How 24 Explained Tony Almeida’s Resurrection (& Why It Didn’t Work)

Following Tony Almeida’s “death” in 24 season 5, he was later resurrected – here’s why his glorious revival made little sense. While Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer is the star of the 24 franchise, the character was surrounded by a great supporting cast. From the gravitas of Dennis Haysbert’s President David Palmer to the sheer oddness of tech wiz Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub), it wasn’t just a one man show.

One of the longest-serving – and surviving – cast members was Carlos Bernard as Jack’s fellow CTU agent Tony Almeida. Tony started as something of a rival to Jack in the first season of 24 to becoming one of his closest allies. Tony also weathered a lot of drama, from going rogue several times to cover for Jack, surviving a gunshot to the neck and being forced to work with a terrorist who kidnapped his wife, which led to a stint in prison.

It appeared Tony’s days on 24 were done in season 5. After surviving an explosion that killed his wife Michelle, he later attempted to kill Christopher Henderson – the man who ordered her death – with a lethal injection, only for Henderson to stab him with the needle instead. Tony later died in Jack Bauer’s arms and was last seen being zipped up in a body bag. Fans noted that the typical silent clock on 24, which was used to mark the passing of a major character, wasn’t used, which to some signified his possible survival. He later returned in season 7 – but the explanation for his miraculous recovery wasn’t very satisfying.

24 season 7 saw Jack tasked by the FBI to find Almeida after he and his mercenary team stole an important gadget. Jack eventually learns that after Tony’s body was wheeled off in season 5, mercenaries had been sent to CTU by Henderson to revive Almeida and extract him so he could later be used against Jack. Apparently Henderson (played by RoboCop’s Peter Weller) “missed” Tony’s artery intentionally so that the injection slowed his heart to the point of looking dead, and he was brought back by the mercenary team after being dead for ten minutes.

While the explanation in the moment doesn’t make much sense, it makes even less under a bright light. Tony knew that Henderson killed his wife and he even “died” trying to murder him, so why Henderson would think he could turn Tony against Jack is questionable. While the villain may have already had a mercenary team in place in CTU to pull him out, how he managed to explain that he faked Almeida’s death and they had to immediately retrieve his body, revive it with a specific compound and pull it out without anyone noticing is even worse.

After being dead for ten minutes, even if Tony had been brought back he would likely be left brain dead too. This 24 explanation to Jack Bauer is made worse, yet again, by the fact even Tony didn’t know how or why he’d been revived, despite spending years working with the mercenaries who extracted him; apparently, he just never thought to ask. Tony’s arc was, overall, one of the best parts of 24 season 7, but it’s clear bringing him back was never the plan. No matter how the show explained his return the logic was going to be faulty, but the route the showrunners took just resulted in more questions than answers.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3484 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

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A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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