Jemma Simmons: Analytically Minded and Pretty As a Peach

[Cranberry]

Getting the character threads started by splitting up FitzSimmons, muahahaha. (I actually love their relationship, and the portmanteau doesn't bother me, but I'm hoping that the show will continue to differentiate them and pair them with other people in future episodes. I really enjoyed Simmons and Skye's "bad-girl shenanigans" in "The Hub.")

And look what just popped up: New article from Zap2it

Fans thinking that there might be some romantic tension between Fitz and Simmons will be disappointed to hear that's not how Henstridge and Iain De Caestecker play the characters.

"Iain and I, we talk about the fact that we don't play any of the romanticism. I feel like Simmons genuinely, he might be the person that she should marry, but she doesn't see it like that. It's 100 percent not in her conscious realm, anyway," Henstridge says. "Then when we see how they cut it together and how it looks on camera, we're kind of like, 'Oh my god. That was flirty! We didn't mean it to be flirty.'"

She doesn't want them to get together, either. "Who knows what's going to be written in," she says. "At the moment, I can't see it happening, but then I'm in the same mindset as Simmons is. We only get the scripts before we're about to shoot them. In my mind, yes [FitzSimmons shouldn't be romantic], but then again I also feel like I've probably got a huge veil over my head."

[Actionmage]

Jemma is the fearless heart of that Bus! She is the one I want to hug and pet and tell about the rabbits,George. I love that she (over-?)prepped for the train in "T.R.A.C.K.S." and everyone had a check-in moment with her (except May.)  Leo being all concerned about how she'd look/feel, as well as giving her a night-night gun. Her face as she jumped in "F.Z.Z.T."! She had best survive this season, at minimum.

As for her pairing, while I'm open for whatever, I'm good with Skimmons or Simmons/Ward. She seemed to have chemistry with the junior agent with Bill Paxton as well. Personally, that would be best, imo, as it would be reoccurring and not every week. A line here or there to help us remember.

[Danny Franks]

Jemma Simmons is definitely the best thing about this show. By a country mile. Despite my initial positive outlook and hopes for the show, I worry that she might be the only good thing about it.

Elizabeth Henstridge just oozes charisma and charm, in the role, and always comes off as someone I want to root for. She makes the most of everything she's given to do, and I would definitely describe her as the heart of the bus. She seems to have great chemistry with everyone she interacts with, hence the popular Simmons/Skye and Simmons/Ward 'ships, to go alongside Simmons/Fitz (which I hope never, ever happens). It's a gift to find an actress that has this sort of impact, and yet this seems to be the year for them. Elizabeth Henstridge here, then there's Nicole Beharie, Emily Bett Rickards and Melissa Fumero, all forcing themselves into the spotlight with their performances. A good time for anyone who likes intelligent, strong and attractive women, I'd say.

[Jediknight]

Pretty as a peach?

That's an understatement.  She's the cutest thing on television, easily.

[Cranberry]

I like Simmons because she's not easy to pin down. She's a terrible liar and easily flustered, but she's confident in her skills and not afraid to stand up for herself or others, even against her boss. She prefers to follow the rules, but will break them if someone gives her a good reason. She's not field-ready but she's the first person to try to sacrifice herself to save the team (she's thrown herself out of a plane and thrown herself on what could have been a live grenade for all she knew). She's just the best. If they killed her off, I'd probably stop watching the show... but if they killed everyone but her, I'd stick around.

[Sandman]

I really enjoyed Simmons and Skye's "bad-girl shenanigans" in "The Hub."

I loved the fact that, as horrified as Simmons was, "shenanigans" was the worst word she could come up with under the circumstances.

[JayKay]

I am so excited to start using this thread next week.

[KirkB]

Unless something has really changed with Simmons since the last time we saw her (or else she was never really what we thought she was) the way she was shown in The Hub to be a terrible liar and no good at shenanigans or subterfuge makes me really curious about the next episode. Some people have speculated Simmons is undercover. Which I find odd.

[rujasu]

However, there were signs throughout the first season that she was getting more comfortable with those things, or at least trying to.  Maybe we're seeing character development here.

