MBTI Type: ISTP

I am not going to lie, Eli is one of the best characters in television. He is a man of few words, just pure gut energy and analytical reasoning. Confronted with just about anything, he thinks about it for a few seconds and then makes some offhanded remark that is often accurate – like Cornelia isn’t going to kill the man she came to kill (true). She is naïve and going to get herself into trouble (also true). The west is full of bad people ready to attack them (true). Unlike her idealism, built on dreams and giving people the benefit of the doubt, he sees the west for what it actually is—a lawless place full of bad people. He makes a good scout and helper to her in her desire for revenge, because he can adapt to any situation, take advantage of any leg up in the situation, think fast, and get away from trouble before it finds him (or handle it, when it doesn’t). But he’s not much for words, and often answers her in only a few syllables. Like most ISTPs, he has a vision for what he wants for his later life (to start up a farm in Nebraska) and is stubborn about holding onto it, even when others tell him it’s stupid. He just knows somehow that he’s going to get it, come hell or high water. Like a lot of ISTPs, he isn’t emotional—just curious about Cornelia, surprised at times by her decisions (including drowning a man; he goes “Huh…” since he didn’t expect it, but he isn’t fussed about it), and at the very end, able to express his feelings when he calls out to her in his native tongue that his soul loves hers.

Enneagram: 9w8 sp/so

Eli is the embodiment of a 9w8 in his calm forcefulness. People tell him that they are going to kill him? He stares at them for a minute, sizing them up, and then says, “Nope.” No one thinks to question him, because he seems to know them better than they know themselves. He calmly goes about his day, unbothered by other people and their problems—and in fact, that’s one of his answers to everything: “not my business.” Doesn’t care if people are stealing from the stagecoach; that’s not his problem. Will look the other way. The message is that he will mind his own business, not yours, and we will both go away in peace, but if this isn’t agreeable to you, and you make trouble for me, I will kill you. If you insist. And that’s often what he has to do—talk in an attempt to get others to leave him alone, then shoot them when they try to kill him or Cornelia. Even though he insists she’s not his problem, he gets carried along in her “business” because he feels somewhat responsible for a white lady who might get herself into a whole heap of trouble without his intervention. Eli shows both the passivity of the 9, in his total acceptance of his fate most of the time, and the amoral attitude of the 9w8, in that he doesn’t have a strong moral judgment on anything that doesn’t involve him.

Interested in finding out your type? Get 16 Kinds of Crazy: The Sixteen Personality Types today!