Tony Almeida

Tony Almeida
24 character
Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida
First appearance	1
Last appearance	7
Portrayed by	Carlos Bernard
Appearances	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7
Other Appearances	24: The Game

Anthony "Tony" Almeida is a fictional character played by Carlos Bernard on the television series 24. Almeida appeared in a total of 115 episodes, the third highest number of episodes of any character in the series behind Chloe O'Brian (125) and main character Jack Bauer (192), portrayed by Mary Lynn Rajskub and Kiefer Sutherland, respectively.

Characterization

Tony Almeida was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1973. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Engineering from San Diego State University and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Stanford University. He served in the United States Marine Corps and attended Scout Sniper and Surveillance and Target Acquisition training. He was honorably discharged as a First Lieutenant and worked as a systems analyst before being hired by CTU. He was previously on more episodes than any other character, second to Jack Bauer, but was surpassed by Chloe O'Brian.

Appearances

24: Season 1

Tony Almeida is third-in-command of the Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit and is romantically involved with Nina Myers, who months prior had been romantically involved with Jack. The past relationship serves as fuel for the subtle animosity between Tony and Jack.

Just after midnight, word arrives of an imminent assassination attempt on Democratic presidential candidate Senator David Palmer. When Jack becomes unreachable following a secret meeting with Richard Walsh, Tony becomes suspicious and reports Jack's actions to Division. Division in turn places CTU in a lockdown status while George Mason interrogates key staff members. His suspicions are furthered when Jack returns and sneaks Nina out of the office at gunpoint. Shortly thereafter, Tony catches Jamey Farrell in a lie when she tells Tony that Nina left for a meeting at Division. After Nina returns, the two interrogate her and she confesses to working for Gaines. Jamey dies in an apparent suicide soon after this.

After Jack manages to save Teri and Kim, they return to CTU. While they are being debriefed, both Alberta Green and Ryan Chappelle encourage Tony to report that Jack unnecessarily endangered Senator Palmer to save his family, however he refuses to do so, saying that "You won't get me to disagree with a thing he's done since midnight tonight.

Shortly thereafter, the safe house where Teri and Kim are staying is attacked by hitmen working for Gaines' employers Andre and Alexis Drazen. The CTU agents guarding them are killed and Teri and Kim flee. After Nina asks Tony whether he is in fact doing everything he can to help Jack, he checks to the Bauer home and arrives in time to save Teri and Phil Parslow from being killed by Jovan Myovic.

Before the day's end Palmer is saved and the Drazens are killed, however Nina is revealed to be a second mole working directly for the Drazens. Jack determines this by viewing security tapes which clearly show that Nina killed Jamey. She is captured, though not before she kills several people while attempting to escape, including Teri Bauer. When Jack points the gun at Nina for her betrayal, Tony and George Mason dissuade Jack from pulling the trigger on her. Tony can only watch in disgust and disbelief as the woman he thought he loved is led away.

24: Season 2

After Nina's arrest and Jack leaving CTU following his wife's death, Tony becomes second in command at CTU under Mason by taking Nina's old position of Associate Special Agent in Charge or Chief of Staff. Tony is present when Jack is brought back in to assist when word comes in that Second Wave, a Middle Eastern terrorist organization, is planning to detonate a nuclear weapon within Los Angeles.

After Kate Warner becomes suspicious of her sister's fiancée, Reza Nayieer, she reports him to CTU. Tony then goes to the Warner home to question Reza and the Warner family. Though financial records link Reza to Syed Ali, the leader of Second Wave, he denies any involvement with terrorists. It is later learned that Reza is indeed innocent and that his fiancée Marie Warner was the one collaborating with terrorists.

Towards the beginning of the second season Mason was exposed to lethal dose of plutonium, leaving him with radiation sickness. In a noble effort to remove the nuclear bomb from a populated area, Mason crashed a plane carrying the bomb into the Nevada desert, sacrificing his own life in the ensuing nuclear blast. An hour earlier, Mason had passed the responsibility of Special Agent in Charge (or Director of CTU) on to Tony. Under his command, information arrived of recordings between Ali and representatives from three Middle Eastern countries at Cyprus.

After Jack learned from Jonathan Wallace that the Cyprus recordings were false, he was coerced into removing Kate from CTU. After Carrie Turner reported Jack's actions, Tony tried to stop him. Jack fought Tony off and escaped, injuring him and forcing him to walk on crutches for several hours afterwards. (In reality Carlos Bernard had been injured playing basketball and his injury had to be worked into the show).

