Now that we’ve all had a chance to process this terribly disappointing news, I’m trying to figure out where my head is at.

I have to say, I’m still pretty floored that the show elected to go this route, because in my mind all signs, and common sense, pointed to the opposite.  I had already decided before Season 7 ended that if the writers saw fit to leave Tony breathing when the finale beeped its last boop, then we definitely hadn’t seen the last of the character and it was almost certain he would return for Season 8.  At the time, Sutherland, Gordon and FOX had pretty well announced that Season 8 would be the last season of 24 to air on network.  And so Tony’s return seemed even more likely given that he has been an elite, epic character on the show and if the show was going to end, deserved more definitive closure and resolution to his relationship with Jack than we received at the end of Season 7. (more …)

James Rampton of The Independent chats with Carlos Bernard about Season 7 Tony during his ongoing UK publicity tour. Highlights:

On the Brotherhood:

“Tony has genuine, intense feelings for Jack. Because of what they’ve been through together over the years, he has a lot of love for him. They’re like brothers. But sometimes when brothers get into fights, it’s worse than anyone else feuding because of that very intensity of feeling. If Tony had had it his way, Jack would not have got involved in this case – he would have stayed away. But Tony couldn’t stop it. Jack is always sticking his nose into things!” (more …)

Carlos Bernard, who is doing a bit of a publicity tour through the UK at the moment to promote the release of Season 7 on Blu-Ray and DVD, stopped in to chat with Greg James of BBC Radio 1 yesterday afternoon (there’s a cute pic of Carlos in a questionable hat with Greg James at this link). Topics of discussion included how Carlos and the cast never believed the show would even get picked up for the pilot, let alone make a run of seven seasons; Carlos’ own favourite TV series (he’s a fan of Dexter and Breaking Bad); the voracity of Tony fans in Tokyo; the “comeback year” of Season 7 and the fallout from the writers’ strike; the ups and downs of the Brotherhood through Season 7 and the fun he had shooting; and Kiefer Sutherland’s escapades at one of Carlos’ parties and their UK press tour last winter with Annie Wersching. (more …)

TVSquad.com has posted an interview with Carlos Bernard.  A lot of it covers old ground, but there is some fresh material here about how Season 7 will wrap up.  Thanks to site regular Captain_Typho for the heads up.  Highlights:

On whether he was satisfied with how Tony “died” in Season 5:

No, nobody was. But it was done in a rush and they were writing on the fly at the time. Season seven is the first season they finished writing before the show started airing, but that was because of the writer’s strike. We had the chance to re-write things and stop if things didn’t make sense. Because of that, from top to bottom, I think this is going to be one of our strongest seasons. Personally, this is my favorite since the first. But back to season five, they were just really under the gun. I don’t think anyone was satisfied with it.

On the Brotherhood:

There’s a history of trust. They knock heads over things. I know in my life, people who disagree with me and that I can have arguments and debates with, those people, I just don’t trust anyone who doesn’t lose their temper from time to time. Think about grade school. You might actually trust someone more if you get into a fist fight with them as a kid. There’s something about having it out with someone. That’s how you know where someone stands and I think that’s true for Jack and Tony.

On whether Tony will survive to see Season 8:

I don’t know, I can’t say [laughs]. I go season to season and a lot of it depends on the story they come up with. I love working on a show and I just couldn’t have a better situation than 24. Kiefer and I are like brothers at this point.

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Oh, that man Almeida! He sure knows how to make an entrance! Not only did he reappear out of nowhere with information that will keep the season from ending after only 10 episodes, but the place where he reappears couldn’t be more significant: the steps at the West Front of the White House, where Presidents have been inaugurated for almost 30 years. The daylight is fading, the sky is almost unrealistically technicolor pink, and between the White House and the Washington Memorial, you see the Badass Aviator Sunglasses walk into the picture and you think, “Just when you thought it was over, Jack… This ain’t over yet.” The whole scene was perfect in every way. Jack’s initial reaction, Tony’s calm explanation, and the brotherly hand on Jack’s shoulder…

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Summary

Dubaku’s threat is underway: he’s targeting a processing facility in Ohio. THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WILL DIE, you know how it goes. The FBI and the President are at a loss for what to do next, but they don’t know that Jack and Friends are tracking the Matobos straight to Dubaku’s headquarters.

While Janis Gold talks a doomed supervisor through a manual shutdown of the facility, Deep Sky storms the control room. Nichols takes one in the back from Renee Walker while she secures the Prime Minister and his wife, Jack/Tony/Bill waste pretty much everyone on site except Dubaku with enormous machine guns, and the CIP Device is destroyed, but Dubaku blows up the hapless Mr. Latham to buy himself time to escape. So although the villain of the piece remains at large, the country’s infrastructure appears to be safe once more.

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So there will be no official debrief video until tomorrow.  Kat ditched me tonight.  She had good reasons, and she was out of town over the weekend and overloaded with commitments, but nonetheless, I am flying solo tonight.  I briefly considered posting an esoteric solo video, but decided against it.  We need the back and forth to make it work.  So, dear readers, you are stuck with another lonely esoteric post by yours truly.

One of the big concerns so far this season, for critics anyway, has been the pace.  This episode stepped things up in a big way.  The sequence where DEEPSKY breaks into Dubaku’s base was probably the most pivotal of the first act, because now the dice have been rolled again and everyone is scattering following new threads that will form the second act of the season.  The best thing about this episode was the fact that all the story threads were all related to each other and when you cut from one scene to another, you were still following the same thread.  Every set of characters had huge stakes on the line, and there was not a boring moment in any of the threads.

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Carlos Bernard talks with Zap2It about Season 7’s momentum and the Brotherhood relationship arc as the driving force behind the season.

Already the nitpicking and naysaying is ramping up with regard to some of the plot points and backstory revelations from last night’s episode. While all of the Brotherhood/DEEPSKY character scenes were fantastic, with Carlos Bernard’s performance continuing to up the ante, the episode did bring up some stuff that seems at the very least somewhat nebulous and at the very worst totally inexplicable.

I’ve been saying since we first learned of the circumstances surrounding how Tony was extracted from CTU and revived that we couldn’t entirely rule out the possibility of a pre-existing connection between Emerson and Henderson, so I’ll get this out of the way now — I fucking KNEW IT!!!!!  Emerson and Henderson were both ex-intelligence operatives who became independent mercenaries working out of Los Angeles.  In all likelihood they ran in similar circles and probably shared many of the same contacts and resources.  Coupled with the probability that Emerson was particularly interested in Henderson because of his history (busted taking bribes and forced to leave CTU in disgrace), it isn’t much of a stretch to believe that they crossed paths, and possibly even worked together on occasions when it suited both of their interests.  Does this mean that that the conspiracy between Logan, Graem Bauer and Christopher Henderson in Day 5 is connected to David Emerson or the conspiracy in Season 7?  Maybe, maybe not, but I don’t think it had to be for Henderson and Emerson to have had dealings with each other in the past, or for Henderson and Emerson to have symbiotically used each other’s resources to pull off the Almeida resurrection in Day 5.

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I have created a new wallpaper in homage to the Brotherhood.  You can get it in widescreen or standard ratio, depending on your screen type.  Click the preview image for access to the full-size download.

Brothers In Arms – 1920×1200 (Widescreen)

Brothers In Arms – 1280×600 (Standard)