After a long break, Chicago PD fans will finally see the return of Benjamin Levy Aguilar's Dante Torres this Wednesday after a long absence.
When the show returned to NBC on January 17, 2024 for season 11, we learned that Torres had taken a sabbatical to look after his mother, with Detective Hank Vought (Jason Beghe) being encouraged by Officer Trudy Platt to replace Torres and Adam Ruzek (Patrick J. Flueger) who was out injured. But now, after three weeks, Torres will be back – and with a bang, as season 11 episode four will focus on the young officer as he goes undercover in a high-stakes drug trafficking case that will change his life, and career, forever.
"He always seems to do things his own way, breaks his own rules and just gets into situations," Benjamin tells HELLO! of Torres' intense return, suggesting that the decision to go undercover on such a serious case isn't necessarily an example of Torres proving himself to others, but more to himself.
"He is eager to be back. He's not necessarily a people pleaser but he has an internal battle of needing to prove things to himself so I think when he takes on these cases it's a need to really become the best that he can become," he adds.
"It's his first time deeply undercover, taking on a big challenge, and maybe there is this need to prove himself that can make it seem like he's biting off more than he can chew. He throws himself into it, which also is what makes him such an exciting character."
"I think he learns from everybody and that's the strength of Torres," Benjamin continues.
"He is so perceptive and anything he sees, in anyone around him, he will pick up those skills and those ways of speaking, anything that can help him grow. Even a gang member on the street, he will learn behavior from them."
Guatemala-born Benjamin joined the show in season nine but was upped to a regular for season ten.
He was temporarily taken under the wing of Detective Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) before he moved full time to the Intelligence Unit after the departure of Jay.
With Jay's departure, Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins) has taken over as a confidante, although as Benjamin shares, "it's not necessarily a mentor thing like Jay – Jay was definitely a mentor for Torres – but Kevin is someone he can trust and is a friend".
Torres' quiet nature and desire to keep parts of his life secret have long hinted at a troubled past, however, and at the end of season 10, it emerged that as a teenager he was a gang enforcer for a drug dealer.
Desperate for a way out, he faked the death of a hit target and was tortured as a result. Torres told Voight the truth, but the rest of the team do not yet know – and after this week's episode, Torres may find himself keeping even more secrets from the team.