Chicago PD Season 12: Who Is Valerie Soto?

Contains spoilers for "Chicago P.D." Season 12, Episode 17 — "Transference"

Even among the hard-luck denizens of "Chicago P.D.," forensic psychologist Valerie Soto (Natalee Linez) has coped with some uniquely ugly things in the three times she's appeared on the drama. Her debut earlier in the season in "Off Switch" includes a lot of flirtation and a passionate kiss from Kevin Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins), who finally has a fresh story thanks to her. She also helps him piece together a case involving multiple homicides at a consignment shop. Then, in "Street Jesus," she pops up to remind audiences of their keeping-it-casual dating situation and has to keep her distance when he deals with a very personal homicide case. 

But in "Transference" she's the center of a kidnapping case herself, much to Atwater's horror. The perp is one of Valerie's patients, a guy named Nick (Jacob Moskovitz) who kills an online troll who had been harassing her. He ends up stalking and eventually kidnapping her, but Valerie defends him right to the end, even as he holds her hostage. Kevin and his colleagues are forced to shoot their way in — and Nick doesn't make it. 

In the aftermath, Valerie tries to sift through her feelings with Kevin; she's used to dealing with the most violent of perps, but this is a new one on her, and she admits to Atwater that she got attached to Nick, too. She took on his case right after her own mother died and they messily transferred their feelings for their families onto each other. Though the case puts her relationship with Kevin in question, they ultimately choose to stay together. Natalee Linez, meanwhile, has had no problem keeping it together as her rising career has taken off.

Natalee Linez is a much in-demand actress; she's been playing Jessica Figueroa on "Book of Power III: Raising Kanan" and Valerie at the same time, which indicates how many producers want her on their sets. Before playing Valerie or Jessica, she was Nicole in the three-season-long fantasy series "Siren" and joined the cast of "Tell Me Lies" as Lydia. She's also guested on "9-1-1," "The Good Doctor," "CSI: Vegas," and "NCIS: Hawai'i," and has appeared in the Tubi original "Blood, Beach, Betrayal" and the independent film "Natural Disasters."

Linez isn't just an actress: she also has a company under her belt that has created the self-help, mental health, wellness, and lifestyle system "My Magic Mornings." But success and fame weren't always at the tips of her fingers; she confessed on the podcast "We Audition" that she was rejected 300 times for a variety of roles before finally landing "Siren." That's an act of bravery Valerie Soto would definitely approve of.