Danny Taylor (Without a Trace)

Special Agent Danny Taylor is a fictional character played by actor Enrique Murciano on the CBS television crime drama Without a Trace. He is an FBI agent and a member of the FBI missing persons case squad in New York City.

Danny, whose original name was Danny Alvarez, comes from a troubled background. His parents were killed in a car accident when he was a young boy. He blamed himself for the accident. Danny's father was yelling at his mother and Danny wanted him to stop. He began to misbehave in the backseat to distract his father's attention. His father turned around to yell at him and the car crashed. Danny and his brother were put in foster care, where Danny had a troubled youth. Eventually Danny straightened out his life and changed his surname to distance himself from his past. Due to this, Danny is frequently sympathetic to drug addicts, alcoholics and children with poor home situations.

Danny studied to become a lawyer, but was unable to pass the bar exam due to his alcoholism: he had a car accident on the morning of the exam.^[1] Nowadays Danny is a recovering alcoholic. In season four, Danny is the first to notice Martin's drug problem and is quick to suggest that he needs help. Danny introduced Martin to AA and started him on the road to recovery.

Danny has good relationships with his co-workers, frequently supporting them in their personal lives, as well as their professional ones. Danny respects Jack and is very loyal to him. He sees Jack as a father figure and often connects with Jack on a personal level, which no one else on the team, except Samantha, ever achieves. He often sees Vivian as the mother figure of the team. When Martin first joined the team, Danny had an adversarial relationship with Martin but they soon found that they worked well together. They have become close friends over the years. Danny is friendly with Samantha and they frequently enjoy a teasing relationship. When Sam became pregnant in the sixth season, Danny quickly purchased her a gift and showed his support.

In the fifth season, he started a relationship with fellow Agent Elena Delgado while she was working through some custody issues with her ex (also Danny's friend) over their daughter Sofie. Danny wants to get involved, which eventually leads to Sofie being kidnapped by Elena's ex, Carlos Aguilar. It appears that the relationship has since continued.

Danny has an older brother, Rafael "Rafi" Alvarez, played by actor Alex Fernandez, who protected him from their father's abuse. Rafi became a drug addict and small-time criminal and was sentenced to prison. Danny didn't want anything to do with him until Sylvia Marquez, Rafi's girlfriend and mother of his son Nicky, came looking for him and Danny finally agreed to testify on his behalf in his parole hearing.^[2] Rafi got parole and started working in Sylvia's brother's garage, but ran into trouble again when he tried to start a garage of his own. In episode 21 of season 3 "Off the Tracks" Sylvia called Danny when Rafi disappeared, and he discovered his brother had gotten addicted to drugs again. Danny was able to find him and they reconciled. In season seven we learn that Danny has continued seeing Agent Delgado and spending time with her daughter Sofi.^[1] On the anniversary of the day he said "I love you" he gave her a gold necklace, and they decided to take their relationship public at work when Jack Malone saw them kissing (7x07). Later in the final season, Danny and Elena get married.

References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 3x21 "Off the Tracks"
2. ↑ 2x18 "Legacy"