It's hard work playing double duty as both a God-like figure and the devil.
    
But as Jacob on the ABC hit "Lost" and Lucifer on the CW's "Supernatural," Mark Pellegrino seems to have a handle on both ends of the spiritual spectrum.
     
Here are some thoughts from with our favorite island overseer to dish on the finale.
   
My first exposure to your work was as Rita's abusive ex-husband on "Dexter." What was that experience like for you and how hard was it to play such a bad guy?
     
You know I never look at my characters in a negative way no matter how bad other people might judge them to be by their actions. To me, I was just a guy trying to get his family back together and reunite with my wife and this overconfident punk who had something going on underneath was in the way of that. I always see my character as the good guy and my adversary is the bad guy. But it was great working on the set. For the first couple weeks, Michael C. Hall and I each thought the other didn't like each other. We were so antagonistic on screen that whenever we were off we kind of avoided each other. One day we were in craft services and I saw him and kind of walked up by accident, ya know. One of us broke the ice and he was like "Oh my God, I thought you didn't like me." I said, "I thought you didn't like me."

How surprised were you when your character got killed off? Off screen, no less.
     
I was. I was hoping that storyline would go further and maybe do some damage. I was disappointed. It made me wonder like if I did something wrong. Did they just decide to kill me because they didn't like me? But they probably have a billion storylines going on in the future and how would this one resolve? I check in every once in a while still. Check enough to my wife was murdered. That bugged me.

So how did you wind up being the keeper of the "Lost" island?
     
Well I got an audition for a guest spot and possible recurring on the show. Oddly enough, I was so inundated with other projects that I almost didn't go. It was three or four pages of pretty heavy dialogue and I like to learn my stuff ahead of time. I had no time to really study it. But because it was "Lost" I went in and prayed I didn't make a complete jerk of myself. Couple days later I got a call saying I got the part but still I didn't know what it was.

At what point did you realize how big the scope of that character was?
     
My wife theorized, because they character name they gave me was Jason, she said, "I think it's this character Jacob that they've talked about for a while." I didn't think so. But she started the ball rolling and then when I got there that was the word and as to how important it was, I really didn't find out until I started working.

You play both the God-like Jacob on "Lost" and Lucifer on "Supernatural." How much fun has it been to play both sides of the ball like that?
     
It's really fun because the writers of "Supernatural" have made the characters kind of good. So it's nice not to play some overtly evil guy but a guy with a real beef, who tells the truth and not insincere. And the Jacob character is such that the lines between good and evil are very blurred. It's complicated and much more interesting than this straight good guy or straight bad guy.

Do you see connections between the two characters?
     
Oh yeah. I think both of them are on missions and have a very, very, very strong philosophy. They're just different in the way that they execute their philosophy and world views.

How do you see Jacob?
     
I kind of see him as Christ the carpenter out amongst the people, not the Christ of the Gospel John, not otherworldly. Sort of penetrative, able to see into people. I see him as kind of the embodiment of love. That's the way I see but I don't know that I'm not being used to other purposes because "Lost" has a way of throwing you.

So last season in your first episode, you were murdered. What was your reaction when you saw that you were going to be killed?
     
Well, I don't think we got the very end of that episode until right before we did it. I don't know that I knew that was going to happen until I got tossed into the pit there. But it was alarming. It was one of those ways that "Lost" throws you where you have this character that's been built up for three years, then you see him for a little bit and he's dead. But what I like is it gives me a lot of leeway to be sort of Obi-wan-like, huh? And Michael Emerson in that scene? Oh my god, he's intense. He's just amazing. My first impression of him was going to the set and he has that long speech about how I betrayed him and it's a very heartbreaking speech before he kills me. Typically when you rehearse, you're kind of feeling your way through and you don't really know what you want to do. A lot of times you just do it for words, you don't really act it. He rehearses full on, beautifully. I'm in tears just listening to him. And he does it with that kind of strength every time.

Some off the highlights of this season have been the interactions between Hurley and dead Jacob. As important as those scenes have been, they are almost comical in a way. Was that on purpose?
     
I think so, yeah. I'm hoping it was because that's what I saw in there in our relationship in the way he plays those scenes so sweet and naive. We did this scene in the temple where he was confronted (by Dogen). He was so sweet that I was laughing behind the camera. I just love watching him come up with those moments.

Now that you guys have wrapped up, has the story of Jacob played out the way you thought it would?
     
Yeah, I think it has but with a couple of surprises along the way.

As we get ready for the finale, do you think fans of the show will come away satisfied?
     
It's a funny thing because they've been thinking about this stuff for six years and throwing out theories. I think they're going to be satisfied. I think what I've seen is really, really good. I think people's questions are going to be answered in a way that will be really nice for them. But who knows? People are deep into the mythology here and I can only hope that's the case. But from what I've seen I think they'll be happy.