Say it ain't so!
Edgar Stiles, the lovable bear of a computer expert on Fox's
24, is the latest casualty on the high body-count drama, which is known for its penchant for giving regulars the heave-ho.
The character crumpled to his death at the end of Monday's two-hour episode after he was exposed to nerve gas released by a Russian bad guy who infiltrated the counter-terrorist unit.
"People are going to flip out," says Louis Lombardi, 38, a Bronx-born actor whose sad-sack Edgar lost his mother in a nuclear attack, saved the day last season and yet remained a frequent target for insults.
"He was the humble guy-next-door who everyone feels bad for," Lombardi says. Edgar made the actor an unlikely fan favorite. In public, "everybody wants to buy me a drink, buy me dinner, give me a hug."
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."
Especially beloved characters. Just ask Jack's wife, Teri Bauer, killed off at the end of the show's first season, or former President David Palmer, felled by a bullet in the first minutes of this season's opener.
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."
Though it's a given on
24, where actors' contracts offer little job security, "I was kind of shocked, and then a little sad," Lombardi says.
Left unsettled was the true nature of Edgar's relationship with Chloe ( <FORM class=yqin action=http://yq.search.yahoo.com/search method=post> </FORM>
Mary Lynn Rajskub), his socially awkward soul mate. Was there - as fans hoped - a love connection between them, now tragically broken?
"It was kind of unrequited," Gordon says. "For her it was a brother-sister" relationship, with its dose of affectionate cruelty, but "he probably wished it were more than that."
Until
24, Lombardi was best known as the
FBI agent for whom Sal "Big Pussy" Bompensiero became an informant in
The Sopranos' second season. He'd love to re-enlist for the show's final episodes, and has plans for his own comedy about small-time crooks.
And
24's producers want fans to forgive them. "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."
