strong, but unfortunately right around the halfway mark everything falls apart, so here's hoping the return of Almeida will deliver the required thrills and spills.

I was so fucking shocked and surprised, it felt like I was in a really bizarre wet-dream. I woke up today and had to double check that it really happened. It did. I am happy. I am very excited. I think this should go a long way to making up for some terrible decisions made in the latter half of Season 6. Tony has always been one of the best characters, and now he gets a rebirth in one of the most exciting tv shows on American television.

I told you it was gonna get geeky.

UPDATED EDIT: The writer's strike pushed back 24 season seven's airing by like a whole year. Bummer.