Chicago P.D. Season 12, Episode 18, “Demons” saw the return of Dante Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) to Intelligence after two episodes away, and it was clear that Torres was not doing well.
The episode, which had the backdrop of Voight and Deputy Chief Reid’s power play going on in the background, ended up with Torres caught in the middle of the two. Deputy Chief Reid tried to use Torres against Voight, but Torres picked his Sergeant, and in the end, the team ended up banding together to try to take down Reid. But what happened to Dante Torres on Chicago P.D.? And is he back to normal?
Torres doesn’t exactly give Voight details as to what happened to him, other than that he’s struggling. He’s not sleeping, and he’s been going boxing so he gets beat up enough that he can collapse, but even that isn’t really helping him anymore. At some point, he says he’s gone through it before and he can get it under control, but it doesn’t seem like he actually can. It gets so bad that after taking some time off work, he returns injured, and then after being told by Voight to ride the desk, he disobeys that order and tries to go after a suspect, which leads to him getting into a car accident and getting even more hurt.
This is when Deputy Chief Reid approaches him, because Reid is like a shark who smells blood, and he senses that Torres is at his weakest. But Torres does what Reid wants only for a bit, and then calls Voight and lets him know. This allows Voight to get the guy Reid wants and then warn him about trying to get to his team behind his back. Of course, once this happens, it becomes obvious to the team what’s going on with Reid and Voight, and when Voight fills them all in, they all want in on trying to catch Reid. Even Torres.
But even in that final moment, it becomes clear Torres is not good. Calling Voight, supporting the team — it’s a step forward. But it’s not a fix, and the hardest thing is that it doesn’t seem like Torres knows what the fix is because it doesn’t seem like he knows what the problem is. He got involved with a CI, and he’s been spiraling ever since, perhaps because he hasn’t stopped to deal with what happened then.
And the only person who seems to be calling him out on it consistently, outside of Voight, is Kiana. Kim has done so in the past, too, but Kiana seems to be on top of it every time she sees him, and it seems to make Dante uncomfortable. Being seen like that is indeed uncomfortable, but it can also be a good thing. Everyone on the team has their person, and their relationship doesn’t necessarily have to be romantic for Kiana and Dante, but they are the two newest members of the team. So, it would be good if he let her in enough that they could be each other’s person, at least so they could have someone to check in with. Adam and Kim have each other. Kevin now has Val. Even Voight has Chapman. Who do they have? Everyone needs someone.
Chicago P.D. is available to stream on Peacock.
