Spoilers ahead for the penultimate episode of Chicago P.D. Season 10, called “New Life.”
Chicago P.D. had a rough ride for Torres in “New Life,” as he went from attending a baptism to discovering a dying man in a car trunk before even the first commercial break. He scrambled to keep secrets as best he could, and he ultimately crossed a line when he threatened to waterboard a man for information instead of arresting him. Luckily, the situation didn’t escalate to any actual waterboarding, and whether or not he went way too far by P.D. standards is a question that the episode didn’t answer. Actor Benjamin Levy Aguilar opened up about what Torres did… and what he might have done if he didn’t get the information when he did.
“New Life” revealed that Torres had to work as a gang enforcer when he was a kid, with no choice if he wanted his mother to be safe. There were even rumors that he was at least partly responsible for somebody dying after being waterboarded. There was a lot more to that story, but Torres kept it to himself until the very end of the episode (which will be available streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription), and he definitely made the man believe that he was about to be drowned over and over again.
When Benjamin Levy Aguilar (who also shared that he “shocked” himself with “New Life”) spoke with CinemaBlend about the big Torres episode, I asked for his thoughts on what his character might have done if he hadn’t gotten the confession when he did. The actor shared:
That’s a hard question. Logically, I would say, he would have stopped and found a different angle. In that moment, it seemed like he wasn’t gonna. I’m gonna be honest – in that moment, I felt like I wasn’t gonna. I felt that when he said the words I was looking for, there was this relief that I felt. Even as an actor, I just felt this relief of, ‘I don’t have to go there,’ because I was pushing myself to go there. When you convince yourself you’re gonna go somewhere, sometimes it’s hard not to go there. I really don’t know how to answer that question, but it’s a very good question, and I think it’s up for interpretation.
Torres slowly and methodically gathering the supplies he’d need to waterboard the suspect really did sell that not only did he know what he was doing, but he was willing to do it to get the information. It was a scary side of the character never seen on P.D. before.
It all made sense later when he confessed to Voight (Jason Beghe) that his experience with that form of torture came from when he himself was waterboarded when he left the gang, but Torres certainly sold his ruse enough that he got a confession. When I noted that it seemed like the character wasn’t thinking too far ahead, Aguilar responded:
Exactly. He was just in the moment, following his instincts and saying, ‘Okay, I’m gonna take you here and put you here, and then I’m going to figure it out.’ Improvise, you know? But when you do that, under adrenaline and intense emotions, it’s a dangerous thing.
The situation was all the more dangerous for the fact that Torres was alone with the suspect when he set up the waterboarding scenario, and didn’t know that Voight was watching when the situation escalated. He had avoided confiding in Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) throughout “New Life” despite their bond that P.D. revealed in her big emotional episode, and didn’t reach out to Atwater despite him stepping up as a mentor earlier in Season 10.
It’s impossible to say what might have gone differently if he’d been fully honest with his fellow officers, and Benjamin Levy Aguilar shared whether he’d like to see Torres open up to them in Season 11:
Sure, eventually. I don’t think it happens overnight. I think that is innately kind of what he believes he is. He’s always had to keep things to himself, and it’s very hard for him to trust people. So I would think it’s a struggle for him to get there, but we all strive to be better human beings, just as I think for Torres, it would be just better for his heart if he could surrender to people in that way. But it’s hard when you come from such a childhood.
Fortunately, there’s no sign that Chicago P.D. is finished telling Torres’ story, and the hit NBC crime drama has been renewed for Season 11 in the 2023-2024 TV season, along with Chicago Fire and Chicago Med. Less fortunately, it looks like the Intelligence Unit is going to have to survive a dangerous ordeal involving Richard Beck in the Season 10 finale before summer hiatus. At the very least, we may not want to let LaRoyce Hawkins’ optimism give us too much of a sense of security!
Tune in to NBC on Wednesday, May 24 at 10 p.m. ET for the Season 10 finale of Chicago P.D., following Chicago Fire with Jesse Spencer’s return at 9 p.m. and Chicago Med at 8 p.m. There’s no confirmation of when One Chicago will return with new episodes later this year, so be sure to check out our 2023 TV premiere schedule in the meantime!