Last Night in Soho: It Comes in 3's
Welcome to a series where FoG Staff and Horror Enneagrammarian, Asia (whose own work can be found here), will guide us all into the tragic psyches and wounded souls of the characters we know and love, using the Enneagram as a lens. Unfamiliar with the Enneagram? Asia’s got you covered. She’s written her own take on the “types” here and also recommends The Enneagram Institute as an online resource. Lastly, FoG favorite author Richard Rohr uses the Enneagram in much of his work and co-wrote this book on it. Our goal as ever is finding the holy in the horrific and the Enneagram is a helpful tool to do just that…
This article is an ‘afterthoughts’ essay for our conversation on Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, which can be heard here.
I have never written one of these articles and come to new revelation about the film itself rather than just about its characters until Last Night in Soho.
When we think of this film, we may consider ideas like nostalgia, mental health, personal agency, control, or objective vs. subject morality. However, there is one theme that completely evaded me in my first viewings that I only really began to comprehend until I set out to understand these characters through the lens of The Enneagram.
And that theme is Ambition.
Perhaps you astute readers are thinking, “Well, obviously…”, and I couldn’t agree more considering what a consistent undercurrent ambition is for at least one of its leading characters.
You’ve probably gleaned from the title of this article that at least more than one of these characters is a Three, so here’s to your powers of observation. What you may not suspect, as I certainly did not when I started analyzing the characters, is that every single one of them is either a Type Three or has a Wing Three.
When I saw that pattern, I had to take a step back and reevaluate the way I thought about this movie. Because while the themes I mentioned above are no less present or potent, you cannot have a story so Type Three adjacent without considering the deeper meanings behind their individual curtains.
Ambition.
Achievement.
Personal Affirmation.
Expression.
Performance.
Excellence.
Self-Loss.
Admiration.
Extremism.
I’ll posit my typings to give you an idea of what I mean.
Sandi: (unhealthy) 3w4
Jack: (unhealthy) 3w2
Eloise: (moderate/average) 3w4
John: (healthy) 2w3
This is also an excellent opportunity to explore the ways that health vs unhealth affect what the same types can look like across their times of peace and stress.
Let’s go one at a time…
SANDI (3w4):
Sandi is introduced to the audience, and it is almost impossible not to recognize the Three in her from the first moment. Her image is carefully curated and manicured to match her desired environment, and she has perfected her ability to elicit the reactions that she wants from others – namely, (and I am not saying this in a negative way at all) attention.
Sandi stops traffic because she chooses to. She is aware of the power she holds over everyone who looks at her, and she knows how to use that to her advantage.
Now, that description may sound inherently manipulative, but I want to challenge you to not look at it with judging eyes. Being able to gauge what version of themselves is going to best fit their surroundings or best get their job done is one of the greatest strengths of the Type Three. Three’s are pragmatists. They are much less likely to try to manipulate you to hurt you (though we will see the exception in Jack later on) so much as to try to achieve the best outcome for either themselves (which is simply what we all do every day – they are just better at it than most of us) or achieve whatever the goal of their overarching authority is – their God, their company, their parents, etc.
Sandi walks into that nightclub dressed for the job she wants, and had she not been lied to by someone as slimy as Jack, she very well may have gotten it.
Sandi is a performer (the most well-known moniker of the Type Three). She is not ashamed to have all eyes on her, including her own. It’s a very interesting detail that she keeps a photo over her dressing table (in the much less desirable club at which she does get a job) is not of a family member or a friend or Jack, with whom she in now in a relationship, but of herself. She is in a constant struggle to manage how she sees herself and how other people see her – something that both 3’s and 4’s deal with profoundly, though express in very different ways.
I would claim that Sandi, as shiny and confident and glamorous as she is when she walks into the story, is already in a place of deep un-health (or disintegration to use Enneagram language) because of how quickly we see that confidence shatter and twist. Her goal is to perform. To acquire fame. To be admired (and through admiration, believe she is worthy of love). And that ruthless ambition allows her to take one step after another away from the real Sandi and towards a puppet, numb to her own wants and goals, and at the will of another bastardized version of herself.
When Three’s disintegrate, they take on the most stagnant traits of unhealthy Nines - Self-forgetting, confused, unsure of their own feelings or beliefs, and at the whim of the more forceful people around them. And that is very much what happens to Sandi. While the film does not give us much detail as to how every step was taken, it was certainly an option for her to refuse to take the burlesque gig with which she is obviously so disgusted before Jack had her so completely in his grip. Again, some of this is conjecture simply because it is not offered up in the movie, but I don’t think it is too unfair to Sandi to imagine her considering that perhaps it would be worth sacrificing some small portion of her dignity in service of her larger goal if it was ultimately going to get her there in the end.
Ambition, leading to degradation of values, leading to a degradation of self, leading to loss of self and total loss of control.
Which leads us to Jack, an equally ambitious man.
JACK (3w2):
The REAL first question is, how in the hell did I come up with Jack having a w2?
The answer is simple.
Sandi focuses all her attention (both selfish and unselfish) on herself.
This is typical of Average to Unhealthy Wing 4’s.
Jack focuses all his attention (most certainly unendingly selfish) on her.
Typical of Unhealthy Wing 2’s.
Jack, like Sandi, has his own ability to seamlessly adapt to whatever is in his environment. He is Sandi’s match in presenting whatever polished, charming, talented persona he wants her to see. He is ambitious, creating a network of selfish people who appreciate his selfishness and who can give him more people to keep feeding into his cycling machine of Hurting People.