[JayKay]

I've seen some out-there theories, but I gravitate towards the ones that speculate that she's been undercover all along. Not for Hydra, but for some other good guy team. So she may be a terrible liar, but she might be fantastic at keeping secrets if they're white lies.

How Simmons could possibly be a convincing recruit for any nefarious organization, I have no idea.

[1TrackMind]

Of course, there is also the possibility the teaser was just screwing with us, and Simmons is not in HYDRA at all. 'Cuz teasers NEVER screw with us. >.<

[DrLar]

Please don't torture her like "agent 33", couldn't stand watching her like that..

[Traveller519]

I liked her more casual style at Hydra, it was definitely noticeable when compared against HeadSimmons' Blouse Sweater combination in the same episode.

[JayKay]

I don't want to see Simmons brainwashed either. Releasing Ward and betraying the team is the least of the damage that a mind like hers on the side of evil could do. There's already enough angst without an evil former friend/current mad scientist botching things for the remnants of Shield.

[kitlee625]

I'm really excited to see her in the field, on her own, getting a plot of her own. It's nice that the writers are developing Fitz and Simmons as individuals this season, since I saw a lot of comments well into halfway through last season that people were having trouble remembering which one was which.

[Cranberry]

I agree. Especially if the writers plan to get them together romantically in the future (which I still hope they won't for a number of reasons, but whatever), they need to develop them as individuals first so that they're not thought of as "FitzSimmons" in every single aspect of their lives.

[Cranberry]

Bringing this thread back up to remind everyone that her name is spelled Jemma, not Gemma!

[Loandbehold]

After she was going to kill Ward, I know that I wouldn't want Jemma mad at me.

[Kromm]

Seems obvious to me that after the very ending of the last episode that Jemma either:

 

1.) was transported somewhere via the most unconventional method ever

or

2.) will come back as part of the powered person plotline, albeit in her case not via Terragen Fish Oil

 

1 seems more likely.

 

What she's not is dead.

Edited May 13, 2015 by Kromm

[KirkB]

Just to be on the safe side

You don't do something like THAT to kill a character, unless you intend to show them dead immediately afterward. That's an awfully weird transportation system, so I would be inclined to see she is going to be infected like Mack or empowered in some way intended to kill Inhumans. Which puts her directly at odds with Skye and continues the general setup toward Civil War.

Edited May 15, 2015 by KirkB

[Kromm]

It would be a weird transport device, sure, but not if it was meant as a KIDNAPPING mechanism.

Edited May 14, 2015 by Kromm

[LilJen]

I think she'll return having forgotten entirely what happened to her, and nobody else will know either, but she'll mysteriously chant "OOBLECK, OOBLECK!" at random moments, giving rise to THE enormous mystery of season 3 :)

[blueray]

I'm worried that she'll come back with no memory of what happened and nobody will know about it. That she'll be processed or something, which is annoying and boring. Transportation thing would be cool and different.

[MisterGlass]

That was a great performance, and a very good episode.

[AimingforYoko]

Dammit, Simmons! Now I'm right there with Fitz.

[Bats27]

I found it to be surprisingly believable actually.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Bats27

[Jack Kerouac]

Way to destroy a woman's agency AoS. Even Simmons herself said she would not have survived except for Will. Embarassing, clichéd and ultimately, stupid. They developed an episode where EH could shine and warped it into - that's right, a love triangle. 

[Lady Calypso]

Way to destroy a woman's agency AoS. Even Simmons herself said she would not have survived except for Will. Embarassing, clichéd and ultimately, stupid. They developed an episode where EH could shine and warped it into - that's right, a love triangle. 

 

I get the frustration at the love triangle, I do. I wish it had been a woman that Jemma had been on the planet with. But I 100% disagree in that her agency was destroyed. Jemma was the true hero in this situation. She survived weeks without Will. If he had found her almost right away while she had been lost and wandering alone and confused and scared, then I'd understand. But she held strong for weeks. She found food and water, she found a way to survive long before Will showed up. He only showed up when the Sand Monster appeared to Jemma, and he helped save her then. But Will had been lost on that planet for 14 years and made little progress in getting back home. It was because of Jemma that they even found a way to get to the portal. If Jemma hadn't been there, or if her and Will never met, there would have been little chance that Fitz would have found her. Will couldn't have done any of those things by himself; he may have had the resources, but he didn't have the means to use them. 

