October 2022 – Enneagram and Encaustic

Werewolf By Night

Technically, this stand-alone episode is part of the extended MCU. It’s absolutely charming as a Halloween tidbit, though, and may become one of my routine annual watches. Let’s see if it stands up to a fisk. But, please! Watch it first so my spoilers don’t ruin the enjoyment.

ONE

Begin the Marvel credit introduction, and then, with a screech and a slash mark, change it from color to black-and-white. Put the theme song in a minor key. Roll credits in the style of an original monster movie from the 1930s.

Voiceover narration introduces the darker side of the Marvel heroes, the monsters that operate beneath the surface and their hunters. Introduce the Bloodstone family. The patriarch wields a supernatural relic, the bloodstone. (Wait, is the family named after the necklace, or vice versa, lol?)

TWO

Continue with illustrative sketches while the narrator informs us that Ulysses Bloodstone has died. The position of head of the family and the ownership of the relic are now up for grabs. Switch to live action as the narrator announces that tonight is his funeral. (And continue with B&W, throughout.)

Establish a wooded landscape with a many-windowed domed building situated in the middle. The narrator sets the Rules of the Magic: Global hunters, strangers, meet for a ceremonial hunt that will decide who next wields the bloodstone.

Reveal our main character, panning up from his feet, as the narrator proclaims, “Woe to the monster who finds itself” among the hunters. He’s a man in a suit, regular except for dark eye circles and a strange chalk-like face tattoo. (It will take a long time before we’re told his name, but I can’t just keep calling him “our hero”. He’s Jack.)

NELLIE LOVETT (1982), TWO

Will the real villain of Sweeney Todd please stand up, lol! He kills because he seeks revenge. What’s Mrs. Lovett’s excuse?

Angela Lansbury, with her expressive, heavily-lined eyes and her childish honeybun hairdo, fools us beautifully. Her humor, her game attitude, and her love for Sweeney distract us from how easily she participates in murdering and baking her customers. She’s such a great character, portrayed with so much exuberance.

So, what number can engage us so thoroughly that we look away from her moral chaos? I immediately go to Heart Type. Her gentleness with Toby, even though she expects Sweeney to kill him, comes naturally. She can’t help herself. Also, she obviously envies Sweeney’s wife and the love he still holds for her.

She’s no Three. The other pie shop woman who’s “popping pussies into pies” is more successful than her, lol. Two or Four? She’s even-keeled. She’s happy before she meets Sweeney, and happy afterward. Two, at least how Lansbury plays her. Depression doesn’t ever settle on her. This does make me curious, however, to see how other actors have portrayed Mrs. Lovett. Perhaps for next Halloween.

SWEENEY TODD (1982), SIX

He’s bloodthirsty and ruthless, but his desire for vengeance dominates any other characteristic. Judge Turpin and The Beadle must pay for the scheme they perpetrated: stealing his wife and falsely sending him off to prison. All the other deaths are incidental, people who cross his path while he waits for his two foes to come for a shave. He’s singularly focused, to the point where he can take human life without blinking, but once his mission is complete, he’s done. He’s not a good man, but his need for justice helps us tolerate his story.

He’s an excellent barber, lol. Does that say anything about his Enneagram? We see his meticulous preparation, sharpening the razor and smoothing the lather, and then — whisk! — the close shave is done. It’s very similar to his killing spree. This is someone who likes order.

A Six? (He’s too morose to be a One.) I could consider him a Two. A gentle soul when mistreated so badly could turn to darkness. However, he takes no pleasure in his razors as objects. “At last, my arm is complete again.” They’re not a Two’s collection; the shaving tools are part of his body, part of his identity.

The ability to justify evil actions is Six-ish. Once black has been determined to be white by a Six, they can move forward with a clear conscience. When his enemies are dead, Sweeney could, in theory, revert to a normal life. The story, however, delivers its own justice. Sweeney’s moral decisions lead him to kill someone precious to him, and, after one last act of vengeance, he ends up broken by it. It falls outside of his black-and-white universe, and he can’t resolve what he’s done. When he’s killed at the end of the play, everybody’s code is satisfied, even Sweeney’s.

Summon the Suit

LEFTOVER NINE

A black screen with sounds of snarling and fighting, over. Coming into focus is sand, and then the camera races up the foot of Steven’s bed to him as he flies awake. It seems that in his mind he’s still in the fight. He dashes forward, stumbling out of bed, and is yanked short by the connected ankle brace. Crash, face plant.

ONE

That wakes him entirely. Realizing everything, he slumps back to the floor.

At his bathroom mirror, Steven tries to talk to Mark. No response.

Steven crosses the street, a red double decker bus passing in front of him, and walks toward the museum. As he approaches the front entrance, the overhead shot flips upside down to follow him in.

Repair tools. Cordoning tape. Steven slows and looks around. The security man says he’s just about to review the video footage. He takes Steven into the “arena”, a desk with multiple feed displays. Steven admits he might have information about what happened, and he warns the man: What you’re about to see will melt your brain.

ANNA, ONE

She’s so efficient that we never get a plotline about her job at Downton. All of Anna’s troubles are personal. I’m immediately thinking about a One. She feels like a small, cheerful dynamo. And she has that moral comfort a One or a Six possesses. She’s not a worrier, though (beyond regular human emotion) as a Six would be. It doesn’t define her.

So, a One.

