Some characters can't get a break
Was it a mistake for 24 to kill off Edgar?
Mar. 13, 2006. 01:00 AM
VINAY MENON

At first, Louis Lombardi was okay with it.

I mean, when you're an actor on 24 (Fox, 9 tonight; Global, 10 p.m.), there's no such thing as job security. It doesn't matter if you play a civilian, a terrorist, a government agent, a former president, or even the wife of Jack Bauer — death is a constant possibility.

Lombardi learned this in December, when producers told him the clock was ticking on his popular character, Edgar Stiles. Sure enough, poor Edgar crumpled to the ground after inhaling poison gas during last week's shocking episode.

Immediately after, fans flocked to discussion forums and online shrines to commiserate. Edgar? Dead? The big lug ... killed? No!

Lombardi was bombarded with email. Everybody was asking the same question: why did they have to kill Edgar?

As Lombardi opened letter after letter, as he lurked on message boards gauging reaction, he started to wonder if producers had made a mistake.

The wonder turned to something else after Lombardi read a story in USA Today, in which executive producer Howard Gordon acknowledged that Edgar became more vulnerable as his appeal grew, a statement that baffled the 38-year-old actor.

"I thought his comments were very ignorant," Lombardi tells me, his voice crackling with un-Edgar passion. "I thought the comments were annoying. When I read that article I said, `This guy makes no sense.' My character was loved more than any character on that show and you kill him?

"I told my fiancée, `Read this comment. It's so arrogant and annoying.' What was he saying? It almost offended me — I got to be honest with you — as an actor and a person because it didn't make any sense.

"At first I was like, `Well, you guys do what you have to do. Whatever's good for the show.' But when I'm reading his comments, it's like I almost want to tell him, `You're a moron. You're talking like an idiot.'"

Here's the thing: "I took those comments as a personal attack toward Louis and not Edgar," adds Lombardi. "That's the way I feel as of now."

As you might imagine, he hasn't discussed this with Gordon, though he has only praise for the way he was treated during his run: "The show has been nothing but fabulous to me."

It's that damn three-letter question he can't escape.

"I don't know why they did it," he says. "And, to be honest, I think it's a silly move. I think it's a move that they will probably regret. The character was so loved it's not even funny."

So CTU's stout intelligence analyst — he of the Brooklyn accent and unrequited love for dour Chloe — is no more. Gone, as it were, in the office that consumed his life.

Edgar cracked codes, exposed moles, foiled terrorist plots and even lost his mother during a nuclear meltdown, before his demise at 6:59 p.m. on this Very Bad Day. "Oh my God," whispered Jack (Kiefer Sutherland), from behind the protective glass of CTU's sealed situation room as Edgar wandered into sight at precisely that moment, exposing himself to the toxic gas.

Edgar coughed, stumbled and collapsed. Jack bowed his head. Chloe's (Mary Lynn Rajskub) eyes moistened with tears. And viewers gasped as Edgar's lifeless body segued into a rare silent clock.

The short, unhappy life of Edgar Stiles had come to an end.

"I didn't want to go out like such a depressed soul and die with such negativity," says Lombardi.

"The character never had any bright spots in his life. The character never had any happiness. He didn't get the girl, he couldn't save his mother and he gets gassed."

For some reason, we both start laughing.

Looking ahead, Lombardi says he would be eager to reprise his guest role as an FBI agent on The Sopranos, which began its final season last night.

He's also getting ready to pitch a single-camera comedy about small-time hustlers in New York, which he will write and produce.

"I'd much rather be on my own show," says Lombardi. "You have more creative say in what goes on."

Yes. And who gets to live.

From the USA Today article:

Executive producer Howard Gordon says he has no regrets.

"It was a tough decision but really the right decision," since producers needed to underscore the terrorist threat. "To keep it honest with the audience that anything is possible, sometimes people have to leave."

Gordon acknowledged that in the 24 universe, Edgar became more vulnerable as his appeal grew. As he told Lombardi just before the episode was filmed in December: "The good news is you're one of the best characters on the show; the bad news is that, unfortunately, we have to kill you now."

"I hope people will understand, I hope they'll be affected by the loss and I hope they'll miss him," Gordon says. "Because if they do, we'll have all done our jobs."

From the Louis Lombardi coments posted above:

"At first I was like, `Well, you guys do what you have to do. Whatever's good for the show.' But when I'm reading his comments, it's like I almost want to tell him, `You're a moron. You're talking like an idiot.'"

Here's the thing: "I took those comments as a personal attack toward Louis and not Edgar," adds Lombardi. "That's the way I feel as of now."

"The character never had any bright spots in his life. The character never had any happiness. He didn't get the girl, he couldn't save his mother and he gets gassed."

most people with a brain would put 2 & 2 together just from looking at the title, and that anyone who was behind on watching 24 would avoid clicking on a 24-related thread. Sorry for overestimating you