Chicago P.D. Season 12 Episode 12 May Have Been The Darkest Episode Yet
Contains spoilers for "Chicago P.D." Season 12, Episode 12 — "The Good Shepherd"
"Chicago P.D." is built on grit, darkness, and tough-minded people doing tough-minded things. There have been plenty of gruesome crime scenes on the show that have gone too far. But Season 12, Episode 12, "The Good Shepherd," takes the cake when it comes to some of the ugliest crimes ever witnessed on "Chicago P.D." And Dante Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar, who has been on "Chicago P.D." before) is front and center, trying to help the innocent, only to learn that he's too late to help a number of kids out of an extremely dark, dire situation. But he does manage to save some of them, in an excellent example of the show's truthful, blunt nature.
What happens to Dante during "The Good Shepherd?" And what happens in the episode at large that makes this such a rough one to sit through? Here's everything that went down last Wednesday in what might be the darkest entry of the season yet, and how it might be hard for anyone to stomach watching.
What happened during The Good Shepherd?
During "The Good Shepherd," Dante Torres finds the body of a 15-year-old. It turns out the kid escaped from a local juvenile detention facility, where he was beaten. The facility has an awful reputation, and in researching the case Torres learns a lot of unsavory things about what's been going on there. But the nastiest surprise still awaits him.
While trying to figure out what happened to young Kai, Torres interviews his bunkmate, Tommy Lopez (Daniel Taveras). Tommy ends up leading Torres to Art Cervantes (Michael Garza), who is prostituting his fellow inmates to pedophiles. The reason why no one noticed Kai wandering off the property? The guards weren't watching the security camera footage because they knew these adults were on the property sexually abusing the children.
Torres later finds out, after Tommy and Art come to blows, that the children were being raped in the faculty's basement. Art eventually confesses that a seemingly-friendly guard, C.O. Theo Collins (Dylan Saunders), had been abusing him, indoctrinating him to the system. Torres shoots Collins to death, and a clean-up of the faculty begins.
How did the events of The Good Shepherd affect Torres?
Dante Torres survived the mean streets of Chicago in order to deliver justice to its citizens, so his reaction to the horrors of the detention center affects him deeply. The show has delved into his background before, allowing him to speak fluent Spanish on the show and talking about his childhood days. During this episode we see him at church, consulting with his priest in a reference to the importance of faith in his life.
He knows that something complex is going on with Tommy and Art — Art, with his crucifix tattoo, specifically reminds Dante of himself and his own faith and rough start. Dante can only think of how he got a chance to turn things around — which is definitely what he thinks Tommy deserves, and comes to believe that Art deserves, in spite of all evidence initially to the contrary. In the end he saves both boys from lives of degradation — and does it by effortlessly proving how far he's come over the years.
If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).