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other-horace_l
DOUG HUTCHISON as original Other Horace Goodspeed

HORACE GOODSPEED
What we know: Mathematician, member of the Dharma Initiative, and the man to blame for bringing Benjamin Linus to the Island. Horace and his wife Olivia were the couple that happened upon and helped Roger Linus and his infant son, Ben, not minutes after the boy's ill-fated birth in the Oregon woods. Later, Horace recruited down-and-out Roger to Dharma, bringing the heartbroken widower and his lonely son to the Island. When Goodspeed was gassed to death in the Purge, Ben respectfully shut his eyes. (Note: Olivia was also Dharma, employed as a schoolteacher.)
Doc Jensen Theory: The Dharma Initiative was pursuing the thing that most every self-respecting mad scientist seeks: the means to cheat death. To that end, surely the Dharma peeps must have noticed what WE'VE noticed the past four seasons. On the Island, people who are sick get well. On the Island, people who should be dead walk among the living, and more, have something that resembles tangible, corporal form. On the Island, energies exist that allow people to transcend space and time. If Dharma's secret purpose was to conduct experiments on the Island and WITH the Island in order to find a cure for death — perhaps to benefit all of humanity; perhaps just for its mortality-spooked financiers — then I suppose one sure-fire test you could do is this: Let a bunch of people live on the Island for an extended period of time; let them bond to the unique environment of the Island; and then kill them all and see what happens.
Name Games: Horace Goodspeed may have one of the most convoluted names in Lost lore. If I had to guess the inspiration, I would say HORACE = the ancient poet Horace (famous sayings: carpe diem, or ''seize the day''; aurea mediocritas, or ''golden mean,'' a concept that expresses both mathematical and spiritual equilibrium; and dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, or ''It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country''). And GOODSPEED can only = Stanley Goodspeed, Nicolas Cage's scientist character in The Rock! His specialty: Chemical weapons! By the way, you remember what ''The Rock'' is in The Rock, right? It's Alcatraz. Which is a prison. On an Island. Policed by sharks!

RICHARD ALPERT
What we know: Ben's right-hand man in Otherness. When they first met in the jungle back in the Dharma daze, angry young Ben asked Alpert if he was ''a Hostile.'' Alpert asked if he understood what the word truly meant. Ben then petitioned to enlist with Alpert's band of merry Dharma-fighting men, but Alpert said, ''Not yet.'' Island Present Richard looks no different than Island Past Richard. Adult Ben cryptically acknowledged Alpert's invulnerability to the vagaries of time last season when he teased ''You do remember birthdays, don't you?'' As a representative of Mittelos Bioscience — an Others front which may or may not be legit — Alpert recruited brainy fertility doc Juliet to help solve the Others' baby-making crisis. His allegiance to Ben may be weakening: Last season, Alpert pushed Locke to become the Others' new leader, claiming that Ben's fixation with reproduction was getting in the way of their real work...whatever that is. Still, when last seen, Alpert was executing Ben's command to take the remaining Others to the Temple...whatever/wherever that is.
Doc Jensen Theory: There is a prevalent fan theory that Alpert is an electromagnetically energized long-lived survivor of the Black Rock, the slave ship beached in the middle of the Island. I'm willing to accept that Alpert would be several centuries old — IF he was actually, technically alive. Yep: I think this Tricky Dick is dead — or at least as dead as, say, Christian Shepherd. Judging from the way we saw Grandpa McBoozy cradling Aaron last week, these Island ghosts are more materially substantial than the typical ethereal entity, although clearly Alpert is a higher caste of specter than Christian, at least for the (relative) moment.

NEXT PAGE: Richard Alpert's connection to Timothy Leary, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Stephen King


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