I think Simmons probably knew what Aida was because she met her as a disembodied voice. That gives her a leg up over May.
Agents of Shield - Season 4
- Thread starter MarsWeeps
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I think Simmons figured out Aida the same way that Data figured out his mother.
Wait. When did Aida play the violin?
I figure it's because she's a scientist and is familiar enough with cybernetics to catch the subtle tells that May misses. Her dialogue to Fitz actually indicated as much -- I don't remember the specifics, but she praised some of the specifics of Aida's emulation of human speech and body language, so she clearly caught some patterns that would've been missed by someone who wasn't trained to notice them. People with training in a given field can notice things that a layperson would never think to look for. To flip it around, I'm sure that May could determine things from an opponent's fighting style or the sound of a gunshot that Simmons would completely miss, because that's May's area of expertise.
Addendum: "...in TV land, anyway."
It was the blinking of the eyes with AIDA.Wait. When did Aida play the violin?
Yeah, my memory was of some pattern in the eye blinking. "The blinking of her eyes emulated randomness by deriving its pattern from the inverse log of the Fibonacci Sequence." Or something. 
Some interesting things happening this week, though the main plot with the prison was a little dry. Spoilers ahead, for those who are wary of such things:
Jeff was at the Sokovia Accords conference in Vienna. Or at least claims he was. He supposedly saved some people after the Zemo's attack. Some people think he was a hero, but not all of them. What did Simmons find? And was it about the Vienna "rescue", or about Mace's Terrigenesis? They left the discussion vague enough that it could have gone either way. Makes me wonder if he isn't actually an Inhuman at all...
The beginning of Robbie's origin (to be expanded upon next week, no doubt). Pretty much true to the comics in the short form, although Gabe wasn't present in the book. Makes me wonder if they'll keep Robbie's death as the catalyst for the Ghost Rider possession, or mix and match with Gabe. After all, they still need to elaborate on just what kind of "deal" Robbie made, and with what devil. It sure appears that they've changed Eli from homicidal killing machine into a good man, done wrong character, but the way he looked at the Darkhold, I'm not fully convinced that he's not more sinister than he appears. Or at least, that he won't become more sinister than he appears down the road.
I liked the conversation between Coulson and May about her death experience. Coulson's now not alone in the having died category. Wonder if they'll play with that idea some more as we move along.
And Daisy continues to be a sad sack. The conversation with May was nice, recognizing the similarities in Daisy's behavior with May's after Bahrain. But this character needs a wake up call of some kind, and quickly.
Jeff was at the Sokovia Accords conference in Vienna. Or at least claims he was. He supposedly saved some people after the Zemo's attack. Some people think he was a hero, but not all of them. What did Simmons find? And was it about the Vienna "rescue", or about Mace's Terrigenesis? They left the discussion vague enough that it could have gone either way. Makes me wonder if he isn't actually an Inhuman at all...
The beginning of Robbie's origin (to be expanded upon next week, no doubt). Pretty much true to the comics in the short form, although Gabe wasn't present in the book. Makes me wonder if they'll keep Robbie's death as the catalyst for the Ghost Rider possession, or mix and match with Gabe. After all, they still need to elaborate on just what kind of "deal" Robbie made, and with what devil. It sure appears that they've changed Eli from homicidal killing machine into a good man, done wrong character, but the way he looked at the Darkhold, I'm not fully convinced that he's not more sinister than he appears. Or at least, that he won't become more sinister than he appears down the road.
I liked the conversation between Coulson and May about her death experience. Coulson's now not alone in the having died category. Wonder if they'll play with that idea some more as we move along.
And Daisy continues to be a sad sack. The conversation with May was nice, recognizing the similarities in Daisy's behavior with May's after Bahrain. But this character needs a wake up call of some kind, and quickly.
It actually plays nicely with her experience with microexpressions due to the lie detector tests.
Oh, that's what the reference to Vienna was! I hadn't made the connection.
It wasn't vague at all. She'd been studying how microexpressions reveal lies, as practice for dodging the lie detector tests, and she spotted microexpressions revealing that Mace was lying when he talked about his heroism in Vienna. If he'd been lying about being an Inhuman, she would've spotted that too.
(I'm not sure if microexpressions are really that infallible at detecting lies, but as I recall, they're probably a lot more reliable than polygraphs, whose abilities as "lie detectors" are hugely exaggerated in fiction.)
I'm pretty tired of Daisy's whiny goth shtick. I liked May's conversation with her, but it clearly did no good. Pity because I was finally beginning to like Daisy last year as an Inhuman and now she's just as annoying, if not more so, as she was in season 1.
I'm glad Mace's lie isn't about him being Inhuman because I like that public admission and I think it adds a nice thematic twist to the current Inhuman situation. I'm curious what the lie is actually about, but I hope they don't string out for too long because I don't think it's all that important and there are plenty of interesting issues going on now.
