Horace Goodspeed/Theories

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Theories about Horace Goodspeed

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Stated as questions or possibilities (avoid question marks, "Maybe", "I think", etc). More appropriate for another article. Illogical or previously disproven. Proven by canon source, and moved to main article. Speculative and lacking any evidence to support arguments. Responding to another theory (use discussion page instead). This does not include responses that can stand alone as its own theory. Usage of an indented bullet does not imply the statement is a response. See the Lostpedia theory policy for more details.

Contents 1 Name references 1.1 Horace: 1.2 Goodspeed: 2 Significance of Mathematician 2.1 Arrow Station 3 Cover Identity 4 Potential Return 5 The Cabin

Name references

Horace:

• "Horace" is a reference to the Egyptian god Horus.
• "Horace" is the English form of Quintus Horatius Flaccus, the major Latin lyrical poet, known for coining such phrases as carpe diem, "seize the day"; dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, "It is sweet and proper to die for one's country"; and aurea mediocritas, the "golden mean".
• "Horace" is a reference to the English mathematician Horace Lamb.

Goodspeed:

• "Goodspeed" is a reference to Godspeed, the ship that brought the first English settlers to Jamestown.
• At some future point, it will be important for Locke to know Horace's last name. This is why Horace hinted at it by wishing Locke "Godspeed" in the dream.

Significance of Mathematician

• Horace's occupation of a mathematician may have to do with calculations of the numbers or other DHARMA-related mathematical elements.
  • Part of the Hanso Foundation was the Mathematical Forecasting Initiative (mFi), for the prediction and mitigation of natural disasters (according to Mittelwerk ). Horace's job as Mathematician was likely as a forecaster of events.
    • Other events may also be forecast, such as the birth of the next "Chosen One". Horace and wife were the ones on-hand to help Roger Linus with the newborn Ben.
    • The position of mathematicians to forecast the future seems to allude to Asimov's Foundation series of SF novels, where the the god-like mathematicians could, with enough knowledge of the variables, predict future outcomes. The only thing that went against the certainty of mathematical prediction was true randomness, such as the chance appearance of mutant (the mule). Also, they found that predictions only work when the subjects are not aware of being observed.

Arrow Station

• It is presumed that the Arrow station was used for storage purposes, but we don't know much about its original purpose. Since Horace is seen wearing the Arrow logo on his jumpsuit, perhaps more important events took place in the station (explaining why that station would be significant to a mathematician). Maybe it is where certain experiments or mathematical calculations took place.
• We definately haven't see all of the Arrow has to offer. We only saw one room and the Medical Station had hidden rooms, why couldn't the arrow!
  • the Arrow station has been described as for biological study, with one area being cryptozooology.
• Godspeed,[1] as a word, is a wish for a prosperous journey, success, and good fortune. For example, it was said by Scott Carpenter to John Glenn before Glenn's first trip to space in Friendship 7, and is now traditionally said prior to launch to all U.S. spaceflight crews.

Cover Identity

• It's possible that Horace Goodspeed and Olivia were cover identities for Gerald and Karen DeGroot (with actors "playing" them in the orientation videos to avoid detection) while they are on the Island.
  • If true, this lends support to the theory that Marvin Candle used the pseudonym "Mark Wickmund" (or vice versa, or both are pseudonyms).
  • Perhaps (as with the Bolshevik revolutionaries of 1917 [Lenin, Stalin...]) the high-ranking DHARMA-ites took on false names.
    • Horace is very wealthy (possibly due to the aforementioned theory that he is in fact Gerald DeGroot or maybe he is connected to another DHARMA related company). Some evidence supporting this theory includes the fact he and Olivia are driving an expensive looking car when they find Roger and Emily. Further, 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 rich) but the writers may have been suggesting Horace is in fact the benefactor.
      • A Karmann Ghia was a very affordable car in the mid-sixties. If it had been an expensive car, it would have been a Mercedes, Iso Grifo, Ferrari, Bentley T-Series, or Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. The Ghia cost about 1/6th of these cars.

Potential Return

• Horace will most likely be seen again in future flashbacks and his character will be developed in more detail, perhaps becoming more crucial to the history of the island than we know. As with Clancy Brown's appearance in "One of Them", it is unlikely that the producers of Lost would cast someone like Doug Hutchison, someone so well known especially for playing darker characters, only to have them die and never be seen again in a small, throw-away role.
• Horace is the musician that programmed "Good Vibrations" into the keypad in The Looking Glass.
• Horace and Olivia were part of "Geronimo Jackson." This would explain Horace being a musician and how Ben got the code to the Looking Glass station. (For an image of the "Geronimo Jackson" disk art, search in S2 DVD 4 for the hidden menu and you will maybe recognize Olivia and Horace or see the Geronimo Jackson page.)
• Horace was not in fact dead when Ben discovers him after the Purge - he had 'jumped' like Desmond and Minkowski are able to, and sometime after the disposal of his 'dead' body he 'returns' to Island-time and so continues to exist on the Island.

The Cabin

• Horace is Jacob - you can see similarities in the silhouettes - and, after dying, took shelter in the cabin he had been building.
• 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.
  • In Locke's dream, Horace says he is building the cabin as a getaway for his wife and himself.
  • Jabob may occupy the cabin later, as it is simple, without technology (which Ben says he hates).
  • Horace does mention John Locke by the name "John" when talking to him in Locke's dream. So the message was for John, but was it "from" Horace? Other than building the cabin, Horace was a Dharma guy, so why would he have a message for Locke? More likely it was a way of (Jacob/the Island?) giving a message obliquely to Locke, another test to see if he is the Chosen One.
    • It seems in this story, no answer comes easily or cheaply.
• In the IMDB credits for "Cabin Fever", Doug Hutchison is listed as playing "Jacob," not Horace. Horace may become Jacob in the future.
• Horace is the eyeball Hurley sees in Jacob's cabin. This points toward the "Eye of Horus" - the Egyptian eye symbol, aka the Eye of Ra. It is a symbol of protection, indestructibility, and also of royal power from deities (i.e. god-like powers).
  • The god Horus was the Egyptian sky god.
• 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.