SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Chicago PD Season 13, Episode 2.

It’s fitting that Jesse Lee Soffer directs Chicago PD Season 13, Episode 2, because “Open Wounds” ends with Dante Torres on the same path that Soffer’s character Jay Halstead once walked. Torres, upset and feeling lost, hooks up with someone he shouldn’t—like Halstead did in Chicago PD Season 5’s “Rabbit Hole.” The specific circumstances are different, but years later, Torres is equally self-destructive.

One has to feel for the character, who’s been going through it for a very long time now. Torres’ previous ill-advised fling with Gloria, which was a polarizing storyline to begin with, set the stage for a collapse that has been so prolonged it seemed like an exit storyline. Torres has been so miserable that it felt like he was going to be written out in the same way as Antonio Dawson: a good character taking a hard fall. Surprisingly, Torres is still around—it was Kiana Cook who ended up leaving—but he’s still trapped in the same state. And based on the ending, he’s not coming out of it any time soon.

This is not criticism of actor Benjamin Levy Aguilar, who continues to give his absolute best to everything he’s given. Even though Torres has gotten more and more sullen, audiences can still see the effort in his performance, particularly in Torres’ developing bond with Kevin Atwater. The two characters and the actors who play them are very well-matched and Chicago PD would do well to explore that further. Torres and Atwater are both community-minded individuals, and Atwater’s life outside of Intelligence is one of the best things about his character. The show could do similar with Torres, showing him getting involved with the Latinx community and perhaps he gets advice from Atwater.

It would also be a way to further the show’s Latinx representation, as one of the points “Open Wounds” makes—albeit a little heavy-handedly—is how this particular neighborhood feels overlooked by the police. (It is very interesting to see how Chicago PD is incorporating the 911 and personnel shortage that was first mentioned on Chicago Fire. That is a new, realistic and genuinely intriguing hurdle.) This is the same theme that the show has explored with the Black community through Atwater in a few different episodes, so it’s not new, but it’s equally valid for the Latinx folks, too. And it goes both ways: the victim’s wife telling Torres to “do better” just because he asks the obligatory question of whether her husband is involved in anything is jumping to conclusions about him, but the later reveal that another victim was shuffled between four different detectives proves that the cops do the same thing.

However, there’s little of that nuance in “Open Wounds.” Torres struggles with shooting one of the suspects, and almost shoots the second on a rooftop before Atwater talks him down—bringing back memories of when Voight did shoot a suspect on a roof moments before Antonio arrived in the Season 5 episode “Homecoming.” Torres and Atwater have already had an important scene earlier in the episode, when Atwater reminds Torres to take care of himself and admits that he’s speaking from experience. Chicago PD could have bookended that with Torres confiding in Atwater after the shooting. Instead, the show opts for the cliche of a main character coping with alcohol and random sex—something so predictable that Chicago Med did it just last week.

This is supposed to be a big episode for Torres, but it isn’t because he doesn’t learn anything or grow in any way. It’s not even a great episode plot-wise, since the friend Torres set out to save ends up murdered, leaving his wife and son to grieve, and seemingly justifying the community’s mistrust of the police. Sure, the bad guy is caught, but the physical and emotional cost makes that victory feel hollow. It is a great episode for Benjamin Levy Aguilar from an acting point of view, because he gets another turn in the spotlight. But “Open Wounds” begs the question of how long Chicago PD is going to explore Dante Torres’ crisis of faith and identity. It’s fertile ground to mine, but at the same time, he deserves a chance to heal.

Chicago PD airs Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Photo Credit: Courtesy of NBC.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.