 

So, in my opinion, they did both save each other, especially from insanity, but Jemma saved Will more than Will saved Jemma. And yes, there's problems with the arc in general, but it has nothing to do with Jemma being resorted to a cliched woman. In fact, she's written quite well and given several moments to shine on her own.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Lady Calypso

[Jack Kerouac]

I get the frustration at the love triangle, I do. I wish it had been a woman that Jemma had been on the planet with. But I 100% disagree in that her agency was destroyed. Jemma was the true hero in this situation. She survived weeks without Will. If he had found her almost right away while she had been lost and wandering alone and confused and scared, then I'd understand. But she held strong for weeks. She found food and water, she found a way to survive long before Will showed up. He only showed up when the Sand Monster appeared to Jemma, and he helped save her then. But Will had been lost on that planet for 14 years and made little progress in getting back home. It was because of Jemma that they even found a way to get to the portal. If Jemma hadn't been there, or if her and Will never met, there would have been little chance that Fitz would have found her. Will couldn't have done any of those things by himself; he may have had the resources, but he didn't have the means to use them. 

 

So, in my opinion, they did both save each other, especially from insanity, but Jemma saved Will more than Will saved Jemma. And yes, there's problems with the arc in general, but it has nothing to do with Jemma being resorted to a cliched woman. In fact, she's written quite well and given several moments to shine on her own.

 

Agree to disagree then. I think they spent the first 15 minutes making her look like a badass only to undo it by having her rescued by Will and then fall into his arms like a good woman should.

 

Now the only other clichés they need to do in this storyline is make Simmons pregnant and make Will evil and have Simmons be forced to kill him. Then we will have the stupid, clichéd tri-fecta!

[Chaos Theory]

But she only fell into his arms after all hope was lost. She never lost her agency not once. It was her actions driving the plot. She wasn't tripping over her own shoes waiting to be rescued or having Will come to her aid every time she fell down a hole. SHE got things done. Are we saying that every time a girl has sex with a boy she loses her agency? Have we gotten to that? If we have that is sad.

Simmons was the hero in this. She only clung to Will when she needed something to cling to. She no more lost her agency to Will then she did to Fitz.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[Sakura12]

I pretty much think Jemma saved Will. She gave him hope again, made him put his Nasa stuff to work to find the portal and now she's going back to rescue him from the alien planet. Will was just there for Jemma to talk to and have a friend. Plus he had a shelter, why not share it with him instead of building her own. Did it need to turn sexual, no. But I could see how it would. She was stuck on a planet with no chance of getting back home with an attractive nice guy. I would've done the same if I was in her situation.

 

She never said she fell for him and wants to marry him. She found comfort in with a friend after all hope was lost.  She didn't need Will to survive, but it was better that he was there so she wasn't alone.  

Edited October 28, 2015 by Sakura12

[Lady Calypso]

But she only fell into his arms after all hope was lost. She never lost her agency not once. It was her actions driving the plot. She wasn't tripping over her own shoes waiting to be rescued or having Will come to her aid every time she fell down a hole. SHE got things done. Are we saying that every time a girl has sex with a boy she loses her agency? Have we gotten to that? If we have that is sad.

Simmons was the hero in this. She only clung to Will when she needed something to cling to. She no more lost her agency to Will then she did to Fitz.

 

And furthermore, I'd even go as far as to say that Will was more of a coward. Of course, we can attribute that to him being there for 14 years with very little comfort and a lot of isolation. Who knows what he had done for 14 years until he almost lost hope. He had a gun with a bullet to kill himself if things got too rough. He hid in his shelter for years, only going out to find a way home. But Jemma? Yes, she had only been on that planet for a few months, but she didn't stop hoping. Hell, her and Will were even still looking for the portal after they slept together. It looks like they had been on the move to get to the poral, and without Jemma, Will would have still been stuck in the shelter alone for probably another 20 years, if he didn't die sooner. She chose him because it was a time of weakness, one where she had thought about her friends and family back home, including Fitz, up until the point of the portal. 

