Chicago P.D. Season 12 has been a rollercoaster, from the introduction of Cook (Toya Turner), to Atwater's (LaRoyce Hawkins) budding romance, and Reid (Shawn Hatosy) being a constant and dangerous thorn in the Intelligence Unit's side
However, out of all members of the team, Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) has gone through the most obvious emotional and physical transformation. As each week goes by, he progressively becomes more haggard in appearance. There are distinct dark circles and bags under his eyes from exhaustion, and his signature close cropped buzzcut and groomed beard are overgrown.
Thankfully, Aguilar himself is OK, but it's a true show of the commitment the actor has to properly telling his fictional counterpart's story.
"We had a lot of conversations about the hair," showrunner Gwen Signan tells NBC Insider. "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."
What happened to Torres on Chicago P.D.?
Torres' secret about his relationship with Gloria Perez was exposed, which put Cook's life in danger as a result. He ultimately witnessed Gloria's murder, and Reid used all of this as blackmail against Intelligence, eventually having Torres arrested, with the unit under investigation and his colleagues' jobs put at risk. There was also the grueling case which saw him go undercover at the same juvenile detention center he himself spent time in. This investigation brought up deeply buried trauma for Torres.
All of these events led to an extreme crisis of faith for the officer, with him even taking time off work and confessing to Voight (Jason Beghe) that he'd been struggling to sleep and partaking in late night boxing matches to voluntarily get beat up.
Sigan explains we'll continue to see Torres deal (or not deal) with his demons in Season 13.
"He’s just been through it this year," she tells us. "He’s really been through it. We started to see him really separate himself from some of the pillars of his life like religion and feeling e a comfort in the job — and sort of his own morality? He’s kind of going through this crisis of faith himself, and so I think that’s gonna be really interesting. How do we bring it back to the light? What does that look like?"
Sigan does note that, though not back to his normal self, Torres did take the time to shave for Burgess and Ruzek's wedding.
"There is still that like innate, 'I'm walking into church, I'm gonna look my best," she says.
Is Torres OK?
While he may look worse for wear, Aguilar himself is actually fine in real life. However, he adopted Torres' scruffy look upon request from production.
"We were like, 'This is a physical manifestation of what you’re going through,'" Sigan explains. "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]."
