Goodwin Stanhope was an Other sent by Ben to infiltrate the tail section survivors. He was killed by Ana Lucia after she found out his true identity. At the time of his death, he was unhappily married to Harper Stanhope and was having an affair with Juliet Burke.
Off the Island[ ]
When talking with Ana Lucia, Goodwin claimed to be in the Peace Corps but, little is known about his life prior to the Island. It is presumed that Goodwin was brought to the Island by Jacob, as he is listed as #48 in the list of Jacob's candidates.
On the Island[ ]
Before the crash[ ]
On Ben Linus's orders, Goodwin worked with chemicals at the Tempest station. Goodwin was married to Harper Stanhope, the surly, spiteful therapist of the Others. Their relationship had become unhappy by the time Goodwin met Juliet after the death of pregnant Other Henrietta. On their first meeting, Juliet treated a chemical burn wound on Goodwin's arm. ("The Other Woman") Goodwin was present in the operating room of the Staff while Juliet and Ethan operated on Sabine. When Goodwin saw how Juliet was affected by Sabine's death, he consoled her. ("One of Us")
Goodwin began an affair with Juliet, to the chagrin of leader Ben Linus, who believed Juliet belonged to him. ("The Other Woman") Goodwin and Juliet were seen in bed together on Juliet's third anniversary of coming to the Island. ("One of Us")
After receiving a warning from Goodwin's wife Harper, who had learned about the affair, Juliet pressed Goodwin not to go public with his new relationship. Juliet feared for Goodwin's safety, believing, as Harper had warned her, that Ben would eliminate anyone who stood between himself and Juliet. ("The Other Woman")
After the crash[ ]
Goodwin is ordered by Ben to infiltrate the tail section. ("The Other Woman")
Seconds after Oceanic Flight 815 broke apart in the air above the Barracks, Ben ordered Goodwin to go to the crash site of the tail section, pose as a survivor, quietly observe and learn about them, and make a list within three days. Goodwin immediately ran off toward the crash site. ("A Tale of Two Cities") Harper's expression of quiet, helpless outrage on hearing the orders intimated that she understood the mission would also be a death sentence for her husband. ("The Other Woman")
Goodwin reached the crash site quickly, and he emerged from the jungle and alerted Ana Lucia Cortez to the fact that Bernard Nadler was stuck in a tree. Goodwin pretended to be one of the tailies and was forced to become quite heavily involved with the group due to the small size. Goodwin's list enabled raids on the tail-end survivors' beach camp by members of the Others to kidnap those survivors considered to be "good". ("The Other 48 Days")
Goodwin kills Nathan. ("The Other 48 Days")
Upon discovering a list of kidnap victims on the dead body of an Other killed in one of the raids, Ana Lucia began to suspect one of her group was a mole. She put Nathan, who had been acting suspiciously, in a tiger pit. When she threatened to cut Nathan's fingers off the next day as an interrogation method, Goodwin released and then killed Nathan. Goodwin hid Nathan's body to make it appear that he had escaped. ("The Other 48 Days")
Though all of the kidnap targets had been successfully acquired, Goodwin remained with the Tailies. According to the version of events related by Others leader Ben Linus to both Juliet Burke and Ana Lucia, Goodwin had remained to build a case for Ana Lucia as "good" person, "worthy" of being taken into the Others' society. ("Two for the Road") ("The Other Woman")
Ana Lucia kills Goodwin. ("The Other 48 Days")
When Bernard suggested travelling to high ground in order to test the radio, Goodwin volunteered to go alone, but Ana Lucia insisted on accompanying him. When they reached the top of a hill, the two stopped to rest and have a snack.