After learning the truth, Tony, along with Michelle Dessler, began covertly assisting Jack despite orders from Chappelle, and eventually they were forced to physically incapacitate Chappelle. After Chappelle was found by Carrie, he ordered their arrest. The tide turned, however, when Mike Novick ordered Chappelle to assist Jack. Chappelle was forced to grant Tony and Michelle immunity and reinstate them. With their assistance, Jack and Sherry Palmer were able to get a recording implicating Peter Kingsley, the true manipulator of the day's events, and prevent a war with the Middle East.

Throughout the day, he and Michelle shared a mutual attraction. At first, Tony kept his distance because he felt hesitant after what happened with Nina. After receiving parting advice from Mason, however, Michelle expressed an interest. The two would become romantically involved and later marry.

24: The Game

While Jack Bauer is often pre-occupied with other tasks such as leads to save his daughter or find more information about the terrorist threats, Tony has been out in the field as extensively as both Jack and Chase Edmunds. Throughout the day, Tony apprehended Joseph Sin-Chung, who was currently posing as a crew member of the apprehended cargo boat named Lee Jin-Yu. He prevented a terrorist threat at a metro station prior to the capture of CTU. During the hour that CTU was held hostage, Tony guides Kim Bauer to encrypt the hard-drive containing the data of the undercover CTU agents, significantly slowing down the terrorists' progress in getting the information.

Shortly after Kim's return to CTU, Tony leads one of the tactical teams disarming one of the bombs at a construction site situated along a fault line. Hours after the threat, Tony had to rush to the scene of a crime, which involved a hostage situation with Governor James Radford. After restraining as many confused gunmen as he could, he had to negotiate with the leader, who was merely a desperate man trying to save his sick son. Tony succeeds in calming down the gunman, but the gunman is found dead by the time Tony busts open the locked door. He started becoming suspicious of Radford as he checks the gunman's body. Tony's suspicions came true when an assistant of Governor Radford calls telling him to meet her at Fisher Pier, which was happening approximately at the same time as Chase Edmunds's return to C.T.U.

Tony met up with the assistant and was given a keycard to Radford's office, with the assistant suspecting that Radford was involved in terrorist activity. The suspicion came true as a helicopter ambushed the pair, killing the assistant. Tony barely escapes with his life and drives off to the Governor's office building. After dealing with various gunmen under Radford's payroll and rescuing any trapped civilians, Tony found evidence that showed Radford's involvement with the terrorists. It turned out that Radford was seen conversing with Peter Madsen, Joseph Sin-Chung, and an unknown third man. Tony attempts to track Radford and manages to eavesdrop on Radford's conversation with the unknown man. Radford attempted to walk out, but the assassin Mandy already kills Radford before Tony could do anything. Tony's evidence proved invaluable since CTU was later able to identify the third man as Max.

While Jack and Chase were busy at Fort Lesker, Tony, Michelle, and Chappelle have information that Kate Warner is still alive, but Chappelle restricted Tony from notifying Jack under the guise of completing the established mission. A few hours later, the trace was complete being located at Max's yacht. After berating Chappelle out of disgust, Tony heads back out to the field one more time to assist Jack and Chase at the L.A. Docks in a CTU helicopter. Tony picks up Chase first, and pilots the chopper to have Chase provide support fire for Jack before picking him up.

Tony maneuvers the helicopter around the yacht allowing Chase to mow down gunmen firing at them, while Jack abseils onto the deck of the yacht. As the day ends, Tony stays on the yacht with Kate to clean up the mess while Chase pilots the helicopter with a wounded Jack to a nearby hospital.

24: Season 3

Tony Almeida is now married to Michelle Dessler and fielding promotion offers from several CTU regional divisions. Despite this, Tony, Jack Bauer and Gael Ortega craft and conduct a covert sting operation known only between the three of them, whose objective is to take the Cordilla virus off the black market. In one instance during the operation, Tony is shot in the neck in a shopping mall and incapacitated, leaving Jack to run the remainder of the operation. Tony remains comatose for several hours before returning to his CTU post to resume the sting operation against the Salazars, a Mexican crime family intent on procuring the Cordilla virus. As the operation progresses, tension mounts between Tony and Michelle, due to Tony cutting Michelle out of the operation and also because of concerns over his health. Tony faces further torment when Michelle is trapped inside a hotel as it becomes infected with the virus. Tony later authorizes the use of suicide capsules to the infected civilians at the hotel, and is later the person who announces to CTU the death of Ryan Chappelle, who Jack was forced to kill by Stephen Saunders, a former British intelligence agent behind the viral attacks.

