CHICAGO P.D.: Benjamin Levy Aguilar Previews Torres’ Dangerous Undercover Op—and a ‘Strong Connection’ with Yara Martinez’ Gloria

After spending the past few months on furlough, Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) is back with Intelligence on the Wednesday, February 7 episode of CHICAGO P.D., “Escape.”

“He’s been taking care of some stuff at home with his mom; the last time we saw him wasn’t the prettiest sight,” Aguilar tells Give Me My Remote in the video below. “He’s definitely been realizing that he has some sort of compulsive patterns [in] the past that sometimes come through. And he’s always navigating this thin line with controlling those patterns and also unleashing them when they serve him. So I think that’s where he’s struggling the most. Plus, you know, just taking care of his mom.”

And his home life isn’t far from his mind when he returns to the job. “Ooh, it’s weighing a lot,” Aguilar says. “[His mom is] doing okay, she’s doing a lot better, but it weighs a lot on him. He’s always taken on that paternal role since he became the man of the house when he was 14 years old. It’s kind of like this dynamic between mother and son that they kind of become like a couple in a way—he teaches her things and they have this different relationship. So, he definitely carries a lot more on his plate than any other normal kid would.”

Unfortunately for Torres, his first case back also requires a lot from him: He has to go undercover to work a drug trafficking operation. 

“He knows that he’s the man for the job,” Aguilar says. “He has no doubt about that, because he knows these types of people. He knows the streets. He knows the dynamics of these operations. But he gets caught up in some of them and it’s one of those things that he…finds himself in and then he’s trying to see how he navigates through the inside.”

But after so many months away from the job, how are Torres’ coworkers handling his UC gig? “I would hope that they are confident that he can do it, but I’m sure there’s doubt,” Aguilar acknowledges. “Even though [Torres has] been with them for a while, they still don’t really know [him]. [He’s] still such a private person in that sense, in his private life…I’m sure there’s definitely a little bit of both: There’s a confidence and there’s that maybe worry or doubt or anxiety.”

While undercover, Torres meets Gloria (Yara Martinez), a woman with a very important tie to the operation. “They’re very interesting together, because they kind of have a lot of similarities to them,” Aguilar says. “You could even call them kindred spirits, in a way, because she is trying to get out of that life—and he understands that very well. So there’s this push and pull with them the entire episode…there’s a strong connection that they can’t let go of. And there’s a lot of mutual understanding, I guess.”

Though the on-screen relationship between the duo is complex, Aguilar has nothing but praise for his time working with Martinez.

“My gosh, she’s great,” he gushes. “Yara is amazing. We had so much fun shooting the episode. It was easy from the beginning. And also we both speak Spanish and [we were] talking our own language and having fun during takes.”

“I love finding different people to work with and understanding their processes and adapting them,” he continues. “That’s like one of the things that I love in my career…sometimes you have actors that require that intensity the entire time and sometimes you have actors that the more comfortable they are, the more intensity comes…I had a lot of fun with Yara; I love her.”

Update, 5:39 PM PT: Watch a scene from “Escape”…

CHICAGO P.D., Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC

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