Elinor Goodspeed

*Nicknames*:

* Eli
* Ella
* Bombshell

**Elinor Natalia Rom**, born **Elinor Goodspeed**, is the second child and the only daughter of Amy and Horace Goodspeed. She’s also the younger sister of their son, Ethan. Just like her brother, she was born prematurely in Dharmaville and spent the first two years of her life with the DHARMA Initiative. However, in 1987, Ethan ran away with her to the Others, only to stay with their aunt in safety.

## On the Island

### Childhood

Years after the Incident, Eli’s family returned to the Island to continue working for the DHARMA Initiative. Both of her parents knew perfectly well that the girl was born only because she was conceived off the Island, when the Goodspeeds arranged a little trip to the outside world to visit some relatives. Unfortunately, even this did not help the family to avoid the impending problems: Eli was born prematurely and fairly weak, which her mother had already experienced with her first child. The girl spent a month in the medical division before her parents were able to bring her home in the first week of August.

Amy and Horace were particularly keen on keeping an eye on their daughter's health in the first years of her infancy because of her initial condition. They forbade Eli from spending much time outside or with her peers, who had a tendency of catching colds quickly, out of concern that even the smallest illness could severely harm her health. Instead, they encouraged her to study more. The girl, especially when accompanied by her big brother, did not appear to mind at all and even seemed delighted to learn something new.

### With the Others

Her brother started showing a lot of interest in the Hostiles when Eli was still a baby. The boy was fascinated by their culture and way of life, and he even tried to run away to them but was stopped by his father just as he was about to cross the barrier. But in 1987, the DI faced a significant danger. For the first time in his life, Ethan received permission - more of a strict directive - to take his young sister and run to the hostiles as quickly as he could. Horace knew that a storm was coming, but he also realized that he would not be able to save everyone. However, his kids would be safe. With his sister, then two years old, in his arms, ten-year-old Ethan finally crossed the border that morning in December and left his homeland. He was unaware that his father had lied to them about their coming reunion and that they would never see their parents again.

Their maternal aunt, who they had heard of but didn't realize was actually one of their enemies, met the kids nearby in the jungle. Amelia welcomed her nephew and niece with more than just warmth, and for many years she took on the role of their primary guardian.

Eli was just a baby when all of this occurred, thus she had little to no memory of her previous life. This was advantageous for the Hostiles, especially Amelia, who right away altered the kids' last names so that the Others wouldn't be bothered or voice any concerns about the presence of the kids of their opponents' leader. Other from that, everything went pretty smoothly. The Others settled in the barracks quickly after the Purge, and life continued as usual. Eli was a rebellious child growing up, which amused her brother, who also had that mindset, but was frowned upon by their leader. No wonder that growing up, Eli often got into trouble. She longed to explore the Island and what lay beyond, and she did so with obvious carelessness. She once attempted to hide on a submarine that was about to depart when she was just 13 years old, but the captain was able to find her. The girl was only saved from punishment by her aunt, but the brunette still had to sit through several lectures that day.

Eli made another attempt to run away when she was 17 years old. She stole the armory's keys, took a gun in case she needed to defend herself against other people or animals, packed the necessities, and found a boat hidden on the other side of the island. The plan appeared to be working perfectly. All of this ought to have been sufficient to get her to the dock, where she would have replaced one of the Others who had suddenly refused to travel to the mainland. Eli was aware that the captain did not possess the most recent list of the sub passengers because she had already taken it. The brunette seemed to have planned every last detail, but as she approached the dock, someone stopped her. Eli was ultimately captured and questioned after a rather long chase through the jungle. When she returned to the Barracks, her captor simply let her go after taking the weapon from her, while she was already preparing herself for a thrill of outrage from Ben, her brother, and their aunt. Eli was relieved, even though she could not comprehend it at the time, that he had not even told anyone about her escape.

The teenager made the decision to stay low for a bit in order to avoid tempting fate once more. But obviously, things could not change for the better in the blink of an eye. A few weeks after the failed escape, Elinor spent some time with her sister-in-law while her brother was busy at work. Eli immediately froze when Sabine abruptly felt ill at that very time. Moments later, she ran to the nearest house to call for help, returning to the woman, who was writhing in pain, soon after that. Although she had heard that pregnant women on the Island experienced certain difficulties, she had never questioned or even seen it with any of her friends or acquaintances. Though the brunette had anticipated any difficulties, she could not have foreseen that it would result in the deaths of her sister-in-law and her unborn nephew or niece. Since Ethan was there to operate on his wife, his family was naturally concerned by the way he handled her passing. When he went back to his house and destroyed half of the kitchen and living room while having a mental breakdown, everything fell into place. Eli stayed with the young man the entire time while keeping everyone else away in order to comfort him. The sister and brother were probably never closer in their entire lives, despite the awful circumstances.

