OT3 Week - Speculating on the third member or thoughts on Elaine
A few days ago china_shop and I had a little discussion about Elaine: Here
It brought it home to me how little we know about her. But then we actually know very little about any of the supporting chracters in S1/2. We know Gardino was married and some details about that but Welsh, Huey and Elaine are much less defined in terms of a personal life.
Some basic facts we can glean about Elaine:
1) She is familar with the Carpenters and associates their music with love.
2) She takes time and care over her appearance.
3) She doesn't like to dress up much. She likes her clothes to be pracitcal and comfortable.
4) She's quiet well experienced.
5) She prefers rye bread for her sandwiches. Oh and pastrami sandwiches.
6) Ice cream is her comfort food.
That's slightly better that I thought...
So onto pure speculation.
First off we have age. CB was only 22/23 during that first season. I tend to peg Elaine as older than that, I always have even before I knew the actresses age. I would tend more toward mid-twenties, 25 or maybe 26 to give her a bit more life experience. In fact from the comments people have made it's easy to push that to late twenties; 27/28 even.
We know nothing about her family. If her parents are alive or dead, if she has any siblings, anything like that. All that is a completely open book. I tend to think she doesn't have any close family in terms of siblings. Perhaps a sister who has moved away. She may have lost a parent when she was hitting adulthood and perhaps ended up working to help support her family.
Her job is important to her. She seems to rarely take a day off and is dedicated. She does the admin, the research, the grunt work. She is very hardworking when a case demands it of her, even though she isn't out in the field. She's also trusted with some quite complex work such as cracking dummy corporations in 'Body Language'. That suggests a high level of faith in her abilities. She's also computer literate, unlike Fraser and Ray, so has an extra tool to use on their behalf.
She doesn't have a great deal of a social life that we see. She was asked out on a date by a guy who had been after her for awhile but she said no as she wanted to get her rest. And was promptly called out by Ray and Fraser to help on a case (Chicago Holiday). She likes a little personal time, time to herself to relax and unwind, which is understandable.
She is willing and able to do what it takes. She has a good relationship with all the detectives but she is perhaps closest to Ray (and therefore Fraser) doing things for them we don't see her doing for others and they have a good working relationship. Elaine even tips them off about the FBI in H&E and about the visitors in Mask.
So there is a lot we can speculate about and really we have quite a bit of canon evidence as to the sort of person she is. There's a good deal to work with but there's also a lot of freedom to play with canon. Especially when it comes to her with Fraser and Ray ;-)
It brought it home to me how little we know about her. But then we actually know very little about any of the supporting chracters in S1/2. We know Gardino was married and some details about that but Welsh, Huey and Elaine are much less defined in terms of a personal life.
Some basic facts we can glean about Elaine:
1) She is familar with the Carpenters and associates their music with love.
2) She takes time and care over her appearance.
3) She doesn't like to dress up much. She likes her clothes to be pracitcal and comfortable.
4) She's quiet well experienced.
5) She prefers rye bread for her sandwiches. Oh and pastrami sandwiches.
6) Ice cream is her comfort food.
That's slightly better that I thought...
So onto pure speculation.
First off we have age. CB was only 22/23 during that first season. I tend to peg Elaine as older than that, I always have even before I knew the actresses age. I would tend more toward mid-twenties, 25 or maybe 26 to give her a bit more life experience. In fact from the comments people have made it's easy to push that to late twenties; 27/28 even.
We know nothing about her family. If her parents are alive or dead, if she has any siblings, anything like that. All that is a completely open book. I tend to think she doesn't have any close family in terms of siblings. Perhaps a sister who has moved away. She may have lost a parent when she was hitting adulthood and perhaps ended up working to help support her family.
Her job is important to her. She seems to rarely take a day off and is dedicated. She does the admin, the research, the grunt work. She is very hardworking when a case demands it of her, even though she isn't out in the field. She's also trusted with some quite complex work such as cracking dummy corporations in 'Body Language'. That suggests a high level of faith in her abilities. She's also computer literate, unlike Fraser and Ray, so has an extra tool to use on their behalf.
She doesn't have a great deal of a social life that we see. She was asked out on a date by a guy who had been after her for awhile but she said no as she wanted to get her rest. And was promptly called out by Ray and Fraser to help on a case (Chicago Holiday). She likes a little personal time, time to herself to relax and unwind, which is understandable.
She is willing and able to do what it takes. She has a good relationship with all the detectives but she is perhaps closest to Ray (and therefore Fraser) doing things for them we don't see her doing for others and they have a good working relationship. Elaine even tips them off about the FBI in H&E and about the visitors in Mask.
So there is a lot we can speculate about and really we have quite a bit of canon evidence as to the sort of person she is. There's a good deal to work with but there's also a lot of freedom to play with canon. Especially when it comes to her with Fraser and Ray ;-)