The last episode of LOST aired on ABC on May 23, 2010. That was more than eight years ago, but people are still fiercely divided about whether or not the mega-popular drama series came to a satisfying conclusion. (For the record, I still love it.)

But if you’ve ever been curious to have the LOST finale explained by actress Evangeline Lilly, who played scrappy criminal Kate Austen in all six seasons of the series, you’re in luck: Lilly took the stage at Dragon Con this past weekend and answered a fan question that involved her laying out an excellent interpretation of the show’s controversial ending.

For the record, the finale is not confusing or muddled in any way: it’s a confident piece of storytelling that wraps up every character’s arc, even if it admittedly leaves open a few tantalizing threads that the series set up earlier in its run. /Film’s Hoai-Tran Bui went to bat for the finale last year, and her piece is just as great now as it was back then.

At Dragon Con, a fan asked Lilly (who appeared on screen this summer as Hope van Dyne in Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp) if there was one thing that fans of LOST don’t know or don’t appreciate, and she launched into an impassioned, persuasive speech about the show’s final episode (via BleedingCool):

“Well, I’m going to have to go straight to the finale. Vote of confidence, who liked the finale? [The room broke out into cheers] Who did not like the finale? [about the same amount of cheers] About 50/50. So, for those of who you didn’t like it; you loved our show, because at the end of every week, we would leave you with an impossible and pressing mystery. It would force you to the water cooler, or the dinner table, asking each other the most difficult questions. Usually philosophical questions. Sometimes questions that touched on God or religion and reality, and what it means to be human. And then, on the finale, you sat waiting with baited breath, thinking ‘they’re gonna give us the answer.’ Well, that’s what religions do. So if you want the answer to the great big question of life, go to church, go to God, find the answer, but art…art is supposed to, every time without fail, turn the question back on you, and asks you to look at what you’re seeing, listen to what you’re hearing, experience it, and then look at it in the mirror of your soul, and figure out what it means to you. And so there is no one interpretation of the finale of LOST. For as many people that are in this room, there are that many true, real, endings for LOST. Because it’s just a reflection of who you are, and it’s the ultimate question being posed to you, not the ultimate answer being handed to you.”

Be sure to read more about Dragon Con in this piece from Vanessa Armstrong, and stay tuned for my reaction to Michael Giacchino’s upcoming LOST Live concert later this month.