Shortly after Sabine’s funeral, Eli met the guy who had thwarted her recent escape. Aldo was 25, which made him the same age as Elinor’s brother, and he had been on the Island for five years already. They did, after all, reside in essentially the same place, but owing to certain circumstances, they were never able to interact. Since Aldo worked as a security guard, he was already the brunette's biggest foe. She didn't turn the young man away when he came to express his sympathies, and she even consented to a heart-to-heart talk. At the time, she could not explain exactly why she had agreed to this, but that conversation had seemed so right that she would not have changed things even if she could. They grew closer after that, much closer than her aunt would have preferred. Amelia was worried that Aldo, who was eight years older, would take advantage of her niece, endangering Eli if she unintentionally became pregnant, and at best breaking her baby girl's young heart. However, Eli herself seemed to have no intention of giving up on her new "friend". She told her family that she and Aldo were now couple as soon as she turned 18. It's easy to assume that Ethan, who was completely unaware of the situation, became quite concerned about the news, but he handled it much more calmly than their aunt, choosing to stand by and occasionally scare Elinor's new boyfriend so that he didn't even consider harming his younger sister.

### Days 1-89

September 2004 was the starting point for a chain of tragic events that almost destroyed Elinor’s life. Eli's brother was one of the two men Ben Linus assigned to establish a rapport with any potential survivors on the day Oceanic 815 crashed onto their island. The girl was terrified since it was clear that Ethan would surely be hurt if the truth came out. Elinor's primary concern had always been losing her brother because, other from their aunt, he was the only relative she had. She was already experiencing too much loss in her life, so she had no desire to lose Ethan as well. When he went back to the Others with one of the pregnant passengers to take care of, things started changing a little. Eli noticed that having her brother around made her feel a little calmer and she made an effort to spend as much time with him as she could, as if she sensed something bad was going to happen.

Eli's heart was out of place on October 20. She paced the room, and when her aunt and friends began to focus too much attention on her nervousness, she simply left the house and went into the jungle, feeling the urge to get away from the tormenting thoughts. She immediately became aware of the spying but kept quiet until she reached her secret spot. She knew that the only person who would be following her right now was her boyfriend. Surprisingly, she did not feel the impulse to shoo her lover away like she did to so many other people. Aldo could listen, but more importantly, he could just sit silently next to her, and it was incredibly calming. The brunette thought it might be a good cure for her anxiety, and she was right. She was greeted by her aunt when she arrived back to the Barracks in the evening. Eli feared what she would hear as the woman silently took her niece inside. There was nothing she could do to stop the realization, which made her loathe herself.

Elinor did not feel entirely herself after Ethan's passing. She retreated from everyone, hardly spoke to other people, and what really enraged her was that she was unable to even give her own brother a proper funeral. The brunette spent a considerable amount of time alone in Ethan's room, going through his belongings and missing the times when he was around. Eli was aware that she was only escalating the situation and furthering her own melancholy, but she was unable to stop. Early in December, she started to feel a little better. She began leaving the house and seeing her old friends much more frequently, which could not help but pleasure her aunt. But soon after, Eli abruptly piled on the job, taking after the lead of her older brother, who sought some comfort following the loss of his wife and their unborn kid. She had no time for leisure or sleep because she was running errands all the time. Whenever she had spare time, her thoughts always returned to the tragedy, and she did not feel she could go through it again.

*...TBC...*

## Trivia

* Growing up, Elinor studied Latin, Spanish and French. She also picked up Korean, Italian, and German after leaving the Island.
* Elinor has met all of the main characters except Eko and Libby.
	+ She definitely saw Walt when the latter was being held by the Others, and Michael when he came to the rescue of his son.
	+ She saw Charlie's band perform in the flash-sideways timeline.
	+ There is a high probability that she crossed paths with the flash-sideways version of Ana-Lucia, since the latter works in the same police station with Miles, an old friend of Eli's.
	+ She had a brief conversation with Boone and Shannon while visiting one of the wedding shops with her friend in the flash-sideways.
* **Candidacy speculations**:
	+ "22" on the list in the lighthouse stands for Moorhead. Although this may refer to Eli's mother, who was born Amara Moorhead, she arrived on the Island under her married name. Meanwhile, Elinor herself used this surname for three years of living off the Island, as well as on the departure day.
	+ Elinor was 22 when she returned to the Island. Her seat on Ajira flight 316 was 22A.
	+ The reason why her surname was crossed out was mentioned by Jacob himself in a similar conversation with Kate. She became a mother to Aaron, and Elinor found out that she was to become a mother soon when boarding Flight 316.

## Appearances

*For more information, see: Scenes*

* 1x10: Raised by Another (mentioned)
* 2x15: Maternity Leave (briefly seen in Claire’s flashback)
* 3x01: A Tale of Two Cities (seen among Juliet’s book club members)
* 3x07: Not in Portland
* 3x18: D.O.C. (mentioned)
* 3x21: Greatest Hits
* 3x22: Through the Looking Glass
* 4x01: The Beginning of the End
* 4x02: Confirmed Dead
* 4x09: The Shape of Things to Come
* 4x10: Something Nice Back Home
* 4x12: There's No Place Like Home, Part 1
* 4x13: There's No Place Like Home, Part 2
* 4x14: There's No Place Like Home, Part 3
* 5x02: The Lie
* 5x06: 316
* 5x09: Namaste
* 5x12: Dead Is Dead
* 5x15: Follow the Leader
* 5x16: The Incident, Part 1
* 5x17: The Incident, Part 2
* 6x01: LA X, Part 1
* 6x02: LA X, Part 2
* 6x03: What Kate Does
* 6x04: The Substitute
* 6x05: Lighthouse
* 6x06: Sundown
* 6x07: Dr. Linus
* 6x09: Ab Aeterno
* 6x10: The Package
* 6x12: Everybody Loves Hugo
* 6x16: What They Died For
* 6x17: The End