Michael Emerson Explains The Ending Of LOST

Over the weekend, the cast and crew of The Walking Dead flocked to the Georgia World Congress Center for an annual Walker Stalker Convention in their show’s backyard. However, they were not the only actors and crew members on hand for the largest Walker Stalker event of the year.

Also in attendence was LOST alumni, Michael Emerson.

On LOST, Emerson played Benjamin Linus. The character was one of the most epic villains in television history. When the show ended, almost all of the characters were seen moving from one life to the next, leading to speculation that the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 were dead from the moment the series started on ABC back on September 22, 2004.

During a panel on the showroom floor hosted by ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis, Emerson addressed the ending of LOST to a packed house, offering his perspective on what those final moments were truly revealing.

“The one thing I’m sure of on the show is that everything you saw happen on the island really happened,” Emerson said. “Let’s call that the first five seasons. All of that is real.”

It was Season 6, in the “flash sideways scenes” as fans call them, where the characters finally began to move on.

“The ending is way in the future. Years, centuries, millenia have past,” Emerson said. “We’re in an anti-chamber to the hereafter, to eternity, if you will. All the characters on the show have come here to celebrate the end of life. They’re all gonna pass through to a happy afterlife. Just as in a Shakespeare, everybody goes two by two. It’s couples. That’s because, I think, by the rules of LOST, you can only pass into heaven (if you want to call it that) with a mirror redeemer. With someone who has loved you without reservation. for yourself.”

Of course, Emerson’s Ben character was not one of the characters participating in the “moving on.” Instead, he sat outside as the survivors of the crash, their loved ones, and even the island’s Juliet Burke joined hands to move on. They sat with their loved ones as light consumed the room and they let go.

“Everybody had that, I think, except for Benjamin Linus,” Emerson said. “That’s why he can’t go. That’s why he has to wait. He needs to find his mirror redeemer.”