 

I think it's poignant that Jemma never said she was in love with Will, or that she can't live without him. She specified to Fitz somewhere along the lines of she had to save him because he had saved her. I think when you're stuck with one person for months on end, with nobody else to talk to or be with, that gives you more lenience for feelings and attachments to develop. I would have hated if Jemma just left Will on that planet (I keep wanting to call it an island) and forgot about him. Now, why she didn't mention him the moment she got back home, it's most likely for plot and mystery purposes. And I wish I saw more of their lives in danger, though the shiv was not unwarranted since she did see horrors out there. But Jemma is going back for Will because she grew attached to him, and right now, I don't see anything different. 

 

Plus, she was still a hardcore badass when she sacrificed her phone battery, and seeing Fitz for a little bit longer, to get them home. She was a badass when she chose to go back out, even when Will told her not to and that there was no point. And we only saw her break down once, and that was when she thought all hope was lost in that moment. So I'd say she didn't sacrifice her character for a man; if anything, she was shown stronger than him (of course, with good reason, as she was there far less than he had been) and she proved herself worthy enough to save her and Will.

 

Of course, let's look at it another way: what about Fitz's sacrifice for Jemma in the season 1 finale? He saved her life and almost sacrificed his own life for hers. Should we describe Jemma as losing her own agency in that moment for a man? Sure she didn't fall into Fitz's arms right then and there, but was her agency taken away by the choice of Fitz giving Jemma the last breath of air instead of Jemma doing so for Fitz? Although, I am aware that she did pull him up to try to save his life, but that was also her choosing to be heroic herself, just like she did in this past episode with Will. 

[Chaos Theory]

I am going to make a point and then I am done. If this was nothing more then a wrestling match between Will and Fitz with the prize being Simmons THEN I would agree she loses her agency. However if it is HER making the choice between two men then she is the one with the agency. I know there is a large FitzSimmons group out there but Ultimately the choice has to be Simmons or it doesn't count.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[Jack Kerouac]

I am going to make a point and then I amdibe. If this was nothing more then a wrestling match between Will and Fitz with the prize being Simmons THEN I would agree she loses her agency. However if it is HER making the choice between two men then she is the one with the agency. I know there is a large FitzSimmons group out there but Uktimately the choice has to be Simmons or it doesn't count.

 

Definately agree.

 

Actually, the situation (writers) conspired to make Simmons kind of a bitch. 

 

Think of it this way:

 

• Fitz tells her under the sea he loves/likes/whatever her and she is so shocked, she basically never responds, she just kind of lets it hang until she abandons Fitz when he needs her most. Understable WHY she did it (Fitz was better without her), but she still did it. Then, end of the season comes along and Fitz is on the road to getting over the whole Simmons thing.

   

• So what does she do? Before he goes on a life-or-death mission, she tells him there just may be 'something more' to their relationship after all. She knows what this will do to their relationship, but she does it anyway, because she has had a revelation. I'm thinking maybe she should have given it a couple more thinks before she came to see Fitz.

   

• Then he asks her out, she says yes and is quickly eaten by a giant black turd.

   

• She gives up on Fitz coming to her rescue while Fitz never did give up on her (regardless of why - she gave up and he didn't) and then she bones Commander Tom on Blue Filter world.

   

• She then comes back and explains (in graphic detail apparently, hah!) how she boned the guy.

   

• After that, she asks Fitz for his help getting her bone buddy back, because she knows Fitz won't say no. She knows the effect it will have on him, but she does it anyway. Why? Is it because she wants the boy she likes back? Because she doesn't want another human being to suffer on Blue Filter World? Only time Will tell (hah!).

 

But from the world of dudes - seriously, Fitz - run away man! Run! This woman is bad news. That's twice she's abandoned you when you needed her. And people who abandon always have an excuse. Sorry, but I was stuck in a nice cave for five months and I gave up on you is not a good excuse.

