Chicago P.D. Season 13 Episode 2 "Open Wounds" Recap

Torres is having a rough time. You can tell he’s weighed down by everything—his past, his doubts, and the fight to get his badge back. He talks about how some people hurt themselves just to feel something, anything. Pain, for them, is a kind of release when nothing else makes sense. It’s clear Torres is searching for a way to keep going.

Then Brenda Alvarez shows up. She’s scared and frustrated. She tells Torres she called the cops after her husband was kidnapped and waited for help... but no one ever came. She feels totally abandoned by the system. But she trusts Torres; he's from the neighborhood, someone she knows. That’s why she came to him. Even with her fear and distrust, she knows he’s on her side. Brenda’s husband was put into a van and she saw it happen. Shortly after their bank notified her of a large ATM withdrawal. 

Torres tries to calm her down, telling her he’s there to help. But Brenda’s been burned before and she’s terrified for her husband’s safety.

Torres calls this into Voight and he dispatches the team to try and get ahead of this kidnapping. They can see that he was forced to take the money from the ATM, then once the mac limit reset he hit the ATM again. The  team is on the trail of a white van the kidnappers’ ride. These guys are slick, wearing masks, hitting multiple ATMs to pull cash right before the daily limits reset. They’re smart and careful, always staying one step ahead. Voight lets Torres know to keep an eye on Brenda because now that the kidnappers are on to them they think the ATM game is over and may try to get a ransom payment out of this. The Alvarez’s own the neighborhood grocery store. 

Torres goes to Brenda’s to ask if she received a ransom demand. When he knocks there is no answer. But the door is open. Inside is the Alverez’s son. Torres asks for his mom and tells him she is upstairs. When Torres goes upstairs he can hear Brenda on the phone and it sounds like she is getting the ransom demand now. When Brenda realizes that Torres is there she becomes angry and yells for him to get out that she does not trust the police. She forces Torres out and makes him feel even worse because he knows she is hiding something.Torres and the team follow her every step. When she reaches the drop-off, a bald man shows up and shots ring out. Torres manages  to take down one guy, but the van and the rest slip away.

The dead guy turns out to be Ross Scubin, a man with a shady past and connections to a dangerous crew. Security cameras catch the white van fleeing from a warehouse where a body was found. The team track down the van’s license plate and recover the vehicle, arresting the driver, Jason Macho. Jason’s nervous, with ties to illegal gambling, but he keeps his mouth shut at first.

Meanwhile, Detective Burgess learns that Gustavo Sand, a guy who survived a kidnapping a few months back. His contact is Jimenia Sand she owns a tattoo shop and it’s clear when Burgess and Torres go to question her she doesn’t trust the police either. She tells them her cousin is not there and why are they investigating two months later. Gustavo can hear the questions and he comes out once he knows there has been another kidnapping. He tells them that the kidnappers held him near a place that smelled like rotten eggs. That clue points the team toward an old, abandoned food processing plant.

Back at the precinct Torres watched Jason just clam up and keep his mouth shut and wanted to take a run at the suspect. Under pressure, Jason finally names Mike Delar as the man who killed Ivan Alvarez but says he doesn’t know where Mike is hiding. The police prepare for a showdown with Mike. Torres applies massive pressure and lets him know they all know it’s a 3 man crew. The 1 suspect is deceased which leaves him and Mike and if they can’t find Mike then he will take all the charges. This scares Jason and he tells them about a storage facility that Mike has. Once Torres goes to leave Jason says what about a deal. Torres is clear I never offered you anything!!

At the facility the team has Mike surrounded, but Torres is the one confronting him. This is the showdown. It doesn’t help that Mike is trash talking Torres. At this moment what will he do? It’s just them on that roof. Torres tells Mike to put the gun down, but Mike will not listen. Atwater comes on the scene. Atwater is calm and he can sense the tension that is rolling off of Torres. Atwater makes it clear that if Mike is smart he will drop the gun. Mike knows he is out numbered and drops his weapon. Atwater takes him in. 

Later on the scene Atwater talks to Torres and explains to him he understands wanting to do for his people and his neighborhood, but until he takes care of himself he can really help anyone else. It’s then that Atwater notices that the wound Torres sustained earlier the stitches are busted and he tells him to get it looked at before it’s infected. 

Torres is at a bar clearing drinking water, but clearly sad about not being able to bring Ivan home to his family. It's weighing on him. Jeminia is at the bar and decides to go over to talk. Right then Torres tells her his faith used to get him through the dark times in this job, he would pray and there would be a light that helped him, but now it’s gone. She can see his arm and would. She asks him did he do this to feel the pain? Torres confesses yes he needs to feel something. They talk and little more and then she makes a move that allows Torres to feel pain and pleasure at the same time. Will it work we don’t know, but something has to give in order for Dante Torres to get back to the cop we knew just a year ago. 

Through all this, Torres keeps juggling his personal struggles and the case. His vulnerability makes him real, a cop doing his best to hold it all together, both on the streets and inside himself. 

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