‘I just like how he was in a different key or he was painted with a different palette,’ he says of his character’s two worlds. By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Josh Wigler Michael Emerson Photo: MTV News In one reality, Ben Linus is a cold-blooded killer, an always-one-step-ahead-of-you schemer — at least until he lost his leadership position, his daughter and his sense of merciless purpose. In the other, he’s a mild-mannered high school history teacher, a thwarted soul who lives with his elderly father and seems to go around wondering how his life turned out so … blah. Welcome to the two universes of season six’s “Lost”: in one, the timeline we’ve come to know since the first episode, in which Flight 815 crashed on the mysterious island and left its passengers to contend with all manner of freaky happenings; in the other, a new, so-called flash-sideways timeline, in which the island is submerged in water, Flight 815 lands safely in Los Angeles and every character lives an island-free existence. For months, we haven’t had a clue what would happen to these two realities — to these two Bens. Now, Sunday’s (May 23) series finale is behind us and the answers are in (of course, not all of them, “Lost” being a show whose answers only tend to raise more questions). What’s been clear for a while, though, is that Michael Emerson, the man behind Linus, has been having a damn good time playing each version of the guy. “I just like how he was in a different key or he was painted with a different palette,” Emerson told MTV News about sideways Ben. “He was a more muted character, more of an everyday character. Not the megalomania or the ambition or the madness or the single-mindedness or the nefariousness. Traces of those things, but in much smaller quantities, like you would get in an everyday person. It was fun to calibrate that.” Fun not just for himself, but for the rest of the cast and the fans too. “I thought the whole flash-sideways had a note that was bittersweet to it,” he added. “Oh yes, this is what a real life could be, and it’s smaller and it’s sadder and it has heroism in it, but they’re little bitty heroisms.” What did you think of the finale? Sound off in the comments! Related Videos Counting Down To The ‘Lost’ Finale! Related Photos Spin-Offs For The Characters Of ‘Lost’
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‘Lost’ Star Michael Emerson Talks ‘Bittersweet’ Flash-Sideways
