Hello all you 24 fanatics.. It’s Joel J-Money Wood here again with yet another 24 blog. I know its been awhile but I’ve had personal issues as well as professional issues I needed to work out concerning my Music album that is due to release here in a couple of weeks. My purpose for this blog is two things. #1, to promote my 24 themed Music video, The Madness, and #2 Is to discuss a spirited debate I have about once a week(lol) with fellow 24 Podcast Guest Host Jack(@z0lla) regarding the possibility of Tony Almeida being redeemed in 24 Live Another Day.

Now let me preface this by saying, the longer I wait, the less confidence I have that Tony will return in 24 Live Another Day. It would be an epic moment in 24 history to see Tony appear out of no where but I’m starting not to see it happen. This is to discuss the idea of him being redeemed. Now my biggest pet peeve is when I see, and I’ve seen it more than once, that the “integrity of the show” will be ruined if Tony Almeida comes back as a good guy. First let me say, It’s a Television Show. Anything can happen on television. As far as the integrity goes, this is a television show BASED off of one government agent stopping MULTIPLE terrorists attack and presidential assassination attempts in the course of ONE 24 hour day. The entire United States government couldn’t stop one terrorist attack on 9/11/2001 but we can expect one agent to stop multiple attacks in one day? So, the “integrity of the show” was pretty much shot before Episode #1. Now, to the Producer’s credit, they did a marvelous job of making it as believable as possible for 8 years but when you start to think of the concept of 24 as a whole, there’s not much that can effect the Integrity of the show.

Now, let’s address other inconsistencies. Is Tony coming back in 24 LAD going to be any worse than the explanation when Tony was brought back from the dead? No. Did it hurt the integrity of the show? No. Last I checked, Season 7 was widely regarded as one of the best and highest rated seasons in 24 history. Or how about President Noah Daniels, who earlier in Season 6, demanded that Charles Logan be put back under House Arrest, all the sudden Pardoning him for his role in the Sentox conspiracy prior to Season 7. Did that hurt 24’s integrity? Nope.

Lets address 24’s Presidents. Handing out pardons like they’re candy. They pardoned Tony for treason, pardoned Mandy for an attempted assassination of David Palmer, even went as far as to pardon a known terrorist of the last 20 years, just so he can help stop the day’s terrorist attacks. So, they can’t pardon Tony Almeida for his help in stopping the day’s events? Remember that it was Tony Almeida who saved Audrey’s life in Season 4. It is SO EASY to pardon Tony Almeida.

Now since we are talking about the Integrity of 24, let’s discuss the Show’s resident Hero, Jack Bauer. A man, who is constantly going against the government. He does everything from killing a bunch of Russians, to kidnapping a current United States President, to shooting a witness and cutting off his head, being addicted to heroine, commited several felonies in order to keep his wife and daughter from getting killed, killed a government agent under the authority of a United States President, stole a sub circuit board that contained highly classified materials, broke a federal fugitive out of FBI headquarters, fired on FBI agents(although not hitting any of them), and then helping said fugitive kidnap a Prime Minister of another country, I’m pretty sure I left things out. Yet, despite all that, the U.S. Government managed to conveiniently forget prosecution and aid him in multiple occasions.

So, as I said, what could possibly hurt the Integrity of the Show? Regardless if the guys Jack killed were bad guys, that’s called being a vigilante. His actions during Day 7 ALONE would probably get him life in prison. Lets also not forget that President Taylor, at the request of Jack, was considering giving Tony Almeida a presidential pardon just before his last turn so to say it’s out of the question, you obviously haven’t watched enough 24. If information Tony provides, or as with Logan’s case, Tony actually goes with Jack to assist him, leads in the take down of the terrorists, then I see NO reason why a pardon isn’t in order especially since President Heller and Audrey know the Tony of old and know that even though he did some horrible things, it was done to bring down the man responsible for the death of David Palmer and Michelle Dessler. Tony even mentions Alan Wilson as the man behind Logan and the man responsible for David Palmer’s death so even though he wanted him dead because of what he did to Michelle, he recognized that Michelle wasn’t the only life sacrificed that day.

Tony’s explanation to Jack toward the end of Day 7 put things in to perspective. He came up with the plan to take down Dubaku, Juma, and Jonas Hodges. He teamed up with Chloe and Bill to do just that. His intention was never to put them in danger nor was it to use Jack as a pathogen to kill American people. He turned against them, much in the way Jack turns against people close to him when he needs to do something that isn’t considered safe. The main problem I had with the ending was Tony using his friend as a bomb. You can see throughout Season 7 by Tony’s facial expressions that He is a man full of regret not revenge. He knew that Alan Wilson took everything from him and he knew his need for revenge was going to cost him the few friends he had left. David Fury, Jon Cassar, Howard Gordon, Manny Coto, Adam Kane, Let Tony Almeida get his redemption. Not just because it makes for good television, but because his fans want it. His fan base is just as big, if not bigger, than Chloe’s. Every season of 24, the Producers always create that truly EPIC moment that gets people talking even after the season is over. Listen to the people. If you want to create a TRULY EPIC moment in 24 Live Another Day. A moment that people WILL talk about long after the season is over, bring Tony Almeida back. Its setting up like 24 LAD will be Chloe’s redemption saga. Why not complete the circle by bringing back Tony Almeida to make things right? You have nothing to lose but if you don’t? People will always say “Yeah, 24 LAD was awesome, but what if Tony had come back?” and it’ll be even worse if this is 24’s last season.

Well that’s it for me this week.. This blog wasn’t directed solely at Jack as we agree on just about everything 24 related lol. It was just our debate kinda sparked the interest in this blog. Now I will leave you with my 24 themed tribute. It’s called The Madness and the song will be available on my next album titled: BELIEVE. Hope you enjoy and as always, feedback on the video and blog are greatly appreciated.

The Madness:A Tribute to the award winning show 24