Horace Goodspeed/Theories

From Lostpedia

Horace is one of the Others

Signs pointing to Horace is an Other...

• Horace's son Ethan, is the doctor for the Others in 2004.
• During the Purge, Ben Linus finds Horace dead on the bench and closes his eyes, a sign of respect that he did not show any other member of Dharma.
• Horace shows up on the island to Locke in a vision and gives him the directions to Jacob's cabin. He also appears to be chopping wood to build Jacob's cabin. Why would one of Dharma be building Jacob's cabin?
• When Ben is born, Horace is outside Portland, the supposed location of Mittelos Bioscience, which is a front for the Others.

A time traveler

• The 1992 date for the Purge (which is solely based on Horace's "dead for 12 years" claim in Locke's vision) is problematic in relation to Danielle's presence on the Island, and Alex's kidnapping. If later evidence shows an earlier date for the Purge, then Horace being a time traveller at some point (even if his death and nosebleed were caused by the gas, and not by time travel), would provide us with a way to explain the discrepancy.
• Also In Season 4's episode, "Cabin Fever," Locke saw a bloody nose Horace cutting down a tree. Probably many of you thought he was a ghost, but I think Horace time traveled to 2004 before his death. The evidence all has to do with the bloody nose. Remember Desmond, Charlotte, Juliet, and others all had bloody noses as they changed time zones when the flashes occured. Maybe this explains why Horace has a bloody nose. He is time traveling into the future, which leads him to 2004.

Significance of Mathematician

• Horace's job as Mathematician was a forecaster of events. Part of the Hanso Foundation was the Mathematical Forecasting Initiative (mFi), for the prediction and mitigation of natural disasters (according to Mittelwerk ).
• As a mathematician he was the "clever fellow" described by E. Hawking as the one who built The Lamp Post.

Cover Identity

• Horace is very wealthy. He and Olivia are driving an expensive looking car when they find Roger and Emily. When Roger and Horace are talking in the Linus home Roger demands more money, saying "Don't tell me YOU don't have it." Of course Roger was probably speaking to Horace as a representative of the DHARMA group (who were presumably well funded), but Horace is in fact the benefactor. Also note the fact that in LaFleur, when Sawyer and Miles are driving out to collect him, Sawyer says Goodspeed is "loaded" was a double meaning for his intoxication and wealth.

The Cabin

• Horace built the cabin for Jacob, not for himself - which is why the cabin is located in the "final resting place of Magnus Hanso" and he mentions that "he" has been waiting for Locke.
• Ben say's that Jacob hates technology. Horace builds the cabin at the request of Jacob.
  • Horace is a scientist; when he says he's building the cabin as a "getaway" he's using it as a cover for a teleportation/time travel device to get off the Island in a hurry. "Jacob" was a test subject Horace used to test the Cabin but the attempt backfired horribly, propelling "Jacob" into the past and imprisoning him in the Cabin which now drifts from place to place and from time to time on the Island.
• The Cabin is constructed with deep roots in Quantum Probability. A mathematician wouldn't normally be involved in constructing a log cabin. This would also account for the constant relocation of the Cabin.

Arrow and Horace

• Horace worked in The Arrow. A glass eye was found in The Arrow. He is featured with glasses in Early flashbacks (Ben as a boy/Ben's birth), but in the future (Purge/Lockes dream) he is depicted without glasses. He had a bad eye and at one point opted to replace the eye with a fake one.

Connection to Mittelos

• Horace Goodspeed found Ben at his birth outside of Portland, Oregon, which is the where Mittelos is based. He and his wife either worked for Mittelos or were meeting with them on behalf of the DHARMA initiative.

Horace and the Island

• Horace was one of the "good people" on the Island during the Initiative. He has glasses for the first few times he appears, but in later scenes has no glasses due to the healing effects of the Island. He was the factor in bringing Ben to the Island by giving his dad a job with DI. He built the cabin that Jacob resides in, he was the only purge victim to be given any honor by Ben closing his eyes, and was chosen to be the messenger to Locke.
• This could be supported by Ben wearing glasses (presumably all the time) as a child when he first came to the island, and Ben not wearing glasses (except for reading) when he is older.