When Torres comes across a dead teenager, he goes undercover at a juvenile detention center in Chicago PD season 12, episode 12. Let’s look back at the events.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from Chicago PD season 12, episode 12.
Intelligence gets a disturbing case. It all opens with Torres, who is focused on his faith to repent for everything he’s done recently, executing a search warrant to find the body of a teen in a barn. This has nothing to do with the guy they’re serving the search warrant on. It’s soon clear from security footage that the guy really had no idea who the kid was or how he got there.
So, what happened? Well, Torres had to go undercover after finding out the kid was in a juvenile detention center. It just so happened to b the one Torres was once at.
Torres searches for clues in Chicago PD season 12, episode 12
It’s clear that the kid, Kai, was injured while at the detention center. This is something that doesn’t sit right with any of them, especially as the guards keep saying that this kid went missing without anyone realizing. It’s clear his cellmate is lying, and I think we can clearly tell he’s lying because the guards have made it clear that if he talks, he’s next.
The kid escaped the detention center and went to the barn for help. Instead of finding help, he died from his injuries.
Torres shares that all the staff at the center won’t remember him from when he was there as a teen. He can go undercover. It helps that he knows the place, and he wants to get justice for this kid.
He finds a burner phone outside the gate, but he also realizes that Kai’s cellmate has been forced to cover a few things up. Torres decides to wear a wire to get all the information he needs to easily pass to Intelligence.
Torres ends up locked inside a cell with an inmate
When there’s a fight that breaks out in the cafeteria, the lockdown process is initiated. This is where we get the moment from the promo for Chicago PD season 12, episode 12 of Torres being trapped in the room with an inmate.
However, it turns out that nothing happens. Torres has a freak out being trapped in the room, and it’s clear he still holds trauma from his time in the detention center. Just being trapped in the room with the alarms going off triggers him.
Once he gets out, he is able to get calm and get on with the task at hand. He needs to make sure everyone is in their cells. Of course, Kai’s cellmate, Tommy, isn’t in his cell. Nor is he in solitary.
With no sign of him, Torres goes back to the kid Tommy started a fight with in the cafeteria. This kid is also terrified, scared that Torres has been sent to trick him into talking. This will lead to some sort of beating, it seems. Torres decides to tell the kid the truth about him once being there and being police to get to the bottom of what happened to Kai and where Tommy is.
I love that while Torres notices that this kid, Art, wants redemption. Art has turned to the Bible for help, and he wants to see Art succeed. It’s just what he needs to get to Tommy, who has been taken to another building into a basement. There’s a bed and camera set up, and Tommy is on the bed beaten. What is going on in this juvenile detention center?
We’re reminded of the abuse that happens. It may only be a few bad eggs in the center, but it’s enough to cause fear in so many of the teens. None of this is right, and people need to speak up when bad eggs act out. Silence is compliance. Is it easy? Definitely not. We’ve seen Atwater go through hell when he decided to go against the blue line. But it’s worth it to bring change.
Torres bonds with Art to get answers in Chicago PD
We get a beautiful moment of seeing Torres bond with Art. He knows that not all these kids are bad. They have been dealt a bad hand, and they’re figuring out the world. There is hope in Art. He’s very much like Torres when he was younger.
In some good news, Tommy is going to be okay. Now it’s time for Art to share information about who he was texting on the burner and what is actually going on with the guards.
Torres points out that what Art did was under duress, and it’s not his fault. Art explains that he didn’t want everything to happen to him anymore. He ended up picking out the boys and grooming them to allow the guards to have their way with them. As the entire situation got worse, Art felt more and more guilty for his actions.
Art finally gave a name: CO Collins. He would be the one doing the acts, but he paid another CO to keep the halls clear. Collins beat Kai, but then Kai was able to get away.
It’s important to remember that Art was abused. He was a victim as well, and while he did turn on the other boys and lead them into these awful situations, he was doing it to survive the abusive situation he was in. Torres was right that it was all under duress. While Art should certainly hold himself accountable for his actions, it’s not all his family. CO Collins is the one who needs to be fully held accountable, and that’s what Intelligence does.
Collins won’t be able to hold himself accountable, though. He decides to shoot at Torres, which leads to Torres shooting him. It’s Death by Cop, the way so many go out because they know they can’t live with what they did. These cowards are happy to dish it out, but not happy to face the punishment for their actions.
There is some hope for Art, though. Torres gets him into another juvenile detention center for the last seven weeks of his sentence. Art does leave Torres with something to think about. Torres still couldn’t close the door at the center. That life never leaves them; what they did never leaves them. Do they all deserve to be punished forever?
Will we end up seeing a crisis of faith in Torres as the season goes on? This episode has certainly opened up a lot for his psychological state, especially after everything with Gloria.
Chicago PD airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC. Catch up the following day on Peacock.
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