Last week’s closing moments of “Lost” included one of the more shocking moments in a season full of shocking moments.  

While escaping from the Dharma Initiative, Sayid shot and (apparently) killed a young Benjamin Linus in 1977.  Does this mean that Ben has ceased to exist?  Is the time-space continuum now going to collapse in on itself? 

TV Guide On-Line went to Sterling Beaumon, who plays the younger version of everyone’s favorite “Lost” villain looking for some answers.  And maybe they got them in this exclusive interview…

TVGuide.com: I know you’ve done episodes of ER, Heroes and Bones. But was Lost your first death scene?

Sterling Beaumon: No, actually. I was on Crossing Jordan and I had to lie on a coroner’s table for almost the whole episode. And on ER, I died in the end, with a tumor in my brain….

TVGuide.com: Of course, my question presumes that Young Ben died from Sayid’s gunshot. Might that not be the case?

Beaumon: You’ll have to watch and find out. If this tells you anything, I am in two more episodes.

TVGuide.com: Regardless of whether young Ben dies or not, will there be repercussions for what Sayid did?

Beaumon: It will be talked about quite often. That scene may have the greatest significance of any on this show.

TVGuide.com: I read in a previous interview that when you first appeared on Lost (during Season 3), you were warned not to mimic Michael Emerson, because Ben wasn’t that Ben yet. Is it safe to say he now is?

Beaumon: Not quite yet….

TVGuide.com: Something more would have to happen to put him on that path?

Beaumon: Yes. And that Ben…. Well, if you go back in the season to when they first met up with [Amy], they tell Daniel, “We can’t interfere, because we can’t change time,” and Daniel says, “It doesn’t matter now, because we’re stuck here.” So now they can change time. So that big older mean Ben that we know very well may not even exist.

TVGuide.com: OK. I was going to say, Who better to carry out the massacre in a few years than a presumed-dead, angry Ben, but….

Beaumon: Maybe the massacre is never going to happen now.

TVGuide.com: How many kids did you beat out for this role?

Beaumon: There were, like, four pages of sign-ins for the first audition.

TVGuide.com: Did you wear a version of Ben’s tell-tale glasses for the audition?

Beaumon: No, because we did not even know who the character was. He was called “Young Andrew,” and it wasn’t even a scene from the “Man Behind the Curtain” episode.

TVGuide.com: Do your eyes look like Michael Emerson’s just naturally?

Beaumon: That was one of the requirements. The kid had to have blue eyes and brown hair.

TVGuide.com: Before we go, you said you had a few things you wanted to clear up….

Beaumon: Yes, I was just reading the message boards — I know, I’m so bad — and there are some things I want to address. For example, Ben arrived on the island in 1974, when he was 12 years old. Now it’s three years later, so he’s like 14 or 15. When Sayid refers to “12-year-old Ben” [in the episode “He’s Our You”], he just didn’t know. They will later say how old I really am. Also, some people are thinking that Ben killed his dad in the van fire that he set; he didn’t. Older Ben killed his dad in, like, 1995. Those are just a few things I’m seeing out there.

TVGuide.com: All noted. So, what’s next for you after Lost?

Beaumon: I have an animated feature coming out, Astro Boy, with Nicolas Cage, Freddie Highmore and Madeline Carroll, the girl who plays [Ben’s childhood friend] Annie. Everyone is like, “The Island, it wants you two to work together!” [Laughs]