The dedicated Intelligence Unit fan favorite has been thrown through the wringer.
While it’s never a dull day for the Intelligence Unit officers on Chicago P.D., it’s safe to say that Dante Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) is going through it on Season 13 of the NBC nail-biter.
Ever since Torres witnessed the brutal murder of a former informant and went undercover in the same juvenile detention center where he was previously held as a child, Torres has been battling a serious bout of depression. Torres’ trauma from these events has led to a crisis of faith and has begun to take a dramatic toll. In Chicago P.D.’s Season 13, Episode 2 “Open Wounds,” (directed by series alum Jesse Lee Soffer) viewers got a glimpse into just how badly Torres has been struggling. He’s unable to sleep, eat, and can’t connect with his family.
Torres is adrift on Chicago P.D., and viewers are worried about how he’ll navigate this near-constant turmoil. After Torres’ neighbor was targeted by a crew of thieves running flash abductions, Torres threw himself into the case to distract himself from his inner demons.
Why Dante Torres looks so different this season
When fans first met Torres, he was clean cut with closely cropped hair. So his new look featuring overgrown hair, a beard, and pronounced bags under his eyes is completely intentional. Showrunner Gwen Sigan detailed the transformation to NBC Insider at the end of Season 12.
“We had a lot of conversations about the hair,” she said. “And Benny [Aguilar] was of course game, ’cause he’s always game for whatever we throw at him. We were all excited to see a little bit of a different look to him.”
She continued, “We were like, ‘This is a physical manifestation of what you’re going through.’ He’s such an odd little duck. That character always wears the same thing and has good-looking shoes that he probably scrubs every night. And to see him physically look a little bit different [is jarring].”
What happened to Torres in Season 13, Episode 2
While tracking down the assailants responsible for the flash abductions, Torres was attacked by a perp and received a nasty gash on his arm. Torres was soon stitched up, learning that his neighbor was just one of many abductions in his part of town. After finding out someone survived a similar abduction, Torres visited the victim’s emergency contact in hopes of learning more about the perpetrators.
That’s when he met Jimena Sanz (Yadira Guevara-Prip), the owner of a tattoo parlor with little faith in local authorities after they failed to ever arrest her cousin’s assailants. Jimena helped Torres locate the assailant’s warehouse, but the Intelligence Unit officers were devastated to discover they were too late: Torres’ neighbor had been murdered.
As the case turned personal for Torres, he found himself deliberately tampering with his stitches. Meanwhile, Torres successfully tracked down the ringleader but nearly shot him before Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) intercepted. After the arrest, Atwater noticed that Torres’ sutures had been torn, encouraging him to get it checked.
Sensing his friend was struggling, Atwater told Torres that he understood it was a rough case, but he needed to stop beating himself up over everything that happened last year.
“I just gotta find a way to deal with it all,” Torres assured Atwater half-heartedly. “But I’ll find it.”
Torres has found an interesting outlet after meeting Jimenez Sanz
After his harrowing shift, Torres ran into Jimenez at a bar. After she joined Torres and struck up a lighthearted conversation, it didn’t take long for Jimenez to notice Torres’ gaping wound.
“What did you do to it?” Jimenez asked. “I do ink and piercings, I know when people mess with their wounds. Why are you?”
Jimenez then deduced that Torres hadn’t been able to find his neighbor in time. Empathizing with Torres, Jimenez made a wager as to why Torres wouldn’t stop re-injuring himself.
“Makes it feel better, doesn’t it? The pain?” she asked, getting a woeful nod from Torres.
“I used to pray when things felt too much. And it made me feel better, safe,” Torres confessed. “Like something in me would settle, and it wouldn’t hurt as bad. But that’s not working, now, so. I don’t feel Him, and it’s not the pain that helps, it’s just the —”
“It’s the release of it,” Jimenez correctly guessed.
“I know it’s stupid, I know it’s not gonna take it away,” Torres explained. “I just wanna feel better.”
Jimenez then had an idea of what would lighten Torres’ mood, coyly pulling him to the back of the bar. After they were alone, Jimenez asked Torres if he trusted her, and he nodded. Jimenez then drove her finger into Torres’ open wound before kissing him passionately.
Torres was stunned yet successfully distracted as the duo dove into a bathroom to hook up. But is this the release Torres needs?
Fans will have to check in on Torres by watching Chicago P.D. on Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC and the next day on Peacock.
