‘Line of Fire’ Sneak Peek Reveals New Details About Jack

NBC’s new drama Line of Fire ended its series premiere with a major twist for the family at the heart of it, the Hollingsworths: Mike’s (Peter Krause) said to be dead son, Jack (Charlie Barnett), is posing as the neighbor of his sister Clare’s (Kat Cunning) boyfriend Logan (Pico Alexander) — and apparently a killer?! He murdered Logan when he found him snooping in his family’s house, but not before accusing him of hiding something, and based on the origami crane left behind matching one at another homicide scene, that’s not his first kill. But what exactly is going on with his not-so-dead son?

TV Insider’s exclusive sneak peek of the Monday, September 28, episode sheds a bit more light on the situation, via a conversation shared between Mike and Jane (Hope Davis) away from the rest of the family and the Department of Homeland Security’s Wallce (Antoinette Crowe-Legacy).

“How do we know it was Jack?” Jane says, voicing Mike’s thoughts. “We were told to tell everyone he died when he went undercover.”

When he wonders if Jack could’ve reached out to the other kids, she figures he hasn’t since none of them have said anything. After all, “They think he died when we said he did,” she adds.

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Mike argues, “We didn’t have a choice. That’s what he wanted.” But Jane sees it differently: “We did have a choice. You just didn’t want to make it.” Whatever the case, Mike stresses, “Agent Wallace can’t find out that we think it’s Jack. If he is alive, we have to reach him before they do and find out why he’s doing this. You remember he gave us that number of a supervisor in an emergency, asked us to memorize it, never write it down?”

Watch the full sneak peek above to see if both remember that number and who’s going to call it — and why.

That secret, which only part of the family knows, “was always part of the creation of the show,” showrunner Joshua Safran told us. “I knew I wanted to do a show about a family of law enforcement agents, and one of them may or may not be a killer. And how do you deal with that? Weirdly, the tagline of the poster is every case hits home is really what the show is, but you don’t really know that until you watch it.”

Spencer Pazer/NBC

He added, “I think one of the reasons why Pete and Hope attached to this project was because they were interested in the more complex idea of parents who know something — they truly told their children that this person, their brother died, and they watched their children grieve, and they knew that it was a lie. And that’s a really bad thing. I’d say more than even the twist of Jack potentially being the bad guy is the twist of what the parents have done to this family. We often talk in the room about what’s the worst thing? Is it the kids finding out Jack’s alive or is it the kids finding out that Jack’s bad? And it’s always the kids finding out that Jack’s alive. Because in the line of work they do, no one is bad, everyone has their reasons. Sure, I mean, bad actions happen, and things have to be made accountable, but no one is ever good or bad.”

In this next episode, titled “A Bigger Picture,” NBC teases, “A bank heist turns deadly as the U.S. Marshals and FBI clash to bring down the fugitive, pitting Jane against Clare. Micah [Tommy O’Brien] adjusts to working for Mike on the Secret Service while hiding a forbidden relationship.”

Line of Fire, Mondays, 10/9c, NBC