 

I guess to sum up: I dont blame Simmons for sleeping with Will (of course) - she only did it because she gave up. Fitz never gave up. I dont think Simmons is a bad person, it's just that Fitz is a better one.

 

As always, however, YMMV.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Jack Kerouac

[Loandbehold]

That's right, Fitz and Simmons were in exactly the same situation. Jemma was stranded on a planet. Fitz was str... no, he was not. Jemma used the last of her equipment (the Fitzphone) to power the computer, knowing if she didn't make it off the planet, there wouldn't be a second chance. Fitz also had no access to any electronics, wait, actually he had access to all sort of equipment Jemma did not. Jemma had only one person that she could talk to, and that was only after about a month by herself. Fitz also had only one person, well actually, he had plenty of people he could talk to. Yep, their situations were completely equal.

 

Jemma, after the message in a bottle didn't get through the portal had no way to calculate future portal openings. It was only then that she lost hope. What a bitch. She deliberately lost hope just to spite Fitz. In fact, it's clear that she couldn't wait for Fitz to rescue her just so she could throw astronaut Will in his face.  

 

This doesn't mean Fitz isn't a really good guy. He is. And yes, even after he was told to stop looking for Jemma, he continued to do so. That's great and I appreciate that he did and Jemma has made it clear that she's thankful. In fact, it was clear that it was her memory of Fitz that played a large role in her surviving months on that planet. But she doesn't owe Fitz a thank you shag. Her gratitude should be sufficient. 

 

Oh, and by the way, while Fitz got them out of their underwater tomb, people seem to forget that Simmons kept them both from drowning for who knows how many hours before Fury rescued them. 

 

How Jemma is now a horrible person is beyond me. 

[Jack Kerouac]

Jemma, after the message in a bottle didn't get through the portal had no way to calculate future portal openings. It was only then that she lost hope. What a bitch. She deliberately lost hope just to spite Fitz. In fact, it's clear that she couldn't wait for Fitz to rescue her just so she could throw astronaut Will in his face.  

 

I think you may be misinterpreting my comments here. I said the writing made her into kind of a bitch and it does. There was absolutely no reason to tell Fitz there was something more to their relationship when she did, except for selfishness. She wanted him to know. A real friend, if she doesn't feel for him, should have left him alone. He was basically over her. Now he gets to start again.

 

And losing hope is sad, for sure. But it just proves that of the two of them, Fitz loved her way more than she 'loved' him. If you love someone, you never give up on them, ever. If you do, it's not really love, is it?

 

You do know that I'm not saying she is deliberately being a bitch, right? I am saying any objective person would tell Fitz to run, run away from Simmons the first chance he got. This girl screws him over (sometimes deliberately and sometimes not) at every step.

 

And what is it with everyone saying Simmons doesn't owe Fitz anything? Of course she doesn't. No one is saying she does, so that's just a strawman argument.

 

I think it all comes down to how the writers are portraying her. Why did she wait so long to tell Fitz about the space boyfriend? Shame? She forgot? You would think it would be the FIRST thing she would do. Why does she have PTSD? Sure, for the first month she was fighting for her life, but after that she had companionship, shelter, food and no predators, And yet she jumps at the sound of a cellphone and carries a shiv to bed.

 

It makes no sense. The writing for Simmons this season (and some of last season) has been terrible. I think her character has been damaged.

[ChelseaNH]

until she abandons Fitz when he needs her most. Understable WHY she did it (Fitz was better without her)

 

If Fitz was better off without her, then how could that have been when Fitz needed her most?

[Jack Kerouac]

If Fitz was better off without her, then how could that have been when Fitz needed her most?

Sorry, I should have said she THOUGHT he was better of without her. My bad!

Regardless, Simmons is obviously not ready for a relationship right now. Fitz should just help her get back Female Romance Novel Space Boyfriend then say have a nice life and leave them to it. I mean, how can he be sure she's not going to jump the next guy she gets stuck in an elevator with?

Simmons: We've been trapped in this elevator for two hours. I've given up hope of Fitz ever getting us out. Let's do it!

Randomly Implausible Hot Dude: Sure?

