MBTI Type: ESFJ
Spencer doesn’t have as much screen time as some of the other characters, but his stories being based on his own life and his love of Terminator do suggest that he uses a particular set of functions, and bases a lot of his judgments about life in his own personal experiences. SJs can struggle to see past their own experiences to embrace a larger perspective, and this is something he struggles with—his experience of coming out and being abandoned by his mother weighs on him, because he hates the emotional separation he has from them. EFJs are also rapid to air their feelings and process them in the moment, and he often does this in the group or to people’s faces, such as when he tells of Sandra for trying to “shove religion” down his throat. His experiences with it haven’t been good, so he doesn’t want anything to do with it, and yet is touched when she proves through her story that she doesn’t think the way he expects her to; she doesn’t measure up to his previous interactions with Christians, and so she is able to change his mind and win over his heart—on the spot, he forgives her for her clumsy attempts to apologize to him and articulate her feelings, and he does so because she tells him that she believes in love, and her God doesn’t think anyone should be without it. He’s also able to come to a place of higher acceptance with himself when he tells his parents the truth of his feelings and of his need for them to love him; doing that allows him to separate himself from their expectations and be okay with everything (he tells them that he is going to die surrounded by “people who love me” – and whether that includes them or not is their choice). Family is important to SJs, because they understand that’s the glue that holds society together, so he can’t abandon them entirely, and becomes ‘whole’ again once his parents choose to visit him at the hospice. He shows typical SJ grounded-ness (he wants tangible things and signs, and judges them upon a first evaluation of them), but also loves to make up stories and explore different themes and concepts. ESJs enjoy using their lower intuition in a playful manner.
Enneagram: 6w7 so/sp
Spencer is a hard character to Enneagram type, but there’s two things that stick out about him—his reactivity and his desire for acceptance, both of which are traits of the 6. Being reactive means drawing attention to what is wrong and expecting others to ‘react’ alongside of you, or at least to acknowledge that the reason you are upset is valid—and he draws attention to his rejection within Christianity, he talks about his mom refusing to talk to him, and he wishes things were different. He lashes out at Sandra several times because of her ‘church stuff,’ and reminds her that he isn’t accepted there. In some ways, he has a 4ish tendency to focus on the negative and to feel persecuted and alienated for being gay, but his desire for others to embrace him, validate him, and support him speaks to the 6 need for external affirmation, to fit into their society, and to find a place where they belong—and he finds that in the Midnight Club, among people dealing with similar problems as him, even though he’s the only one dying of AIDs rather than cancer. 6w7s can also be playful and creative, and believe in living in the moment—and he encourages Kevin to stop thinking about other people and their needs and just pursue the girl that he wants, since “your brain went there when I asked what you would do if you had permission to do anything.” He’s also forgiving; he doesn’t hold the disease against the man who gave it to him, even though it will prove fatal for him (“I hope he’s okay”). He’s clearly not social blind, he very much wants acceptance, which speaks to the social 6’s desire for inclusion; so/sp seems more likely than so/sx, but either one is possible since we don’t see much of his secondary instinct.
Funky MBTI 