Barry Frost MBTI has become an interesting topic among fans of Rizzoli & Isles, where the quick-thinking Boston detective stands out for his adaptability, charm, and tactical instincts. Portrayed by Lee Thompson Young, Barry displays clear traits of an ESTP personality type and aligns closely with Enneagram 7w6, combining fast-paced Extraverted Sensing awareness with an optimistic, loyal, and action-oriented outlook that makes him one of the most engaging members of the squad.
ESTP 7w6 Characters
Why is Barry Frost from Rizzoli & Isles an ESTP? Continue reading for my argument using cognitive functions! The headers for each section are clickable, so you can easily access more information about the dominant function and the Enneagram type, or discover more characters who share the type.
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Extraverted Sensing
Barry is outgoing and personable, but also has a weakness for seeing a beautiful woman and instantly gravitating to her; he and Frankie are both taken in by an undercover cop working in Jane’s building, who first recruits them away from moving in Jane’s new furniture, and then dates both of them at the same time! Barry takes people at face value at first and tracks their behavior more than speculates about what he can’t see; he wants the evidence to add up, make sense, and be proven in court in a way that will hold up.
He’s a good cop because he thinks fast on his feet, chases down suspects instantly, and can look at crime scenes without becoming emotionally compromised (even if his stomach heaves up his lunch as an automatic impulse). It’s not until after his death that his coworkers know more about him—his refined taste in art, music, and his variety of physical hobbies. We find out in one episode his love of video games; in another, that he rarely goes home from work, but goes clubbing or out on dates. He’s a charismatic physical presence on the team.
Introverted Thinking
When Frost finds out a girl is two-timing him with Frankie, rather than be offended by this, he assumes the “best man will win” (she can do whatever she wants, and this is now a friendly competition between us). He isn’t above stretching the rules or breaking the law within limitations if it helps them track down a bad guy or expose a murder scheme. Frost is best at decoding systems and hacking into people’s computers. He doesn’t want Korsak to touch the new system because “he might break it,” and Frost prides himself on knowing it from the inside out and being an expert at it.
Even when situations are dire, Frost keeps a level head about him and cares more about solving the problem than soothing other people’s feelings. He focuses on what he can do to “improve” a situation (catch the bad guy, make him pay for it, track someone through their phones pinging off neighboring towers, etc.) instead.
Extraverted Feeling
Here is where Frost shines. He is extremely charming and likable, able to talk people into giving him information or just getting them to enjoy being around him. He sometimes flirts with new cops or technicians on the job. Though he doesn’t prioritize his own feelings much, Frost can tune into when others are upset and signal his teammates to back off, or becoming soothing to them in the present moment (“I know this must be hard for you, but can you tell us anything about…?”). He engages in a lot of good-natured teasing with Frankie, Korsak, and Jane, and tries to get a rise out of them to establish camaraderie with his teammates.
Introverted Intuition
Though he only mentions it occasionally, Frost wants to be on an upward trajectory and has ambitions of moving up in the force and eventually having a position that doesn’t require barfing over dead bodies. Sometimes he will reference a bad feeling about something or claim that he’s following a hunch, but he does this less often than Jane (ISTP).
The Enneagram 7
Frost is good-natured and optimistic, always looks for ways to tease others or make the mood lighter, even in a bad situation. He jokes with Maura over dead bodies, he competes with Frankie to win over women, and he playfully buys and then sets an “action figure” (Jane calls it a “doll” to tick him off) on his desk. Things rarely get him down for long, and he has a cavalier manner of dismissing them and acting as if things aren’t as important as others make them out to be (a 7’s way of diffusing the situation and making it less serious; they don’t want to dwell on bad, or sad, things for very long). He likes the job because it keeps him moving forward and no two days are the same.
The 6 Wing
Though Frost doesn’t really seek approval, he is loyal to his friends and family and to his department. He cares about the general welfare of the city and has always idolized the police department, seeing it as a protective force that deals with getting “bad guys” off the street. He freezes out a woman who manipulates him and Frankie, not because she dated them both, but because she let him and Frankie think she was something other than she was; for 6s, trust is a huge deal, and she violated their trust and showed how little she respected them, by not telling them she was an undercover cop working the drug scene. But he also warms up to her after she proves herself to be a good cop, showing a 6ish tendency to let someone win you back over by proving their good intentions.
