MBTI Type: ESFJ

Nicky has strong moral opinions about everything, and a “we are all equal, nobody should be treated differently” mindset that sometimes clashes with her family’s more conservative political views. At the debates that rage over issues at family dinner, Nicky is always the one championing the underdog, taking the offensive on the side of the perp, or arguing against traditional views, because she sees a hard line as insensitive and/or not serving the greater good of society. There’s not a single issue that comes down the pike where Nicky doesn’t take a hard stance on it, coming at it from a humanitarian angle—but she’s young, inexperienced, and sometimes foolish in that she can involve herself in things that are none of her business, with disastrous consequences. As Jamie tells her in one episode, if an abused woman doesn’t want to press charges, there’s nothing he can do about her situation – that’s just how it is. This is his FiTe accepting the situation and its limits, and being respectful of the woman’s autonomy. Nicky insists on trying to get her to change her mind, leaves her phone number at the woman’s house, and winds up accidentally causing an incident (the woman is beaten up, her son knives her husband while defending her, and winds up arrested for attempted murder), because she can’t stay out of it. She is assertive with her feelings and combative when she feels crossed or upset. Nicky has a lot of low-Ne ideals that she is living up to—trying to make a big difference in the world by being involved in every cause, joining up with many feminist and social movements – but ultimately, she always comes back to her roots, her family, and what she knows. Her own upbringing hinders her at times from seeing the big picture or understanding cultures different from her own, but she greatly desires to influence “change” in society through whatever means she can; and she winds up in a profession similar to the “family business” (cops). She struggles to be impartial about anything, but is often asking probing questions, trying to “understand” where everyone is coming from, why that law exists, why hasn’t it been overturned, etc.

Enneagram: 1w2 so/sp

Nicky often conflicts with the rest of her family at their Sunday dinners because she insists on bringing a moral perspective to any arguments; she doesn’t believe in letting cops get away with things because of the blue line, she’s incredulous at the idea of not intervening even when people do not ask the police for help, and in one episode, her over-assertive and confrontational desire to save an abused woman from her husband leads to disastrous consequences when the woman is beaten up and her son later arrested for stabbing his mother in her defense. Nicky’s idealism means she can’t do nothing about issues that she sees as problems, and as an so/sp type, she’s very vocal about all the wrongs that need righted in society; she has joined up with a bunch of feminist causes in college, in the hope of influencing society for the ‘better.’

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