Chicago P.D. Season 13, Episode 2 ‘Open Wounds‘ gives us both Dante Torres speaking a decent amount of Spanish and wearing black. Already two things we’re not used to seeing! Outside of that, though, the hour is pretty much a run-of-the-mill case of the week, and one that doesn’t even give us too much new information about Dante.
Sure, we get a closer look at his family life and at the neighborhood he grew up in, but we’d already seen that. That’s how Dante’s character was established in the first place. In fact, ever since he was introduced, we’ve gotten very little from him other than a) stories from his neighborhood, b) bad decisions involving a CI, and c) him stepping in to undercover Latino when needed.
Chicago P.D. has worked best, as of late, when it focuses on characters. In that regard, the show has had a recent string of good Voight episodes, mostly because Voight is the most defined character in the show. Whether you love him or hate him, chances are you know who he is and you have an opinion about him. The same cannot always be said of Dante Torres.
But it’s not just that Dante is very much a blank canvas, still. It’s also that he doesn’t really have any emotional anchor points in this show. He had a strong relationship with Jay Halstead, but Jay is long gone. He developed somewhat of a connection with Hailey Upton. She’s gone, too. Then, it seemed like he and Kiana Cook were becoming close. Kiana is now gone. Throughout it all, Dante has remained the character at the periphery of this show, the one they don’t know how to use, and the one who doesn’t fit anywhere.
‘Open Wounds’ doesn’t rely too much on stereotypes to tell its story, and it’s always good to get scenes with Benjamin Levy Aguilar being unapologetically Latino on screen, especially in this day and age. But there’s just no depth to Dante’s story right now, and this episode doesn’t really give the impression that the show has figured out how to give him that in the near future. Sure, there’s that suggestion about him hurting himself, but that’s been a suggestion for a while. We haven’t really explored it.
Eva Imani has been around for 0.2 seconds, and her presence already elicits more of an emotional reaction, even if not that much has been established about her background either. That’s a problem. For the show, for the team dynamics they’re trying to build, and certainly for Dante Torres’ hopes of continuing to be a part of Chicago P.D. in the long run. We hope the show can figure this out going forward, but right now, we’re not really holding out hope.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Chicago P.D. Season 13, Episode 2 ‘Open Wounds’? Share with us in the comments below! And if you have your own opinion on the show, leave a review/rating on our Chicago P.D. hub!
Chicago P.D. airs on Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.