Against Jack's explicit wishes, Tony uses Kim in a field operation as a replacement for Jane Saunders, in an attempt to secure collateral against Stephen Saunders and prevent any further attacks. Just as CTU prepares to corner Saunders, Tony receives a phone call, whereupon he realizes that Stephen Saunders has Michelle hostage and will kill her unless Tony facilitates his escape. Tony acquiesces, allowing Saunders to break free of the FBI perimeter and later liberate Jane Saunders from CTU custody. Jack realizes Tony's motives and intercepts him in time to convince him to work with CTU on a sting. At the arranged meeting, CTU intervenes and captures Stephen Saunders, and Tony is arrested for treason.

24: Season 4

18 months after season 3, it is revealed that Almeida was sent to prison for treason, although was released early thanks to a pardon from President David Palmer, secured by Jack Bauer. His wife Michelle Dessler subsequently left him because of his alcoholism and bitterness at having lost his career. Unemployed and depressed, he moved in with a woman named Jen Slater, where he resided until Hour 7, when Jack required assistance at a security building. Tony saved Jack and Audrey Raines' life, and they lay low at his house for roughly half an hour. During the phone call in the security building, Jack told Audrey that he was calling "the only person he could trust". But Tony considered the rescue a repayment of the debt he owed Jack for getting him out of prison and initially did not wish to be involved in the case any further. Jack respected Tony's wishes not to be dragged further into the day's events, but when setting out to apprehend a suspect on his own, Tony reasoned that it would be stupid to let his friend go back out alone after just saving his life and offered his help.

As Tony and Jack went through the investigation, Jack saw his friend "come back to life," showing some of his old nobility, courage and resourcefulness as he became increasingly involved in the case by helping Jack rescue Behrooz from Navi Araz, and helped him apprehend Henry Powell before Marwan's sniper killed Powell. Eventually, Jack was able to convince Tony to return to CTU on a provisional basis, where he would work Tactical for Jack. Tensions rose when the Associate Special Agent in Charge of Division Bill Buchanan and Almeida's former wife, Michelle Dessler, took active command of CTU Los Angeles when incumbent Special Agent in Charge Erin Driscoll left for personal reasons.

Tony and Michelle clashed at first, but gradually, the two began to warm up to each other again, and near the end of the day, they had agreed to leave CTU together and start a new life. However, when Bill Buchanan called Tony into the field, Tony was captured, bound and gagged by an assassin. The assassin, a woman named Mandy who had made an attempt on President David Palmer's life in season two, threatened to kill Tony if Michelle did not move LAPD units out of the area and clear an escape route. Michelle was going to comply but told Bill instead. When a car bomb went off with two people thought to be Tony and Mandy inside, Michelle was ordered to go home. However, due to the swift actions of Jack Bauer and his tactical teams, Tony was rescued and returned to Michelle.

At the end of Day 4, when Walt Cummings, an overzealous member of the new Logan Administration, decided that Jack Bauer needed to die due to his part in an illegal raid on the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, Tony played an intricate part in faking Jack's death. After smuggling him out of CTU, Tony allowed himself to have an emotional good-bye to his friend.

24: Season 5

By Day 5, Tony and his wife Michelle Dessler are no longer working for CTU and have rebuilt a happy life together. After receiving news that former-President David Palmer has been assassinated, Tony attempts to dissuade Michelle from going to CTU to assist in the investigation. He hesitates, but as he decides to follow Michelle outside, Michelle's car explodes. Rushing to get to her, he finds her unconscious, and presumably dead. As he holds her, the fuel tank in the car ignites causing a second explosion, critically injuring him. It is later revealed through CTU conversations that Michelle is dead.

Tony was transported to CTU Medical. Agent Curtis Manning requested he speak with Tony upon arrival, but pressure to Tony's brain left him unable to speak before going into surgery. At the White House, an assassin is sent into CTU by Walt Cummings to kill Jack Bauer, murdering and then posing as the doctor. Jack was informed that Tony had awoken and wanted to speak to him. With Tony unresponsive, Jack caught the oncoming attack in a reflection, and killed his would-be assassin.