It is most common for 3w4’s to be wildly successful creatively or on a stage– performing, dancing, singing, painting, politicking, etc… Because it is focused on affirmation from a generalized notion of “everyone”.
It is most common for 3w2’s to be wildly successful back stage – producing, networking, campaigning, and yes… managing. Because it is focused on affirmation from individual people.
A mass of people may stand and clap for a great opera singer.
But one rich donor may write the check based off of the sweet-talking of a charming producer to make that opera happen.
And Jack has both the ability and the inclination to focus all of his attention on other people in order to further himself. Type Two’s in their healthiest place are nurturing and protective, but at their worst, they are controlling and manipulative. Jack, in his deep disintegration of both his type and his wing, has lost sight of himself completely and has found a way to use his easily accessible ability to make other people feel special to fulfil what he thinks he really wants – which is to be “that guy” to all the other guys who want what he can offer them. The problem is that what he chooses to offer them is vulnerable women.
JOHN (2w3):
John (which I couldn’t help but notice that he is just about the only man in this movie who is not a “john”, is the inverse of Jack, not only in name and type, but also in health. From the moment we meet John, he is helping people – albeit sometimes in clumsy ways. He is more interested in Eloise as a person than even his own ambitions at school, which is ultimately why I landed on him as a Two, rather than a Three.
His Three Wing was easy enough to tag simply because he is entering into a very competitive industry that would challenge anyone to either bring their A-game or get out of town. He enjoys the glamour that comes with attention, able to scrounge up a very effective Halloween costume at a moment’s notice with some face-paint and a leather jacket. While he does not thrive off of it, he enjoys attention and praise and is willing to put his best foot forward to get it.
The rest of the time, however, he is concerned with the thoughts and feelings of those he cares about. While he may enjoy being productive and being praised for that creative productivity, he will drop whatever he is doing the second he knows that Eloise needs him. He is not just available for her when he asks, he persistently makes himself close to her, even at her persistent pushing away. Unlike Jack who takes as a rule, John continues to give himself even at potentially enormous risk to himself – his only reward being that of Ellie’s company and affection.
ELOISE (3w4):
Here’s where things get really fun, because now we get to explore what two people who share the same type can look like in different seasons of health.
It’s also worth making my usual disclaimer at this point that – one thing that makes typing anyone very difficult and potentially hazardous in real life is mental illness, and that is one of the central themes of this film.
We are introduced to Ellie’s bright and eager personality contrasted against the backdrop of her mentally-ill mother who took her own life many years ago. It is heavily implied that Ellie may have inherited similar if not the identical challenges. And as is such, it is crucial to only take the moments when Ellie is the most “Ellie” as our template by which to decipher her type. Initially I was a little tempted to consider her a 4 due to how “different” from everyone she is and how melancholy much of her narrative is. But neither of those elements are reflective of her personality, but rather of the sheltered circumstances in which she was raised and the challenges she has to cope with regarding her mental health.
When Ellie is the most grounded and centered, she is very much like a younger, kinder, more healthy version of Sandi. She is ambitious, forward-thinking, creative, eager for approval, wanting to make a statement, hard-working, and driven. This is likely one of the reasons why she is so completely attracted to Sandi when she first encounters her in her dreams. Sandi is (supposedly) everything that Eloise wishes she could make of herself – so much so that she literally begins to craft herself in the image of Sandi, thinking that it could be her new self. And that may be one of the most quintessential feelings each and every Three knows intimately. Is it me, or is it just what’s going to make me successful? Or beautiful? Or confident? Or applauded?
I have pegged Ellie as a w4 and not a w2 because, unlike John, much of her attention tends to naturally shift inward than outward. Which serves her as a very essential coping mechanism in managing her own understanding of her mental health. I do not say that her inward gaze is selfish – I say that it is needed. It is profoundly obvious over the course of the film that Ellie has so much love and affection to give when she is not plagued by ghosts, traumatic memories, people not believing her, and people literally trying to kill her. She also is a highly idealistic creature, developing ravenous fascinations with very specific people, places, and things, which is an essential Type Four trait.
We also get a fascinating glimpse into her ascent into further health at the end of the film, when we see her thriving in her school career. Not only is she more grounded in reality and more secure in her relationships with others, but she has accepted herself as she truly is rather than feeling like she needs to put on an image of someone more like who she wishes she were, as evidenced by having returned to her natural hair color, a lovely but certainly less glamorous shade of chestnut brown.
Ambition and façade have taken a back seat to taking care of herself and being true to who she really is.
What I loved about all of these characters wrapped together in this film is that it shows how deep and complicated people are, even in the lens of something that some people might consider a boxed-in notion like The Enneagram. The Enneagram has room for mental health concerns and provides us a way to see past the symptoms and into the purpose. It looks at motivation without judgement and validates things like a desire for affirmation and praise as nothing more than human needs that we all feel - some just closer to their core than others. It explores that all people are on a spectrum of emotional disease and health and that walking away from who God fashioned you to be is walking away from the person with whom you will feel most at home.
With all that being said, if any Type Three’s are reading this, I hope you can feel affirmation that – while some people may have spoken things over you like “shallow” or “manipulative” or “fake”, there is a much deeper, truer understanding of your heart that rings closer to “masterful”, “considerate”, “flexible”, “excellent” precisely as you exist in this moment.
Sandi was enough before she reached too far for her dreams.
Eloise was enough before she conquered her demons.
And so are you.
