MBTI Type: ESTJ

Cal is incredibly attentive to the details of his environment and micro-expressions. He uses a system of immediate internal comparison to discern whether others are deceptive in their intentions or answers – long-term analysis, information gathering, and photographic evidence have given him an immediate ability to recognize a million different facial and bodily reactions and correlate it with his research and personal experience. He methodically gathers information before drawing conclusions about it. Eventually, we learn that he developed the system after experiencing a personal loss in which he realized recognizing false emotions could have saved the life of someone he cares about. His coworker also tells Ria that Cal is “jealous” of people who can do this naturally (like her, an ISTP), because he spent decades of his life studying it.  Once establishing the pattern of micro-expressions, Cal set out to develop a teaching method to not only put the study to practical use, but educate others in recognizing these signs and using them for research, national security, and investigative purposes. It earns him and a lot of other people a living, while providing a useful public service even if it’s not admissible in court. He uses practical visual examples and is comfortable in a classroom. He backs up conclusions with proof and evidence. Cal is not above hypothesizing but prefers to wait for evidence first. He warns a coworker that seeing the “big picture” (this knowledge can hurt people) is important. He does tend to guess correctly as to motive or intention, but much of that is drawn from his previous studies and understanding of human nature. He also accurately reads a lot of people and situations and escalates them to serve a purpose. Cal can sometimes be oblivious to personal feelings, preferring a more tactical and objective approach. He often provokes reactions to prove a hypothesis or close a case. Cal enjoys making a living off his extensive knowledge. He leaves most of the placating of people to his coworker, preferring a more detached approach. Intensely private, he almost never opens up about personal experiences or feelings. Cal processes them on his own. He can sometimes be tactless, although he does care very much about the important people in his life. He has a hands off approach to other people’s romantic entanglements – and a mutual agreement with Gillian not to interfere in one another’s personal life (to the point where he refuses to tell her that her husband is lying and concealing something).

Enneagram: 8w9

Cal has an abrasive personality and tends to be hyper-assertive; he doesn’t hesitate to get right up in people’s faces, accuse them of lying, challenge them to back up what they say, or even to answer a gang leader with food in his mouth (a sign of disrespect, to see if it proves rage in him). In the first episode, rather than find another parking spot when a sports car zips into the spot he was waiting to pull into, he confronts the driver, and then parks beside him in the middle of the street and leaves, blocking him in for hours. When his daughter tells him to leave her boyfriend alone, he ignores her appeal and demands to know if he intends to sleep with her on this date, before he has even invited him inside the front door. Though it might (and does) destroy his relationship with an old friend, Cal confronts him about cheating on his wife, and then turns over the investigation into his support of fabricated drug tests over to the police. His friend says Cal used to get into trouble at Oxford all the time for lying, stealing, and cheating. He tells his coworkers often to mind their own business, but oversteps his own “rules” to find out if Gillian’s husband is cheating on her. He doesn’t like conflict with those he cares about most, and remains emotionally detached, often unaffected by what’s happening around him. Cal “checks out” sometimes, and over-indulges himself in drinking, or will fall into bed with someone he hasn’t known long, while not allowing that to impede his judgment (if she’s bad, he will still turn her in).

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