The CW series 4400 has only scratched the surface Cory Jeacoma‘s character of Logan Kaminski. Sixteen years ago, Logan was in love with Shanice (Brittany Adebumola). They had a newborn baby named Mariah. And then, the phenomenon that brought the 4400 to 2021 split them apart, with Logan having no idea where Shanice had gone to beyond a note that was found from Shanice.
The series’ pilot episode explored what happened when Shanice first came to Logan’s home and found that he had a new wife named Bridget and had seemingly moved on with his life… now, in the series’ eighth episode “The Kaminski Experiment” airing tonight (December 13) on The CW, we’ll see how Logan really feels, and how his “moving on” from losing Shanice might not be as easy as audiences may have thought.
KSiteTV spoke with actor Cory Jeacoma about Logan and tonight’s episode, and you can read our interview below.
KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: Can you talk about how we’re going to finally get to see Logan’s backstory in this episode?
CORY JEACOMA: It’s been fun watching all the Twitter responses to Logan, and a lot of animosity towards the guy because of the fact that he moved on while she was gone. But, [with] me spending so much time with Logan, I understand and know his backstory. I know what he went through, and the trauma that he’s dealt with, in terms of moving on from his first love.
A lot of other people who watch the show, all they see is the progression of the character, which is that Shanice comes back, and he goes from from zero to 1000 in terms of his defensiveness, and the way he handles in dealing with Mariah, and all that. I also think that it’s the blessing and curse of having someone as lovely and talented and wonderful as Brittany Adebumola. Of course people going to take her side! She’s so friggin’ lovely. How could you not love her? So anyone who brings a tear to her, they’re like, “well, I don’t like him.” So, I’m really excited for people to see the trauma and see the work that Logan had to go through, to move on and live a good life and a full life despite this crazy thing that happened to him.
I think a lot of people are discrediting the weight that the note that Shanice wrote Logan. They’re not weighing that in so much, because they’re like, “oh, she had postpartum depression,” like Logan should understand that. But at the end of the day, all that Logan had was this note that said, “I’m sorry, I can’t do this anymore.” And then she left. So to Logan, that is what happened, when in reality, she disappeared and all this other stuff, but for 16 years, that’s all that Logan had, and he read that note every day, practically, so those words were ingrained in his mind, so then when she’s came back, and she’s giving him this story that “I didn’t leave, it’s only been two days,” he’s like, “Yeah, sure. Okay. But tell that to my therapist.”
I’m excited for people to see to see the work and the journey that Logan went through, and the real wrestling that he’s dealing with in his everyday life.
How does Logan feel now that Shanice seems to be moving on herself, and is he conflicted in his own feelings?
Oh, of course. But I think that with with Logan, I might be a little biased, since I spend a lot of time with the guy…. in the first episode, she looks at Logan with Bridget and Mariah, his new family that he’s formed into, and says “how long?” and he says “nine years.” I’m no mathematician, but that means that it took the man seven years to move on. It took him seven years to find someone else.
That’s seven years. When Shanice says that she’s only been back for two days in the first episode, by the time she starts developing a relationship with Andre, It’s only been like two weeks or so. So in my opinion, I’m like, “wait a second, my man took seven years and y’all are mad at me.” But no one’s saying anything about Shanice moving on to two weeks.
I think that you see Logan getting defensive, and you see him getting upset about the fact that she and Andre are spending so much time together. There’s a scene in Episode 5 where he bumps into Shanice and Andre coming back from the pride parade, and he sees this tattoo on Andre’s hand, and he says “you go to a lot of clubs, Andre” or something along those lines, and I think a lot of people may have misinterpreted that line as something that it wasn’t. I think that what it was, was him getting upset that he’s spending so much time with Shanice. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here dealing with my daughter sending out this video of the 4400, and I’m doing the parenting that Shanice is saying she wants to be a part of, which is why he sort of snaps on Shanice there.
At the end of the day, he’s considering everyone else except for himself, and he feels like the bad guy, and then Shanice is sort of like developing this new life without him. Meanwhile, he’s dealing with the reality that she’s back every single day, and he’s grappling with that. He’s talking to his wife, Bridget, and I’m sure that’s causing some risks in their relationship. What do I do my my first love is back, and is saying that she never left. You’ve got to imagine that’s causing some some serious marital problems for them. You see a little bit of it in the beginning of Episode 8, where Bridget is talking sort of down about the 4400 and Logan is saying, “come on, Bridge. Not everyone’s like us. Some people want nothing to do with the 4400. So you have to understand that, and we’ve got to do the right thing.”
Can you talk about the grief discussion group that Logan meets with in Episode 8? And is it awkward that Keisha is there?
When I found out that I was getting my own episode, I was hoping there was going to be some sort of therapy or mental health discussion, and you would see the work that Logan is going through. Not just him moving on, or going on dates or any of that, but seeing what this man went through to get his mind right after such a traumatic experience. I’m really happy that they showed you’ve got to put the work in to better yourself and to move on from something like that.
I think Keisha being there is the perfect example of how we’re not so different. Keisha, in a way, went through a similar journey that Logan’s going through with the 4400. At first, she was kind of the hard-ass parole officer who was like, “no, we don’t know these people”, and you know, sort of being careful and hyper-sensitive. Logan, I think, was doing the same with with Mariah and making sure that he was doing the right thing.
