Elizabeth Henstridge responds to shattering revelations, dives deep into Simmons’ psychology, and teases what’s next on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

How did you feel when you first learned how Simmons would respond to the Inhuman developments?

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Well, it’s been coming for a long time. My first, initial thing about it was when I was cast and we were shooting the pilot, and it was that she had this type of thing in her. Right from the start, [Simmons] hasn’t really had the great people skills, and it was more about science is her best friend, and that she should trust it the most.

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So it didn’t necessarily surprise me that she would take this stand, especially since people are volatile. They kind of keep going up and down in a way, there’s not necessarily the same absolute as she feels like there is in science and in mathematics. So I appreciated the storyline, because I felt like it ran true to the journey that she’s going on.

And that’s not to say this will always be her view, but as of right now, she’s traumatized. [Simmons] got close to Agent Triplett and then he got taken away, and this is her resolution of “Now this is how I make this never happen again.”

Simmons’ had a very memorable and nerve-wracking experience with a Chitauri virus in season one. Do you think this is effecting her response to the Inhuman issue?

Yeah, definitely! I mean… and whatever happened, she sees it as a potential virus. And that’s what the Chitauri thing is, it’s a Chitauri virus, and so she sees it as something that needs to be contained. And you know, that’s how they did it last time. They created an antidote to the Chitauri virus and that saved the day.

So in her mind, absolutely, this is like a tried and tested method. It seems like it’s a virus taking over people, so why not make an antidote?

How will Simmons move forward now that Skye’s secret has been revealed?

I think [there is] a moment when she realizes how isolated she is, how potentially far off-track she’s gone. Because she loves Skye, and all she wants to do is protect her. And last week we see her… double-checking the blood and taking lots of different samples to make sure that she isn’t “infected” – she’s doing that out of love for Skye. She wants Skye to be safe.

And when she finds out that this isn’t really a virus, and thinking [it’s something] that potentially we don’t understand yet, and we don’t know how to fix it yet… her goal is unchanged that she wants to protect Skye. I think she realized that she’s gone off track.

Her tact changes – as soon as she realizes that [Skye] is potentially Inhuman, that’s something that she then feels incredibly guilty about, saying they should potentially put down Raina. Because she would never dream of putting down Skye.

And turning to Simmons’ other prominent relationship, is there any hope for a truce with Fitz soon? Or is FitzSimmons’ destiny sadness and tears?

I think there are always going to be tears between them [laughs] just because until everybody gets on the same page again, if that even happens. They’re approaching it from different ways. Like Simmons wants to fix Skye, and is trying to bring her back to the way she was. Fitz sees it more as “This is a new you, and we just need to figure out who this you is, and how we all fit into… helping you learn about yourself again.”







And they’re both doing it out of love of Skye. I think Fitz’s approach is [stronger] in some ways. I think Simmons is still hung onto the past, because she’s scared. She was there helping clean up the destruction after whatever changed Skye happened, so her association with that isn’t that it was this amazing transformation, it’s that “Tripp died, and I had to clear up the fragments of his body.” It’s a traumatic event for her, it wasn’t some sort of great rebirth of this new Skye.

So [Fitz and Simmons] are just on completely different sides of the same coin. I think it will be a second before they get, kind of, together again.

I mean, I HOPE they do, just because I love our team! But we’ll see.

A lot of fans — including some of us at Hypable — suspected that Simmons may have been brainwashed by Hydra. Do you think that’s something that might come up later?

I guess I don’t know the answer to that! It’s something that I never… like I said, can’t confirm or deny, but… I don’t know!