Michael Emerson Explains the Ending of “Lost”

"Lost" fans weren't the only ones debating and pondering the show's epic climax in May. So were the very stars of the show, including Michael Emerson. In the days the following the finale, he was trying "to put it all together, to make sense of it all."

While the finale -- like that of any great show -- was controversial amongst the critics and the faithful, Emerson was "perfectly satisfied."

"They delivered the goods," he says.

The show didn't answer every question which was fine by Emerson. "I appreciated what was left unsaid or ambiguous," he says. "I prefer things that are suggested rather than concrete."

So we took advantage of Emerson speaking to us to promote "Lost: The Complete Sixth Season" and "Lost: The Complete Collection," which debuts on Blu-ray & DVD on August 24, to explain the ending. It's his words from here.

    In a nutshell. Everything we saw on the island really happened. The plane crashed. We all really lived there. They really had those adventures. But during season 6, there is a change. Everyone on the show is among the newly dead.
    And the newly dead hold onto life. They hold onto an idealized vision of the life they lived or that they wished they lived. That's what everyone is doing in that church. We have leaped forward in time.
    After the killing of the smoke monster and the death of Jack and Hurley taking charge -- then we move a great distance forward in time. That scene in the church, that is hundreds of years in the future? It doesn't matter -- because in the afterlife time is no longer linear. That is already one of the themes of the show anyways.
    So everyone is dead and they are merely waiting for everyone to arrive and be rejoined with their mirror redeemers -- that is what I am choosing to call it. That other person from life who loved them so unconditionally that it gave them a license to forgive themselves and thereby be spiritually redeemed. So everyone leaves in pairs. Because it takes two to walk into the afterlife.
    Ben doesn't have a redeemer. That's why he doesn't get to go. That's why he is waiting. Ben is still outside the door. He cannot come in. He says he still has work to do. He has more to make right.

Contact Us