Alone with Ana Lucia, Goodwin was asked to theorize about why the Others kidnapped only some of the group. He proposed that the Others had attempted to remove the strongest, fittest members of the group—the threats—including Eko, who survived the kidnapping by killing his would-be captors. Ana Lucia revealed that she had deduced that Goodwin was the mole, as Goodwin's clothes had been dry in the moments after the crash. Abandoning pretense, Goodwin admitted that he killed Nathan because he feared that after Ana Lucia's intended torture of Nathan proved unproductive, her suspicions would shift elsewhere. The murder was justified, Goodwin said, because Nathan "was not a good person"—which was "why he wasn't on the list"—and Goodwin claimed that the kidnapped children, Emma and Zach, were "fine" and "better off now". Enraged, Ana Lucia attacked Goodwin, and a struggle ensued. The two rolled down a hill, and Goodwin was impaled upon a stick. ("The Other 48 Days")
Juliet and Ben look over Goodwin's dead body. ("The Other Woman")
Post-death[ ]
His body would later be found by Pickett and Tom. They reported back to Ben, whose plan to send Goodwin to his death was finally complete. Ben brought Juliet to the hillside, where he admitted that he sent Goodwin on this mission because he knew there would be a good chance that Goodwin would die. When Juliet grievingly asked why, Ben exasperatedly asked how Juliet couldn't understand that she was "his", then left her to sob by the body of her dead lover. ("The Other Woman")
Goodwin's hidden body rediscovered in the jungle. ("...And Found")
On day 47 after the crash of Oceanic 815, while searching for Michael, Jin and Eko found Goodwin's body. Eko coldly told Jin that his name was Goodwin, and when Jin asked "Others?", Eko nodded in confirmation, though Jin may have been inquiring whether the Others were responsible for Goodwin's death, rather than whether Goodwin was one of them. ("...And Found")
During his captivity in the Swan, Ben insisted to Ana Lucia that Goodwin had no intention of harming her. In fact, Goodwin suggested that the Others accept Ana Lucia into their society. ("Two for the Road")
Trivia[ ]
- Goodwin's episode count is 5.
- Goodwin's last name, Stanhope, has not been referred to on-screen. In an Enhanced episode, captioning indicated his surname was the same as Harper Stanhope, his spouse. ("The Other Woman-Enhanced")
- Goodwin's appearances are chronologically backwards. He first appears as a corpse, then in a flashback that depicts his death, and finally in flashbacks depicting the events leading up to his death.
- Out of all the main characters, Goodwin has only met Ben, Juliet, Eko, Ana Lucia, Bernard and Libby.
- Goodwin is the only recurring Other to never have dialogue in present-timeline events in the Lost saga.
- The name Goodwin finds its origins in Anglo-Saxon Britain, where, in Old English, "Godwine" means "good friend". [1] Goodwin may also be a play on the words "Good One".
- In 1969, a woman named Mrs. Goodwin called famous disc jockey Wolfman Jack's radio program. [2] As he had her on the line, Wolfman Jack jokingly accused Mrs. Goodwin of making strange noises. She blamed the television, saying it was the program "The New People", a short-lived ABC series about a group of young people who crash-land on a mysterious, uninhabited Pacific island. [3]
- Richard Goodwin was a speechwriter for U.S. Presidents Kennedy & Johnson. Goodwin is attributed with coining the phrase "The Great Society", which was widely introduced in a speech by Johnson at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1964.
- Dr. R. A. Goodwin was the cover name of a Soviet spy in the novel and film "Ice Station Zebra".
- Goodwin appeared in both episodes containing the word "Other", "The Other 48 Days" and "The Other Woman". He is the only Other to do so, and one of only three characters overall to so, the other two being Jin and Sawyer.
- Witnesses of death: Ana Lucia Cortez
- Last words: "Children are fine. They're better off now."
Unanswered questions[ ]
| Unanswered questions |
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- For fan theories about these unanswered questions, see: Goodwin Stanhope/Theories
- Was he actually in the Peace Corps?
- Why did he appear genuinely confused and scared when he saw The Arrow?
- Why didn't the Others bury Goodwin?
- Who moved Goodwin's body?
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