‘Line of Fire’ Boss Explains What That Major Reveal About Logan Means for Clare

Clare’s (Kat Cunning) grief just got much more complicated on Line of Fire. Just who was her boyfriend, Logan (Pico Alexander), who was killed in the premiere, and was anything about their relationship real? That’s just one question we have after the latest episode. TV Insider spoke with executive producer Joshua Safran to get answers. Warning: Spoilers for Line of Fire Episode 2 ahead!

Clare throws herself back into work, putting her at odds with her mother, Jane (Hope Davis), on a case involving bank robberies, while Homeland Security’s Wallace (Antoinette Crowe-Legacy) investigates Logan. Jack (Charlie Barnett) had said he wasn’t who he said he was, and he was right. As Wallace uncovers, there were tags on Logan’s stuff, he moved in six months ago and bought a car two days before that, and when she calls his place of employment, it sounds like the woman is reading from a screen … and she’s sitting in a cubicle among dozens in an office.

The episode ends with Wallace visiting Clare to tell her that Logan’s ID was backstopped; he wasn’t a history teacher who found her out of nowhere, but an undercover CIA operator whose assignment was likely her.

Clare is “not doing well” with that information, Safran told TV Insider. “She definitely does not enjoy that and tries to — you’ll see in Episode 3 and moving forward. [Something] we’re trying to do on the show [is] people don’t wrap up their feelings. She will be dealing with her grief and the other issues that she’s experiencing after what she finds out in Episode 2 for many episodes. It’s not a quick, ‘I’m over this.’ The reverberations will continue with her being a person who her whole job is seeing people and seeing behind what they’re saying, and she totally missed this. And so if you think you are good at your job because of your insight and you were missing the thing that was closest to you, your insight, your security is out the window. She is very insecure moving forward about her gifts, and that is something that we’re going to watch her wrestle with.”

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As for Logan’s assignment, it feels like if he was looking at Clare, he was also looking at the rest of the family as well (hence the snooping when he returned to Jane’s house where he was killed). All Safran would say to that was, “You’re onto something.”

He added, “I hope the audiences don’t mind this, but we definitely are trying to make a series where it doesn’t go crazy and off the rails. So, the journey of discovering these things is not going to be resolved in three episodes. We have really tried to create it so that this mystery can last all season. The [writers’] room is breaking Episode 11 now and we’re still dealing with stuff regarding Logan. It’s not like you’re going to get exactly perfect clean answers to his entire story by Episode 4.”

Meanwhile, Jane thinks that the cranes left at crime scenes aren’t from Mike’s (Peter Krause) thought-to-be-dead son Jack but rather someone who knew him. She’s had to tell herself that he actually was dead — the cover story when he went undercover, even for the other kids — and the last pay stub in his alas is from over a year ago, suggesting he did die in service. So, where’s Mike when it comes to that?

Spencer Pazer/NBC

“They are definitely not on the same page when it comes to Jack,” confirmed Safran of the separated exes who are still sleeping together despite her preparing for her new boyfriend to move in. “And that plays into the conversation about why they are where they are in their romantic place. It’s related to Jack. That comes up a lot. Jane will take on more of the investigation than Mike because Jane’s job is one of cases come up and they get resolved. Mike’s job is 24/7. He has to do that job. He can’t take time off.”

He continued, “Sometimes she will not include him, and that will be an issue for him. As Jane is investigating and maybe not telling Mike things, Mike is like, ‘Is this about our relationship? Is that why you’re not telling me things or are you trying to protect me?’ They’re always dealing with their relationship issues even as they’re dealing with their work.”

What’s your theory about Logan? Let us know in the comments section below.

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