Seeing them both come together in this grief group to talk about similar issues in such different ways… her with her sister, him with his then-wife, and then they have a scene where they’re talking and she’s saying, “you know, I think it would be good for you to come and do this thing, and then she in a way slaps him across the face and is like, “I don’t feel bad for you, dude. You you got what everyone wanted. Sure. Be sad. Feel your feelings. But take action. Don’t just don’t just sit there and wallow. You have to you have to do something. And then she walks away, and he’s just sitting there with his thoughts going, “well, $#!+.”
Can you talk about inviting Hayden into the family, and how Logan might react if he found out that the 4400 have abilities?
I think that in a way, taking in a 4400 is a peace offering; extending an olive branch to Shanice saying “it’s not because of you being a 4400 that I don’t want to take you in. It’s because I’ve got this family that I’ve created and that I’ve raised and I’ve got a new wife and you have to understand that despite my feelings for you. I can’t take you into my home.” It’s him going “I love you, Shanice, I really do, ut I just can’t take you in. It would cause too many problems.” I think him taking in Hayden is very much him showing and “it’s not you, it’s me” kind of thing.
With the superpowers? I don’t I don’t even think that that is is a possibility in anyone’s mind. I mean, imagine if someone came up to you, and was like, “hey, Craig, I can see into the future!” You’d be like, “oh, sure!” It won’t be until it starts genuinely affecting his life, and he starts seeing the repercussions of what this phenomenon has done and has contributed to these people’s lives, that he really understands the magnitude of what this is, and in a way, I think it might require that for him to fully see Shanice for who she is now.
As an actor, are you as conflicted as Logan is with what he should do?
Oh, man. You know, I am. I totally get it this the man has moved on, and to go to revert back and to almost fall into old habits would be detrimental to the progress that he’s made. Cory’s immediate defense would be if someone walked out on me, and all I had was a letter saying I can’t do this anymore, [they were gone] for 16 years, and then they come back, I would look at them and be like “you’ve got some pair of balls to come back.”
Logan had to handle it with more compassion, because he created life with Shanice. He’s got a daughter who he had to look at everyday for 16 years and see Shanice in her and and deal with that pain.
He loves Mariah more than anything, and I think that Mariah, in a sense, was his way of loving Shanice from afar. Despite everything, when you go through heartbreak with someone you really love, do you ever really move on? I think is Logan’s internal monologue throughout the whole season. Logan is a deeply flawed man because of the situation.
What do you think Mariah wants from Shanice?
Mariah just wants a relationship. She wants to know why she is the way that she is why she is. Growing up, I was always like, “why do I have this character attribute?” Growing up and spending more time with my family and the older I get, the more that I want to understand my parents as people rather than the superheroes that we believe they are as we grow up.
Mariah now has the opportunity to know this woman that created her, rightfully so. She’s known her dad for 16 years. Her dad’s her best friend, and Mariah was was Logan’s best friend, and for 16 years, she has developed a nuanced relationship with him. But now, she has the opportunity to do the same with her mother who for so long was this ghost, and Logan only gave her so much out of fear that it was going to cause some risk in their relationship. Now that she’s back, Logan doesn’t quite have a choice but to let them develop some sort of relationship. Also, I think Mariah now has this newfound passion. There’s a fire lit in her to be like “who is this woman that that is so much of who I am?”
For my last question, why should people be tuning in on Monday night?
I have a great shirtless scene. [Laughs]
As I said in the beginning of our conversation, for so much of the season, Logan has been a really hard character to identify with, because he has a lot of built-up resentment, a lot of built up frustration, and he may be firing it off at the wrong people. He’s bleeding in so many ways that he doesn’t even realize, and I think that he’s such a layered character that you won’t really understand him until you spend an entire episode seeing the way he handles things, and why he’s handling it, and seeing his frustration.
All jokes aside with the shirtless scene, I think that’s why they had the boxing scene because they wanted him to show that this man is literally boxing [everyone].
He wants to tell Bridget so much, but he also needs to hold some things in. Because if he tells her, “hey, I’m still in love with Shanice,” I don’t know how long their relationship would last. With Shanice, he’s trying to bob and weave and avoid certain things and avoid certain feelings. Same with Mariah. He’s trying to play this delicate dance, and so much of boxing is a dance. He’s also boxing himself, in a sense of how much he wants to admit to himself. Has Logan admitted to himself that he’s still in love with Shanice? So I think that boxing scene is really pivotal for Logan’s character and scenes. I think that that people will really see how deeply conflicted this guy is.
Our thanks to Cory Jeacoma for this interview. See some photos and a description for 4400 “The Kaminski Experiment” below; the episode airs at 9PM ET/PT TONIGHT (December 13) on The CW.
4400
RUN — Logan’s (Cory Jeacoma) adjustment to Shanice’s (Brittany Adebumola) return has been harder than he let on, meanwhile, Rev (Derrick A. King) is beginning to see the light. Mildred (Autumn Best) lets her emotions get the better of her, possibly endangering the rest of the 4400. The series also stars Joseph David-Jones, TL Thompson, Ireon Roach, Jaye Ladymore, Khailah Johnson and AMARR. Janice Cooke directed the episode written by Taylor Townsend (#108). Original airdate 12/13/2021. Every episode of 4400 will be available to stream on The CW App and CWTV.com the day after broadcast for free and without a subscription, log-in or authentication required.
