Scarlett O’Connor’s MBTI and Enneagram profile is a serene blend of idealism and peace-seeking. In Nashville, Clare Bowen portrays Scarlett as a gentle INFP with the calm, grounded qualities of a 9w1, creating a character defined by empathy, creativity, and quiet resilience.
INFP 9w1 Characters
Introverted Feeling
Scarlett is a sweet, caring person who only wants to do what is best for others, but whom is often emotionally out of step with them. Even though Gunnar loves her, everyone around them wants them together, and their partnership works creatively, Scarlett leaves him because she no longer feels anything for him. She retreats into herself whenever she feels hurt, scared, offended, or overwhelmed, and even gives up her career in music for a short time because she no longer feels that it is what she wants for herself (she doesn’t want the fame and success at the cost of constant touring and being alone). Scarlett often refuses to talk about things that happen until she has processed it, either by crying, shutting down, having a meltdown, or leaving the room. She feels crushing guilt if she has done something wrong, because she hasn’t lived up to her moral compass. Her deep loyalty to Deacon during his health crisis, emotional lows, and addiction, comes from the bonds they forged when he took care of her after she left her self-destructive mother. She acts from “this is what feels right,” regardless of how others respond to it (such as when she invites her mother to come for a visit, but then tries to convince her to save Deacon’s life with a liver transplant). Scarlett admits after one date with the doctor that she “ruined it,” because she only talked about herself, and her feelings about Deacon’s cancer treatments.
Extraverted Intuition
Unlike Gunnar, who does his best work spontaneously and can’t just write music by sitting down to do it, Scarlett has a continual flow of musical inspiration and is writing lyrics all the time. She writes about ghosts, rivers, memories, floating, dreams, etc., rather than specifics. During their relationship, inspired by simply being with him, she is up at 2am writing more love songs. At times, Scarlett becomes overwhelmed with the choices in her life, or loves two people at the same time, as happens with Gunnar and the director who pushed her creatively and aroused her passions by first igniting her anger and resentment. She often frets about what could happen to her next—fame, relationships, the future, being “seen,” what might happen, the consequences of her actions or anticipating and warning people against what they’re considering doing (not wanting Deacon to spiral, sensing that Maddie needs friendship and to be allowed to make her own decisions, etc). She also easily reverses her opinions about people or her career, stating with absolute authority that she won’t do this or tolerate it in one episode, only to change her mind in the next. Ne is known for these rapid flips. She idealizes her music, career, relationships, and opportunities, then becomes overwhelmed when they become too real to her (leading to an emotional breakdown on stage). She also treats what she feels or believes is happening as real, and is sometimes wrong about other people’s motives, intentions, or actions.
Introverted Sensing
Scarlett started out as a duo with Gunnar (and before him, Avery). She got used to playing with someone, so when she has her solo career, she finds it hard to do alone. This causes her anxiety and leads to a mental breakdown, but she becomes a more confident performer again when she teams up with Gunnar a second time, and they become “The Exes.” It is familiar to her, and that comforts her. She also gets homesick while on the road, and longs to be back with her family, which is important to her. She yearns to return to her roots, her home, and her routine, and does not do well when out of her natural environment. Scarlett loathes her mother, and doesn’t want to forgive her, but still feels as if she needs to take care of her on some level. She repairs their family relationship for Deacon’s sake, and tries to convince her mom to give him part of her liver and to do the selfless thing for once. Scarlett struggles with her mother, because she has so many flashbacks to their bad relationship. She is somewhat nostalgic-oriented, and finds it hard to move past previous hurts; in the final season, Scarlett goes back to caring for horses, because it comforted her as a child.
Extraverted Thinking
Scarlett struggles to make practical or business decisions on the spot; she freezes, doesn’t know whether to sign the contract, and has to think about it. Jeff tells her bluntly that success means she has to love the results more than the things she hates about being famous (like being photographed and going on tour), which helps her decide that yes, she wants this for herself. Being on a schedule and constantly expected to perform wears her down, and causes her to give up music for awhile. And although rare, when Scarlett is angry or upset, she does lash out at people. She tells off several of her boyfriends for their selfish behavior, she puts Jeff in his place, she even loses her temper a couple of times with Deacon and her mother. Scarlett yells at them, then leaves the room. Over time, she has to learn that her kindness can be intrusive, and that she needs to slow down a bit and think about what the financial or musical consequences of her decisions might be (breaking up with Gunnar, hooking up with Gunnar, getting involved with Deacon’s doctor, and then the director of her music video, and how this might affect her career).
The Enneagram 9
Scarlett is very mild-mannered, easily upset when others lose their temper around her, and sweet. She is too easygoing for a while, allowing others to make decisions for her and passively accepting their choices except when she profoundly disagrees with them. On the set of her music video, she is deeply uncomfortable about being “sexual” and pushes back, at first with stubbornness and then an explosion, before she submits and does what he wants anyway, to get a good performance out of herself. Before then, Scarlett had gotten into a rut of never pushing herself out of her comfort zone—she always took the easy path in her relationships, with her music, in not wanting to tour, in needing things to be peaceful around her. It was easier to shut out her mother, to try to control Deacon’s drinking habits, to make peace with Juliette, to not want to upset Rayna. Later on, Scarlett shows more 9 tendencies in how she shuts down, closes relationships without wanting to talk about them or face the unpleasant feelings involved, and in how she plays peacemaker between her friends, tries to help Deacon see what Maddie is going through in her struggle to become an adult, etc.
The 1 Wing
Scarlett sometimes moralizes at other people, or gives them a lecture on their bad behavior. She calls out Gunner for his impulsive choices, which harmed their relationship. She feels guilty for semi-cheating on him with someone else. She tells her mother that she “owes” Deacon part of her liver, because of all the crap she put both of them through; Scarlett is offering forgiveness and reconciliation, but only if her mother does “the right thing.” She can be a bit of a hard-ass in her demands at times, because there is a right way to do things, and others aren’t doing it. (There’s a right way to be in a relationship, a right way to write music, and she wants it to be perfect, pure, and lovely.)
Scarlett of the Golden Hair
Scarlett was my favorite character in the first couple of seasons, because in a sea of people making bad choices, she wasn’t making as many. She had a moral compass, a personable nature, and a genuine sweetness, with a lot of love and concern for those around her… but as time went on, Scarlett became less of a saint. She started making poor decisions, jerking men around, and realizing that if you want things, you have to go get them. She violates her own Fi-ideals at times, by trying to impose her will on her mother. I understand that desperate need to save Deacon, but the judgmental nature that came with it almost ruined things, leaving Rayna to go in and clean up the mess with her Fe.