Edited October 29, 2015 by Jack Kerouac

[Potanical Pardon]

How Jemma is now a horrible person is beyond me. 

She is. We're on three seasons of her stringing him along. She knows/has known that Fitz has always been into her. She's not stupid. She uses that and has been using that so that she can have a best friend. She should have told him back at the Academy what's what. No, instead she keeps him around because well, hey he's useful, validates her, stimulates her mentally and is her best friend. She knows very well that the second she spells it out to him, she risks losing any of those things.

[Sakura12]

She did tell him she wasn't into him like that. That's when Fitz had his bonding moment with Hunter and Mack about admitting his feelings to a girl that didn't feel the same. 

 

She's not stringing him along, they were best friends for a long time. She doesn't want to lose her friend. That makes sense to me.

[Potanical Pardon]

Saying yes to dinner is stringing him along. Making sandwiches, not best friend sandwiches, sandwiches that are meaningful to him in a way more than best friends way is stringing him along.

 

Telling him she's not into him like that and then continuing to behave like there's maaaybe a chance! Is stringing him along.

 

A dude doesn't hold reservations for months renting out the whole restaurant for a hey, pal, buddy o mine. That's usually the cue for the string-alonger to go "I never asked for any of this!", "I don't owe you anything", "It's your own fault for doing this." And he/she would be correct in all of those responses. Conveniently, this still maintains the other's enduring presence and reinforces the irrational "Well, I just have to keep trying harder, then!" It's such a passive-aggressive cowardly and manipulative move.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Potanical Pardon

[Sakura12]

Friends can't make sandwiches for each other? A friend would know what kind of sandwich their friend loves. 

[Potanical Pardon]

Friends can't make sandwiches for each other? A friend would know what kind of sandwich their friend loves. 

It's all in the context, and you know it. That isn't Fitz's favorite sandwich because it just is. It isn't Fitz favorite sandwich that he impossibly couldn't get anywhere else. It's his favorite sandwich because Jemma.

[Jack Kerouac]

Saying yes to dinner is stringing him along. Making sandwiches, not best friend sandwiches, sandwiches that are meaningful to him in a way more than best friends way is stringing him along.

 

Telling him she's not into him like that and then continuing to behave like there's maaaybe a chance! Is stringing him along.

 

A dude doesn't hold reservations for months renting out the whole restaurant for a hey, pal, buddy o mine. That's usually the cue for the string-alonger to go "I never asked for any of this!", "I don't owe you anything", "It's your own fault for doing this." And he/she would be correct in all of those responses. Conveniently, this still maintains the other's enduring presence and reinforces the irrational "Well, I just have to keep trying harder, then!" It's such a passive-aggressive cowardly and manipulative move.

 

Never really gave this line of thought much ... thought. I think I agree, to some extent. I really think this angsty crap makes both characters look bad. It makes Simmons look terrible for the 'passive-aggressive cowardly and manipulative' stuff and it makes Fitz look like a cuckold. He really needs to take a step back and drop her like a hot potatoe. No lovers, no best friends, no nothing. Go cold turkey!

[Cranberry]

She is. We're on three seasons of her stringing him along. She knows/has known that Fitz has always been into her.

 

I don't believe that. I can't, not when the writers and the actors originally conceived and played the characters as having a close sibling-like bond. I don't believe that Jemma knew Fitz had feelings for her until he admitted it to her.

 

This story is so old that it floats "SkyeWard" as a possibility, but: 

 

Fans thinking that there might be some romantic tension between Fitz and Simmons will be disappointed to hear that’s not how Henstridge and Iain De Caestecker play the characters.

 

“Iain and I, we talk about the fact that we don’t play any of the romanticism. I feel like Simmons genuinely, he might be the person that she should marry, but she doesn’t see it like that. It’s 100 percent not in her conscious realm, anyway,” Henstridge says. “Then when we see how they cut it together and how it looks on camera, we’re kind of like, ‘Oh my god. That was flirty! We didn’t mean it to be flirty.'”

