Rodney McKay’s MBTI is one of the most debated among fans of Stargate Atlantis, thanks to his brilliant mind, sharp tongue, and high-strung energy under pressure. Portrayed by David Hewlett, McKay displays strong traits of an INTP Enneagram 6w5, often called “The Troubleshooter.” His analytical brilliance, skepticism, and underlying anxiety in high-stakes situations make him a fascinating example of a thinker driven not just by logic, but by the need to anticipate and prevent disaster.
INTP 6w5 Characters
Why is Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis an INTP 6w5? 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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Introverted Thinking
Dr. Rodney McKay can fix anything and find any workaround to any problem, which means everyone on his team expects him to find solutions under pressure (the planet is about to blow up, the code words aren’t working, we have only ten minutes to save the planet! … and Rodney grumbles about it, but then gets onto his computer console and finds a solution or “rigs” something to work).
He is so excessively logical he treats everything like an analytical problem, including human beings. In the episode in which he needs to “Ascend,” Rodney says Ascension is irrational, it revolves too much on faith rather than logic, and tries to find a solution instead (in the end, he realizes he can imprint his own DNA back onto his body and restart his heart). During this time, he solves advanced mathematical equations, creates brilliant technological advances, and learns multiple languages; even when he is just “normal” Rodney, he is focused on technology and advancement. In one episode, he and John Sheppard compete in a “game” in which Rodney “cheats” by giving his civilization dirigibles and advancing them beyond simple goat farmers.
Ti wants to learn the principles of something, and to grasp all of its working components, so it can come up with logical solutions that do not rely on what exists now; this is what Rodney does constantly, whether that is figuring out how to force a Jumper to give him control from the back panel to arguing with a hallucination of himself while stuck at the bottom of the ocean to test his ideas. The downside is that he is arrogant because he is so much “smarter” and more “logical” than everyone around him, which makes others dislike him (more on this in the inferior Fe section).
Extraverted Intuition
McKay cares about theories, innovation, and pushing the limits, and not always about the practical considerations of his experiments. He is so happy to get his hands on a ZPM, he doesn’t think about the social repercussions of stealing it from a group of kids on an alien planet who are being protected from the Wraith by its energy field. When people confront him about his ideas not working, Rodney tells them “I think all of my ideas are genius!” He is in constant competition with Zelenka and his sister, both fellow Ti users, about which one of them has the most creative solutions and ideas. Rodney can also come up with endless possible ways to “fix” a situation that has gone wrong, but at times, his 6ish paranoia causes him to spiral out and think about all the ways this could be “a total disaster.”
When temporarily given an extremely high IQ, Rodney does twenty things at once, without stopping to think about the repercussions of any of them (he hooks himself up to the Ancient Chair and starts rewriting computer systems, writes a book about Dr. Weir and their expeditions, learns about Ascension, solves complex equations, rewrites codes, etc.). Ne likes to forever expand outward and dabble in many ideas at once, moving through them simultaneously in search of the most novel approach; it often finds the best solutions are unrelated to the topic at hand.
Introverted Sensing
Rodney collects massive amounts of information about planets, systems, languages, and other things of personal interest to him, but mostly what we see in him is a low Si tendency to be finicky about his eating habits. He hates citrus and passes that contempt on even to his “followers” when creating an advanced society (he assumed it was a computer game, not that people were carrying out his instructions in real life). He is often paranoid about dying, minor ailments turning into massive ones, and thinking that he, somehow, is going to die of an exotic illness. But he is also far more interested in studying, working, and doing “indoor” activities than in trying anything new; when Dr. Beckett tries to get him to go fishing, Rodney comes up with an excuse to get out of it.
Lower Si mostly cares about its own comfort, attentiveness to personal details of interest, and its former experiences to create expectations for the future; Rodney does the latter, both in positive (as he does field work, he becomes more confident in being in dangerous situations and handling them successfully) and in negative ways (the last time the Wraith attacked, we were doomed, this time we are going to die!).
Extrovarted Feeling
Rodney constantly devalues humanitarian approaches in favor of focusing on logical solutions; he shoots down Dr. Weir’s complaints about what he is doing being harmful to a civilization, because he argues that the kids do not need the ZPM, because their need is greater. In another episode, when she nails him on wanting to keep all ZPMS for Atlantis and asks which scientific expedition should go without one, he uncomfortably backs off, since he sees the repercussions.
He becomes insecure about his friendships when he sees an extraverted, laid-back version of himself from a different reality being more “successful” at being liked than he is, or when others put him on the spot. Low Fe wants external approval and inclusion but struggles to know how to respond on an emotional level. His inability to deal with his own or other people’s feelings surface in multiple episodes, such as in his interactions with his sister, where he insults her kids, and in his dating experiences; in one cringe-inducing episode, he talks about how seeing other people be happy has made him want to get married, but then he turns it into an awkward conversation about how this isn’t a proposal, and I don’t want to marry you, just someone like you…
In one episode where he is about to die, Rodney shows Fe development. He becomes considerate of his friends; he asks Ronan about his scars, and if he sees them as a badge of honor or a horrific reminder of being chased by the Wraith; he serves Teyla a meal and does prayers with her, since it is the anniversary of her father’s death; and he gives Dr. Weir a book in which he expresses his admiration for how much she has done with Atlantis. Eventually, when dating Dr. Keller, who is infinitely patient with him, Rodney experiences further growth, and becomes less self-centered.
Low Fe has a tendency to have public meltdowns when it is unhealthy, and Rodney does that a lot as well; he is often upset, venting, and sharing his feelings while devaluing other people’s emotional responses or finding them annoying. (When Zelenka talks about his house burning down as a kid, and they had nothing and lived in poverty, Rodney treats it as a pity me competition and insists that his suffering is so much worse, even though it’s non-comparable to Zelenka’s trauma.)
The Enneagram 6
Rodney is the king of worst-case scenario thinking; he always thinks they are doomed, going to die, that he will not find a solution in time, that he could perish from an unknown illness, that there is no possible way this could work out… and he draws attention (loudly) to whatever is wrong, missing, unlikely to happen, or irrational in any given situation. This is what unhinged 6s do, because they are constantly fearful and stressed. But he also shows the courage of a 6, in that he is incredibly loyal to his friends, he cares about being likable to them (even if he finds it hard to know how to be that way), and often risks his life (to the surprise of those around him) to save John, Teyla, Ronan, or Dr. Weir.
In one early episode, Rodney discovers an Ancient artifact that makes him invisible; he is happy about it, until he realizes he can’t eat or drink while wearing it, and has no way of getting it off. Then he panics, and thinks he is going to waste away in front of them all. As it turns out, the device is tapping into his emotions; as long as he is afraid, it protects him and cannot be removed. As soon as his fear of having to do something truly life-threatening overcomes his fear of being without it, it deactivates. This is because he is a fear-driven person.
The 5 Wing
Rodney treats everything as a competition in terms of how competent he can be; he refuses to believe that anyone else is smarter than him, and looks down on them for their shoddy work. When people cross him or let him down, he tells them off for causing him to be inconvenienced. This is the natural arrogance that comes from a 5, who thinks that because they go so much deeper into topics than other types, their information is more trustworthy, well-researched, and respectable. He also doesn’t really care to expand outside his comfort zone, and tries to keep his life small for a long time, despite his field work. He specializes in a very specific area and keeps to it, but is annoyed if others excel in that field before he does. (5s typically care deeply about certain things and dig deep into them, but will abandon them if someone else beats them to an ingenious discovery.)
