Why Kill Good (Fake) People?
Ok, so if you haven't caught up on this season of 24 (i.e., if you haven't seen up to tonight's new episode), and intend to watch it later, stop reading. There will be spoilers. You have been warned.
Ok, are you gone yet? Good.
So in the past three episodes, they've killed off an assload of people. That's nothing new for 24: they kill off people (even main characters) all the time. Aparently, fans actually complained that not enough people died in season 4. Weird. Whatever.
Anyway, first they killed off Edgar. Now, Edgar wasn't your typical hardcore main character: he was just a tech guy, and essentially was Chloe's bitch. But they killed him off in episode 1 of this little three-episode arc. It was pretty sad. Then, at the beginning of episode 2, they of course had to show it again in the previouslies.
Then they killed off Lynn. Now, Lynn was pretty much a jackass. He just wanted to control CTU, even though Bill was doing a pretty damned good job, got in the way, didn't trust anyone, and basically sucked. It's essentially his fault that 40% of CTU got killed by the evil plot-device nerve toxin. But he died heroically, saving the people that survived the initial attack. It was heartbreaking. In all fairness, it was probably more heartbreaking when the random red-shirt trapped with Lynn called his young daughter to say goodbye, but still, it was pretty damned sad.
And then, the crap-fest began. Tony, fraught with grief after learning of his wife's death, wanted to kill the bastard responsible. But of course, CTU needs this dude for interrogation. So finally, when Agent Random Torturer Guy finally says that Evil Bastard is in a coma and useless, Tony knocks out Agent RTG and prepares to kill Evil Bastard with a lethal injection of some nasty shit. Of course, Evil Bastard was faking, wakes up at the last instant, and jams Tony with the needle instead. Tony falls to the ground, Evil Bastard escapes, and Jack runs in to find Tony, who soon dies in his arms. All of this happens in under two minutes, and the episode ends.
Then episode 3 starts with a shot of someone pulling a blanket over Tony's head. And that's it. He's not mentioned at all after that. Tony, one of the only three people remaining from the first episode of day one, on a show with a ridiculously-high body count, is dead. Tony, arguably the most kickass of them all, who has gone through a ridiculous amount of shit, got a 2.5-minute hollow-hitting death treatment. What the fuck is wrong with 24's writers? Could they at least give him a good, noble reason to die? Edgar's death was just sad. Lynn's death was of the heroic, giving-one's-life-for-redemption kind. Tony's death was brought on by poor reaction time, a grief-induced stupid plan of selfish revenge, and falling for the oldest trick in the book. Seriously, if you're getting tortured, and you have governent agent training, wouldn't you fake a coma? I was actually hoping that they'd pull a cheap shot at the beginning of this week's episode and resusitate him, if only so they could do a proper job of killing him off later in the season.
God dammit, show. I'm willing to overlook your blatant misuse and total misunderstanding of computer technology because you otherwise rock. But you just don't kill off my favorite character in such a meaningless way, and then toss it aside like it doesn't matter. You just don't.