She doesn’t want them to get together, either. “Who knows what’s going to be written in,” she says. “At the moment, I can’t see it happening, but then I’m in the same mindset as Simmons is. We only get the scripts before we’re about to shoot them. In my mind, yes [FitzSimmons shouldn’t be romantic], but then again I also feel like I’ve probably got a huge veil over my head.”

And this one:

 

Simmons and Fitz have this brother-sister, love-hate relationship, but is there really nothing more there?

Henstridge: My mom told me when I was super young, "If boys hate you, it means they like you, don't worry." Maybe. There's always going to be a possibility, I guess, because they're so close and really understand each other, but definitely for right now, I don't think you could convince either one of them that they are meant to be together romantically. We'll just see. We're told fairly little. I love that because it just means you're in the same headspace as your character when you're playing them and you're not trying to hint at anything else that comes down the line. I love that they are brother-sister right now. If anything romantic happens, I could see it happening, but I like that, for Simmons, it's not really her main priority. I don't think she even knows that could be a good idea.

This is from a now-removed Entertainment Tonight feature but is quoted here:

 

“People keep saying it's romantic, but I think, certainly for now, that they're best friends. They've got that familial bond where they can be fighting one second and have the other's back the next second. We don't know what could happen in the future, but they have a very special bond. I like that it's not romantic. I like that we're showing a guy and a girl as good friends and nothing more. Although that could just be me being naive [laughs].”

The writers have spoken about it a few times; here's one:

TANCHAROEN: The inspiration for Fitz and Simmons was Casey Affleck and Scott Caan in Ocean’s Eleven. They were way more bickery, and with a little bit more hate there. And then, we cast Elizabeth Henstridge and Ian De Caestecker, and their chemistry was just so much more like brother and sister. They still bicker, but there’s a lot more love there than we anticipated.

I'm still annoyed that they all suddenly switched from praising the brother/sister, best friends thing to pushing a romance.

[VCRTracking]

After that, she asks Fitz for his help getting her bone buddy back, because she knows Fitz won't say no. She knows the effect it will have on him, but she does it anyway. Why? Is it because she wants the boy she likes back? Because she doesn't want another human being to suffer on Blue Filter World? Only time Will tell (hah!).

 

 

I don't think she knows what Fitz will do and she asks her to help because she doesn't have a choice. She needs his expertise and she can't just say "I want to go back to a barren alien planet" with no explanation why. She has to tell him the story and why Will means so much to her  even though she knows it's going to hurt him and knowing why Fitz might not help.

 

Jemma wanted to go on the date with him and wanted to take it to the next level and stop stringing him along but unfortunately fate(and the obelisk) went and screwed everything up.

 

 

It makes Simmons look terrible for the 'passive-aggressive cowardly and manipulative' stuff and it makes Fitz look like a cuckold

cuck·old

ˈkəkəld,-ōld/

nounarchaic

noun: cuckold; plural noun: cuckolds

    1.

    the husband of an adulteress, often regarded as an object of derision.

verb

verb: cuckold; 3rd person present: cuckolds; past tense: cuckolded; past participle: cuckolded; gerund or present participle: cuckolding

    1.

    (of a man) make (another man) a cuckold by having a sexual relationship with his wife.

Edited October 30, 2015 by VCRTracking

[ChelseaNH]

how can he be sure she's not going to jump the next guy she gets stuck in an elevator with?

 

Simmons has one romantic encounter in three years and suddenly she's indiscriminately promiscuous until proven otherwise.

[Jack Kerouac]

Who said that?

[Cranberry]

I kinda read it that way, too. If you didn't mean that, what did you mean?

[Loandbehold]

I maybe reading things wrong, but it seems to me that, while everyone acknowledges that it's up to Simmons whether she decides to take things to the next level with Fitz, some are saying that her other option is to take her vows. Otherwise, she's considered a promiscuous bitch. I find that highly offensive. Hell, while she didn't just jump into bed with Good-Looking Astronaut (it was months before that happened), she could have done so and that would be her choice. Hell, even if she decided to fuck the guy in the elevator after being stuck for two hours w/ Fitz trying to pry the doors open with his bare hands, to me that still is her choice and doesn't make her a slut or a bitch or any other derogatory term.