roundhoward.

Sinister soul patch, or lovable Cubs fan? You be the judge.

Season seven of 24 comes to a close on Monday and we’ll (hopefully) know once and for all whether or not Zombie Almeida is a good guy or a bad guy — or, at least, what his motivations are. I got to thinking about this a bit today, and here are some of my thoughts on the matter.

I’m pretty sure the creative team behind 24’s third season flat-out said that one of the reasons that people weren’t as happy with that year was because we weren’t in Jack’s head from the get-go. The first act of that season hinged almost entirely on the “Jack is secretly reestablishing his cover” twist, which required keeping the audience in the dark about his true motives. I, personally, thought it was one of the smartest twists the show has ever seen — making people think that Jack was slipping up and off his game, when in actuality he was totally rocking out a black-ops mission — but I understand the argument that the audience needs to know what Jack’s game plan is. He’s our window into the 24 universe, like it or not… he’s the man we’re rooting for and the man we’re on this ride with. You gotta know where his head’s at, or you lose a large portion of the audience.

But those rules don’t apply to Tony. He’s been off the show for a full season before the seventh and we’ve really got no clue what’s elapsed for him over three-or-so years of being secretly alive, completely off the government radar and likely in a high-octane lifestyle 24/7 — which doesn’t necessarily mean shooting fools up or blowing up buildings all day long, but I’ve got a hard time imagining Almeida enjoying a Cubs mug full o’ Natty Light during his off-season period. But given the fact that Tony’s been disconnected from mainstream society in the three years since his self-professed ten minute death without his wife and would-be son, it’s probably safe to say the poor fella’s been emotionally isolated and feels like he’s got nothing to lose. Well, almost nothing.

If the writers are sticking with Tony’s pre-established character, then this was a guy who used to put himself in the line of fire for the people and values that he cares about… Michelle, his country, all that good stuff. Michelle is gone, yes, but does that mean he doesn’t give a hoot about preventing what happened to him to the larger majority of people? I don’t think so, personally. I think it’s entirely within the realm of plausibility that Tony, now three years removed from anything resembling a normal life, would put himself in a martyr position to achieve what he perceives to be the greater good.

Which brings us back to season three. While the show can no longer hold Jack’s intentions back from the audience, those rules do not apply to Tony. This is a character we’ve known since day one and watching him do the things he’s done has of course seemed out of character — but any further out of character than when drugged-up Jackie boy seemingly made botched decision after botched decision in the Salazar case? Everyone that Tony has killed has been collateral damage and, up until the train incident, entirely FBI or government-based (minus that one terrorist dude, but that chump deserved it.) Further, Tony does not seem to know who this group is that’s pulling the strings — he admits as much to that Baronness lookalike in their sweet motel room.

So Tony could very easily be working his way up the food chain. He could very easily be willing to painfully kill a thousand people to save the lives of millions if he deems this group threatening enough. If these guys have their hands in as many jars as we think they do, then Tony might justify slitting a few innocent throats to spare a room full.

Does this mean that Tony’s a good guy? Not necessarily. So then he’s a bad guy? I don’t think it’s that easy, either. If this is really what Soul Patch is up to, then he’s definitely proven himself in the morally gray — the audience gets to decide which side of the coin they’re on. And ultimately, it DOES fit perfectly given the theme of the day thus far of “how far are you willing to go for the greater good.” The torture debate was on JACK at first: the audience agrees with Jack during the senate hearing, that he truly has done what is necessary to save the world over and over again.

Now, 24 episodes later, the audience and Bauer himself will need to take a long, hard look at what Almeida’s done… are all the innocent lives he has killed or almost killed worth sacrificing to bring down the big bad wolves trying to blow the house down? That’ll be up to Jack and us to decide. When all’s said and done this year, I suspect that there still won’t be an easily agreed upon answer to the debate of Tony’s moral allegiance.

Then again… Tony could genuinely be evil. Sayonara previously-established character development and potential thematic excellence, and hello thematically awkward, potentially laughable but nonetheless thrilling year of 24. Hey, I’m okay with that, too. I resigned myself to crappy 24 around season four, and especially after season six, but this has been a surprisingly fun year. If the show decides to ultimately maintain its recent status as a 24-hour popcorn flick, then hey, they did a great job this year. It was a huge leap forward in that regard.

But I’ve got some faith in the writers this year, even in spite of the truly awful sixth season. I think they’re smart enough to bring not only Almeida, but the entire season and series full-circle with episode 7X24 by turning the “how far can you go and still be in the right” argument on its head for both Jack and the audience. I really think they’re going there. They’ve left all the breadcrumbs on the trail for that ending, and I think that’s where we’re headed. Whether Tony dies or goes to jail, I dunno, but I suspect that he believes he’s serving his country in Severus Snape inspired fashion. (Because you know that Almeida caught up on HP7 while he was boozing with his terrorist buds.)

That’s just my two cents, yo.