Marilyn Whirlwind

  (played by ) is (Raven clan) who works as an Office Manager for Joel Fleischman. She is noted for her, manner, quietly profound , and utter.

For example, Joel, having spent most of the episode held captive by the misanthropic Adam's hypochondriac wife Eve, returns after days of absence, utterly disheveled, still wearing the with which Eve had bound him, but his condition elicited no reaction from Marilyn whatsoever. When Joel expressed incredulity at this, Marilyn simply responds, "Your  arrived."

Employment
In the Pilot (1-1), Marilyn is already at Joel's office when he goes there for the first time. She has already assumed the role of Office Manager without even asking to be hired for the job (which Joel tells her several time "there is no job"). However, he to leaves it alone when her gentle personality rescues him from a nervous breakdown. Later, she assumes the role of a Nurse Practitioner. She treats the office as if it was a larger one by relaying his telephone calls "from line one". She runs the office with a welcome change from usual bureaucracy by attempting to reduce paperwork and referring to his patients as numbers next in line. Her other assignments is to arrive much earlier than Joel to turn on the heat, make coffee, and to clean. Despite doing things that Joel does not approve, she takes her job very seriously as she told Maurice J. Minnifield and the Enrico Bellati she needs to go to work early and does not want to quit.

She also works at concession stands.

For a time, Marilyn raises but Maurice J. Minnifield's attempts to market the ostriches' extremely large eggs eventually leads to a decrease in egg supply because, as Marilyn puts it, "You make them ". She also tries.

Personality
She is always calm, even when angry. She has been at odds with people outside her tribe a few times. She stood up to Maurice J. Minnifield's somewhat aggressive business deal with her by returning the cardboard cutout he made of her. When he asks to reconsider, she quietly says that it just will not work out. In the episode where they thaw a dead French man's body, she and Holling Vincoeur were alarmed for different reasons. She quietly stood beside her tribe when they reclaimed the body. She reacted to Joel's refusal to join her tribe by walking away from him and talked only to his patients until he relented.

In Season 3, Episode 21, she and Ed takes over the office. Later, she scares a patient for him to quit smoking.

In Season 4, Episode 7, Marilyn moved in with Maggie and would not leave until Maggie helped her find a house.

Love life
Marilyn is briefly involved with the "flying man", Enrico Bellati, who works with a circus, and their relationship is revisited and further develops in the fourth season. Despite his Vow Of Silence, she understands him fluently. Towards the end of the series, she develops a more permanent relationship with local, Ted.

Adventure
Marilyn experiences more things as the series progresses. She tries learning to drive from Chris but decides against it because she "would miss walking". She moves out of her parents' house, only to buy it from them once they move out because they no longer need such a big place with Marilyn gone (and she has no luck finding a house she likes). She has her own clothes washing machine and clothes dryer, but prefers to go to to the Laundromat. For a vacation, Marilyn leaves Cicely for the first time in her life and travels to by airplane.

Storyteller
Marilyn likes to tell   which has saved other people's lives. One story about the bird helped Nadine land unharmed after she fell off the cliff. Another time she told the story about the unlucky warriors to calm Shelly.

Hobbies
Marilyn has Extra Sensory Perception, and also has a skill for detective work, but avoids using it because she "doesn't want to judge people".

In the fourth season, Marilyn is revealed to be an accomplished piano player and plays at Shelly and Holling's weddings. She also enjoys Native dancing Cajun dancing. She teaches every body how to knit with yarn.

Quotes

 * "Spring Break" (2-5)

Ed: Somebody stole Dr. Fleischman's.

Marilyn: White people; they get crazy.


 * "Seoul Mates" (3-10)

Marilyn: A long time ago, the raven looked down from the sky and saw that the people of the world were living in darkness. The ball of light was kept hidden by a selfish, old chief. So, the raven turned himself into a spruce needle and floated on the river where the chief's daughter came for water. She drank the spruce needle. She became pregnant and gave birth to a boy, which was the raven in disguise. The baby cried and cried until the chief gave him the ball of light to play with. As soon as he had the light, the raven turned back into himself and carried the light into the sky. From then on, we no longer lived in darkness.


 * "Our Tribe" (3-12)

Marilyn: She says you look unhappy.

Joel: Who, me?

Marilyn: I told her you always look like that.



Marilyn: The man is the guy who has.


 * "Thanksgiving" (4-8)

Marilyn: Death, like the white man, wasn't happy in his own land. He didn't think his kingdom was big enough. He wanted more. One night, when the good spirit was asleep, Death attacked the world. He killed a lot of people, and he took the Chief's prettiest daughter as his bride. She pretended to be a good wife, but one day she secretly fed him a pumpkin seed. The pumpkin grew and grew inside death. Finally, he exploded, and a million pumpkin seeds covered the earth.

Joel: I still don't get it.

Marilyn: A lot of people died, but a good thing came out of it, too.

Joel: What was that?

Marilyn:: It's the same with. They, they , and they gave us the. But they also brought s and and.


 * "Birds of a Feather" (5-6)

Marilyn: (to Joel's mom) The wasn't always the Eagle. The Eagle, before he became the Eagle, was Yucatangee, the Talker. Yucatangee talked and talked. It talked so much it heard only itself; not the, not the , not even the. The came and said "The Wolf is hungry. If you stop talking, you'll hear him. The wind too. And when you hear the wind, you'll fly.

Nadine Fleischman: So he stopped talking.

Marilyn: (nods) And became its nature, the Eagle. The Eagle soared, and its flight said all it needed to say.


 * "Bolt from the Blue" (5-14)

Marilyn: [There was] a who had a fine. Everyone said how lucky he was to have such a horse.

Marilyn: "Maybe", he said.

Marilyn: One day, the stallion ran off. The people said the warrior was un.

Marilyn: "Maybe", he said.

Marilyn: The next day the stallion returned, leading a string of fine. The people said it was very lucky.

Marilyn: "Maybe", the warrior said.

Marilyn: Later, the warrior's son was thrown from one of the ponies and broke his leg. The people said it was unlucky.

Marilyn: "Maybe", the warrior said.

Marilyn: The next week, the chief lead a against another tribe. Many young men were killed. But, because of his broken leg, the warrior's son was left behind, and so was spared.