Nobody in this era is going to jog about the park, but Anna is often shown walking to town. A Body Type would have few other outlets for exercise. She’s physically vibrant and brisk. Also, lol, I think she manages the finances for her marriage (a One trait). Everyone upstairs and downstairs is at ease around her. She has no Envy in her, so she can’t be a Three. Like a Three, though, a One is universally liked and successful. It makes her a useful character to the writers for a terrible rape plotline. No one wants to see Anna harmed, and her physical exuberance is convenient as a pivot point to put her in danger. That’s the dramatic nature of a soap opera, and I can’t complain that the showrunners have integrated Anna’s Enneagram into the story. I just don’t want to watch it.

GRAMMA TALA, NULL

She’s a troublemaker, lol. A rebel. She opens the movie by terrorizing the toddlers with the story of Maui. When Moana is grown, Gramma basically gaslights her by pretending she doesn’t care what Moana does. “I’m the village crazy lady,” she says. “That’s my job.” She’s a fairy godmother with a manta ray tattooed on her back.

Her only individual, character-specific moment is when she stands on the shore and admires her spirit animal. Otherwise, she’s the quest-giver, the heroic mentor, and the beloved elder. She’s a trickster. (Did they miss one of the archetypes, lol?) The showrunners pack a lot onto her shoulders. Can an Enneagram rise above all this weight?

Wow, no. In a previous review I held Gramma up as a great, well-written cameo character. I think I may have been bamboozled. Sorry about that. She’s layered with so many archetypes that she dazzles. However . . . she’s just a Null. Bummer.

The Goldfish Problem

I decided to give Moon Knight a try because some random YouTube mentioned it as an Egyptology show. I didn’t know that, really knew nothing about it and had no interest in it. Holy cow, was I wrong! I loved this quirky, beautifully-acted little gem. It doesn’t fit neatly into any expectation I held for an MCU project.

The reviews for MK are mixed, and I’m curious to see if my opinion changes during a rewatch. Alrighty, here we go. And remember, I load my breakdowns with all the spoilers.

LEFTOVER NINE

Hands adjust a cloth on a table. From overhead, we see the surface. Some kind of distinctive cane lays on one side, next to a pair of huaraches. On the cloth, arms rest, the right forearm tattooed with a balancing scale. The hands pour a tumbler of water, and then this person, face in shadow, drinks. The empty glass is turned downward, and the cloth is folded over it. With the cane head, the person smashes the glass. The shards are dumped into the shoes. Insert this person’s feet stepping into the huaraches, standing, and then smoothly walking.

Roll credits.

ONE

An extreme close-up of someone’s face in profile. It’s Oscar Isaac. He sits up, probably waking up, and looks around his garret apartment. He’s confused, maybe. Throwing back the puff, he reveals that his right leg is chained to the bed with an ankle brace. He checks that his connection to the bedpost is secure, and then frees himself. Now we see an insert of his feet. (Nice juxtaposition with the earlier scene!) The bed is surrounded by unmarked sand. He steps forward, leaving a clear footprint. He removes tape from the front door jamb.

Baxter, Nine

Since Baxter came up during the Molesley examination, let’s discuss her. She’s the one who eventually becomes Cora’s lady’s maid after O’Brien leaves. Thomas recommends her for the job; in exchange he holds her hostage. He wants to know the gossip upstairs and he’ll reveal her secret if she won’t dish.

And what is her secret? In a previous household she was convinced by an unscrupulous man to steal her employer’s jewelry. She served time and he went away free.

So, Baxter is malleable. She’s no Eight, One, or Three. She’s genuinely kind to others, even Thomas. This is a character with no Envy, so not a Two or Four. Because of her romantic feelings with Molesley, let’s rule out a Six (his Enneagram).

Five, Seven, or Nine? I want to say Nine. First of all, I like it as a companion number to Molesley. Also, I think the conflict inherent in Baxter’s crime is what torments her the most. Of course she’s embarrassed to confess to Cora, but upsetting the household balance, of putting Cora in the difficult position of deciding her fate, is more offensive to her. Molesley’s support — I would say his moral clarity, which is a source of peace for him — lends Baxter strength. Her past is not a drama for him, which makes it less of a drama for her.

The Desert

This is the episode I wish I could just skip. It’s too sad.

ONE

Desolate, vast, and sandy. Each of our team faces out on the desert, looking in a different direction. Turning around, Aang yells at Toph for letting Appa be taken. She defends herself with reasonable explanations, and Aang explodes, accusing her of not caring. Katara intervenes, supporting Toph. Sokka gives a pessimistic view of the entire situation.

TWO

Aang won’t hear any of it. He goes airborne to look for Appa.

THREE

Katara assumes leadership. They must get the information about the solar eclipse to Ba Sing Se. They start walking.

MAUI, TWO

He’s immediately hilarious and wonderful, nailing the best song in the show. At first all we see is his confidence and his callousness. (He leaves Moana locked in a cave FOR LIFE, or at least as far as he knows.) If this weren’t a Disney movie (and Moana weren’t highly athletic) it would be a much different tone.

Instead, it’s basically a road movie with these two.

Because Maui’s a shapeshifter, I want to say he’s a Body Type. He’s impulsive and socially clueless at times, which leads me to Eight. I mean, he is a superhero, of a sort. Eight is pretty go-to.

But what if he isn’t? He’s powerful because of his fish hook. Without it, he’s just a marooned dude. Oh, hahaha! Are his tattoos a Two’s collection? Underneath his jerk impulses he’s a lonely guy who wants to be appreciated. He did everything, all of his heroic feats, to help humans (or, so he claims in “You’re Welcome”). If we are to believe him, he didn’t defeat the monsters because of the physical challenge, to pit himself against the toughest bosses. He did it out of a sense of service. At the climax, when his hook is half-broken and he wants to quit, he returns because Moana won’t stop. Aw, how sad that someone who seeks human connection and love has been isolated for so long. (No wonder he talks to his ink, lol.)