Upon waking a few hours later, Tony is told by CTU Director Bill Buchanan that Michelle's condition is still unknown in order to keep him out of shock. However, Tony suspects otherwise and escapes CTU Medical to access a computer, where he learns of his wife's fate.

Tony was sealed inside CTU Medical, with Christopher Henderson, when the terrorists released the Sentox nerve gas in the building, killing approximately 40% of the staff. Enraged and feeling he has nothing left to live for, Tony decides to kill Henderson. At first, he is stopped by Jack when he says he knows what he's going through, the fact he lost Teri to someone he knew and trusted. A few minutes before 8 p.m, he realizes that Henderson is in a coma and won't get up for a while. At 7:59 p.m., whilst Tony has second thoughts about killing Henderson for killing Michelle, Henderson awakes from his comatose state and stabs Tony with an overdose of hyoscine-pentothal in the chest. Henderson then grabs a handgun, then escapes the building. Jack rushes in and cradles Tony in his last moments. Tony speaks his last words saying, "She's gone, Jack." Just before 8:00pm, as Jack weeps, Almeida appears to die in his arms.

24: Season 7

Tony is discovered alive and found to be currently working with a terrorist group to disrupt US President Allison Taylor's invasion of Sangala by blackmailing her with terrorist attacks. It is ultimately revealed that Christopher Henderson purposely missed Tony's heart when he stabbed him, and planned on turning him. He had his people take Tony's body, and they were able to revive him within 10 minutes of his death. Jack Bauer and the FBI apprehend Tony. Jack requests to interrogate Tony, but Tony refuses to talk with him. Tony ends up angering Jack, who grabs him by the neck and slams against a wall, when he tells Jack that every time he helps the government, it's like spitting on Teri's grave. As Jack chokes Tony, Jack warns him to cooperate or he'll make he sure he stays dead this time. Tony gives Jack a code word which he recognizes and calls a number. The number leads him to Bill Buchanan and Chloe O'Brian who reveal that Tony is working undercover to uncover corrupt US officials working with General Benjamin Juma, the dictator of Sangala and perpetrator of mass genocide and that Tony needs to be out of custody. Jack and Tony escape together and resume their independent operation, culminating in the elimination of the terrorist group, the unmasking of Juma's allies in the U.S. government, and the deaths of General Juma and his squad of soldiers that stormed the White House. Following the operation, Jack and Tony scramble to intercept and then recover a shipment of bioweapons engineered by Jonas Hodges, president of mercenary corporation Starkwood, who intends to blackmail the President and enact Executive legislation benefitting himself. Aided by the FBI, Jack and Tony successfully destroy the chemical weapons, although Jack is infected by the bio-weapon.

Following the destruction of the weapons, a shocking revelation is made after Tony betrays and murders FBI Agent Larry Moss and recovers a canister of the chemical weapon, which he gives to Cara Bowden, a representative of the conspirators, all of whom had planned the day's events and of whom Hodges was previously a member. The conspirators initiate their operation and attempt to detonate the canister inside the DC Metro tunnels, but are stopped by Jack and the FBI, who apprehend Tony and recover the canister before it can detonate. As they transport Tony to the FBI, Cara notifies Jack that his daughter will die unless he helps Tony escape FBI custody. With no option, Jack frees Tony, who takes Jack hostage and disappears with Cara to salvage the remains of the virus from Jack's infected blood, tissue and organs. Finally alone with Tony, Jack tries to reason with Tony, who reveals that his true goal is to kill Alan Wilson, the head conspirator behind the day's attacks and the man responsible for the murders of David Palmer and Michelle Dessler.

Wilson arrives to speak with Tony, but the group is ambushed by the FBI, who raid the area. Retreating into a warehouse, Tony kills Cara and beats Wilson to the ground. Holding a gun to Wilson's head, Tony, frenzied by rage, reveals to Wilson that he not only killed Michelle, but he also killed their unborn son whom Michelle was pregnant with. As he prepares to kill Wilson, Tony is shot by Jack and Renee in the arm. As the FBI detains him, Tony curses Jack as a coward and a traitor as he is led away in FBI custody.

External links

• Tony Almeida on 24 Wiki
• Howard Gordon (Executive Producer) gives podcast interviews on each episode of 24