Seeing Simmons' lie detection experience demonstrated in a form of microexpressions and the focus on eye dilatations is a funny coincidence for me because, not only am I reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? right now, but I read Deckard's Voight-Kampff test of Rachael last night. Not quite the same tests, but the similarities are noteworthy.
I'm glad Mace's lie isn't about him being Inhuman because I like that public admission and I think it adds a nice thematic twist to the current Inhuman situation. I'm curious what the lie is actually about, but I hope they don't string out for too long because I don't think it's all that important and there are plenty of interesting issues going on now.
Seeing Simmons' lie detection experience demonstrated in a form of microexpressions and the focus on eye dilatations is a funny coincidence for me because, not only am I reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? right now, but I read Deckard's Voight-Kampff test of Rachael last night. Not quite the same tests, but the similarities are noteworthy.
Simmons says she watched him tell his story, and determined he was lying. She doesn't break it down by which story he was telling, or that she considered the two in any way separate. You've just assumed which part she was talking about with insufficient evidence. That said, I expect you're right, considering Coulson explicitly called out the fact that he doesn't think Mace is a hero just a few weeks ago, despite Jeff's insistence to the contrary. However, as the door seemed to be left open, it has me wondering what kinds of directions they might go in.
Yes, she did. She specifically referenced Vienna, and did not reference his Inhuman claim -- which seems to me like a much bigger deal to lie about, so if it had been part of the lie, Simmons surely would've focused on it instead of just the Vienna thing.
No, I've made a deduction based on the evidence presented, as I've just explained. The only assumption I'm making is that my recollection of the dialogue in the scene is accurate. I recall her specifically mentioning Vienna as the part he was lying about. But I believe that recollection is accurate, because I expected her to say that he was lying about being an Inhuman, and I was surprised when she did not.
Besides, we saw in his debut episode that he definitely does have superhuman strength. His powers are real, whatever their origin. And SHIELD does have the ability to test for Inhuman DNA. I'm sure Mace had to get a physical to get the job, and I'm sure SHIELD could tell whether he's really an Inhuman or not. But SHIELD would be less capable of determining the veracity of his Vienna claims, because there was no active SHIELD presence on the scene. Again, deduction, not assumption.
According to the writer, these references were on purpose.
I actually missed the connection in the episode. As an avid Overwatch player, that cracks me up.
Considering I went on to say I thought you were probably right, which I now regret, thank you very much, I'm just going to transcribe her comment and leave it at this.
Simmons: "He may ask me what I thought of that story you told on television today. You know, the one about becoming a hero in Vienna. Because if asked I would have to tell the truth. Which we both know you didn't do." She never suggest which part of the story she believes was a lie.
You put the emphasis on the hero in Vienna. Once again, you're probably right. Not least because they've been playing up the fact that Mace's hero status is in question since they've introduced him.
However, as the emphasis in Simmons statement COULD (not is, not probably is, just could for heaven's sake) be on the becoming, it got me thinking about possible story angles there. God forbid I wanted to bring up the fact. I'll leave you to your rigorous logical pronouncements from now on.
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It wasn't a huge episode, but it was still good.
I was surprised Mace actually came out as Inhuman publicly. So the stuff in Vienna was the attack front Civil War? It sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember which story it came from. It will be interesting to see what the big secret Simmons was referring to is. I had just assumed it was about something he did in Vienna, it didn't even occur to me that he could be lying about being an Inhuman.
We got some pretty good action scenes out of the prison storyline, and the reveal about the incident that turned Robbie into Ghost Rider being a hit was interesting. I'm wondering if that is going to somehow tie into his uncle and the Darkhold or if that's set him off on an unconnected revenge mission.
It'll be interesting to see how Mace reacts to Coulson not telling him about Daisy and Ghost Rider.
I was surprised Mace actually came out as Inhuman publicly. So the stuff in Vienna was the attack front Civil War? It sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember which story it came from. It will be interesting to see what the big secret Simmons was referring to is. I had just assumed it was about something he did in Vienna, it didn't even occur to me that he could be lying about being an Inhuman.
We got some pretty good action scenes out of the prison storyline, and the reveal about the incident that turned Robbie into Ghost Rider being a hit was interesting. I'm wondering if that is going to somehow tie into his uncle and the Darkhold or if that's set him off on an unconnected revenge mission.
It'll be interesting to see how Mace reacts to Coulson not telling him about Daisy and Ghost Rider.
Yes, she does. She says Vienna. That's not the same event as his Terrigenesis, because his heroism in Vienna is well-known and his Terrigenesis is not. And I have the strong impression that he was already considered a hero before his Terrigenesis. They're two distinct events, and Simmons quite explicitly specified one and not the other.
Becoming a hero, yes. Not becoming superpowered. This show has always made it clear that the former is distinct from the latter.
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