MBTI Type: INFJ

Eden stands out from the other characters in that she is very unorthodox in her thinking—she chose to marry Simon even though her brothers thought of him as an irresponsible idiot who couldn’t afford to keep her. When he wants to abandon her and go out in the world and follow Jesus, she gets excited for him and encourages him to do this, because she sees the potential in his relationship with this new rabbi. But Eden is also quite bound up in her feelings of obligations to other people, at the cost of her own emotions. She tells Simon she didn’t tell him about the baby because she didn’t want him to feel like he should stay home, or that it would ruin his day. She didn’t want to mess up things for him, around Jesus. Even having told him, it upsets her that he gets mad at Jesus, because she doesn’t want to “ruin” anything. Eden withheld her own deep sorrow in order to avoid creating upheaval between her husband and other people, which is what FJs are prone to doing—they love people so much, they smile for their sake. Others being happy makes them happy. Even when Eden enters the pool to cleanse herself and pray, she comes up out of the water begging the Lord not to let her husband go, because her focus is on him and not herself. Eden tries to be appropriate even when she does not feel like it, although her own true emotions leak out (FJs have a hard time not admitting to their feelings or addressing things as they happen, but she keeps her miscarriage bottled up inside for weeks). She doesn’t mind taking care of herself, or having her husband not bringing home any money, unlike a more traditional-thinking woman. Instead, she gets excited about their future together, and tries to make their home beautiful to please her husband (and as a way to work through her own pain of loss).

Enneagram: 2w1 sp/so

Eden makes other people a priority—as Simon says, when she miscarries their child, she winds up comforting him, when it should be the other way around. But in the way she pushes herself to be selfless, it’s clear that she’s obeying an inner voice telling her how she ought to be. Even though Simon has been away for a month, and she has serious things she wants to talk to him about, upon his return she waits on him, fixes food for him and his friends, and … isn’t happy about it. She is hurt and in pain, but still goes out of her way to make them all feel welcome. She is then somewhat apologetic in needing to voice her own anguish over what happened, and finds it hard to admit that she is angry at Simon for “doing nothing… for not being here!” 2s want to give, but expect support and love in return, and often get resentful when others make demands on them. They feel obligated to fulfill them, but may not even want to do so at the time. They can sigh, and say “Yes, I’ll just fetch more water and make more bread,” without feeling as if their own needs are being met, which is Eden’s struggle throughout much of the third season.

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