MBTI Type: ESFJ

Ellie is good with people, and able to get them to open up to her. She stops interrogations and questions if people get upset (much to Alec’s annoyance). Ellie lectures Alec on being “a decent human being,” by telling him to accept coffees, fast food, and invitations to dinner out of politeness, because it is socially appropriate behavior. She freely vents her feelings and frustrations and is often emotional in public (crying, showing dismay, and being alert to people’s emotional interactions). When Alec asks her why she would invite him over, even if she doesn’t like him, she shrugs and says, “It’s what people do.” Her desire to understand what happened makes her a good cop; at first she doesn’t like Alec, but soon she has to admit he is good at what he does, and she helps him figure out the dynamics of the case. Throughout the rape case in season three, Ellie violates police procedure by giving the victim her cell phone number “in case she needs someone to talk to.” She is bold and assertive in expressing her feelings toward her son’s porn addiction and destroying his laptop and in telling people when she dislikes what they are doing. She tells off the new police girl for ‘waltzing into’ the department with her ‘wrong ideas’ fresh out of the academy, and rants at length about having had to ‘do it the hard way’ and earn the respect and position this girl takes for granted. Ellie can be so emotional, she’s unable to detach from victims and it takes her awhile to accept that Alec was chosen to head up the department due to his detachment. Her entire approach to the first season’s murder case revolves around her knowledge of the people in town and their dynamics – a subjective view built of her own former experiences with them and her disbelief that any of them could murder someone. She is reluctant to question her friends on their activities, out of respect for their grief and doubt that they could have done it (“I know them!”). She is very uncomfortable when forced into doing something she has never done before; when Alec has her take charge during the morning briefing without giving her time to prepare, she tells him off later. Ellie is methodical in gathering evidence and lets the details line up for her before theorizing (she often is better at spotting minor details and clues than Alec). Her instincts are sometimes off, and she doesn’t widely speculate on motives or connections until she has the evidence in front of her. Ellie is cautious in putting herself at risk; she is careful who she talks to. Alec is better at seeing the big picture, and keeping her focused on it, but she is open to theorizing, guessing at different people and their motives, and attempting to link together clues in the two subsequent cases.

Enneagram: 2w1 so/sp

Ellie is a warm, emotional, and outgoing woman, who also can become a regular ‘mama’ bear underneath stress or pressure – shifting into 8ish aggression when dealing with her husband and her son (she confiscates his iPhone and laptop and literally takes a hammer to them to punish his porn addiction and his disobedience in stealing them back from her). Otherwise, she is assertive, protective of her helpfulness, and tends to see herself as giving, generous, and affectionate. But she can also be controlling, abrasive, and full of anger from her 1 wing over being passed up for promotion, forced to work under someone she does not like. Ellie has a fierce sense of moral thinking and right and wrong attitudes; she will do things she does not personally want to do, because she thinks they are the appropriate thing do, and moralize at Alec if he does not behave himself.