I love Jemma Simmons, what a show of resilience. Kidnapped and taken time and time again, and yet remaining strong throughout all of it. She's such an emotionally stable and present character, demonstrated once she jumped out of the Bus, accepting the importance of saving her friends. That episode had me terrified. The dynamic she and Fitz have throughout the show, later with the addition of Deke, is so brilliantly scripted and done to make them the best couple in the show, and later the best family. Plus, Elizabeth Henstridge deserves every award ever for giving us one of, if not the best episode in the entire series, the Simmons-centric 4,722 Hours.

Now onto the thing I want to analyze, I strongly believe that she and Fitz (if you do a character discussion for Fitz, I'll go more into him, but I want to focus on Simmons) are autism-coded (as in, meant to be autistic). Let's start with the obvious: She and Fitz both hyper fixate on their fields. Hyperfixation is a very common trait with autistic people, and when she talks about what's happening, she often assumes those around her also understand the complex science without any gauge for what other people do and don't know. Hence Coulson constantly having to ask her to simplify her language.

Next, in the episode with the Chitauri virus (the one I call the crying episode), Simmons insists that the cure she's making is an antiserum rather than a vaccine, with being overcorrect being another really common trait. In the episode with the train, we see this manifest differently as Simmons has developed an overly complicated backstory for herself and Coulson's covers, not realizing how much information is too much that would be shared in a normal conversation like the one she pretends to have. As Simmons went undercover in HYDRA, she once again proved herself unable to simulate normal conversation, seemingly needing another person acting genuine to imitate. This is called masking, and girls are usually far better at it than guys (hence why girls tend to go undiagnosed). She needs Coulson's advice on how to make friends, even as a grown woman.

When Simmons returned from cover, she expected herself and Fitz to bounce right back to the way things were, also common in autistic people. It took her a long to accept that things had changed and that she needed to accept it. Her trip to Maveth further demonstrated her hyper fixation on science and the way she focuses so strongly on her relationships with other people, both Fitz and Will.

I mentioned masking, but let's talk about it. Simmons has proven herself time and time again to be incredibly similar to Fitz, both socially and otherwise. However, when around other people, she has been shown to be better at communicating with them at first (when they first meet Radcliffe, for example). That's called masking, and girls are far better at it than boys, furthering the case. Despite this, she has been shown to experience what can be described as shutdowns in extreme cases (like when she had to revive May from the "ghost" infection or when she made the jump in the season six premiere without the rest of the group wanting to).

The Framework further shows how she gets when things aren't right, desperately trying to correct things like hating Ward. Autistic people have a strong need for things to be as they should be, and will try to correct things when they're wrong, regardless of whether that's in their control.

Furthermore, when Simmons gets high on the space candies, she is reminded of Fitz by seeing him in a monkey suit, remembering an extremely small detail about Fitz, even when on psychedelic drugs, that most people wouldn't remember. This kind of memory is super common amongst autistic people, despite inability to remember bigger, more important things. While Simmons does not portray this latter part often (although she does for a moment when she forgets to tell Fitz about Deke at the end of the mind prison episode), it's not a disqualifier since most of the studying on autism symptoms were done on men, and women tend to show slightly different symptoms.

In the mind prison, she literally experiences age regression when faced with a scary situation, something incredibly associated with autistic people even if it's not always correct.

Throughout Season 7, Simmons is shown to have matured a lot after becoming a parent (even though we don't know that yet), although she still uses science babble and literally has a major memory removed from her head. She focuses so strongly on her inability to remember that she (again, shown to us quite literally), manifests it. Then, once DIANA is replaced and we see her true self, she becomes focused on the little details of wanting a suit like Daisy's unlike the bigger picture of escaping the Chronicoms, and it really shows how she is.

Fitz and Simmons are both very clearly autism-coded, and as an autistic person, I appreciated having two characters I can relate to so strongly in a superhero show. It was really cool seeing the two of them on screen together. My (neurotypical but very similar to me) girlfriend and I both refer to each other as "Fitz" and "Simmons" respectively, and this is a huge part of why. Seeing characters I can relate to like this made me feel so good about myself always (except for the episode where Fitz has a split in his psyche, that gave me a panic attack but that's another story for another day), and I appreciate Simmons so much as a character I am sad to see her and Fitz go especially. They were always my favorites.

One of my favorite characters and actresses on the show (and of all time).

Her transformation from a wide-eyed, optimistic gentle soul to a more mature, cynical bad-ass who has almost no fear and tons of street smarts honestly deserves so much credit. Plus, the fact that she still retains her optimism and sweet, caring personality through all of their torment is so beautiful. Her class, beauty, kindness and intelligence make her a character I never get tired of seeing.

I <3 Jemma

@Ericboy405 That's really what I love about all of the characters. They all changed and grew so much over the 7 seasons, yet still managing to maintain their original character traits (May learned to open herself, let herself be loved and even gained empath powers, but she was still the silent badass from episode 1).

I always felt like Simmons was the character that developed the least out of the core group (especially when you compare her to Fitz or Daisy), but I later realised how wrong I was, just not noticing how subtle and brilliant it was. Primarily about how she always feels the need to help everyone she can, despite how unlikely it may be for her to do it, and how she goes through so much trauma, but she always pushes it down (which I at first didn't see when Id Simmons was introduced, but now it totally works).

However, regardless of not previously fully understanding Simmons' character, she always still managed to be one of my favourites, like others have said, she was always the beam of positivity and optimism of the team. And her entire FitzSimmons dynamic was the heart of the show. Them being pulled apart was always so painful, but what made their relationship so popular. The ending Simmons got was so perfect, and even though I wish to see these characters again, I'm happy with that being her conclusion.

Yea, Jemma's approach to emotion/trauma kinda explains the subtly of her arc.

Ah, yes. Her and Fitz are my 2 favourite characters ever.

She was a great character, but I thought that the changes to her character were usually noticeable (“4,722 Hours” was an excellent episode & a key part of her character arc).

I thought her changes were overall pretty noticeable as well.

For sure. You definitely saw her become tougher as the seasons went on, that was obvious. But when you see what Fitz or Daisy go through, and then they are completely changed by it in a significant way, Simmons’ just pushing it down seems a little less obvious

Jemma Simmons is so awesome........she is a woman who is tough and really clever.

She can find solutions to anything

Nothing is impossible for her.

Fitz is her moral support and the twi if them could crack anything.

My favourite moment including Jemma was in season 1 episode 6 Fzzzt. She was affected by the virus and she was willing to sacrifice herself for the rest of her team

She is a very powerful woman who understands everyone's problems.

She is one of my favourite charcter in the series...

All the characters went through a LOT of character development, but Jemma’s was special. Remember when she was just a bus kid not cleared for combat? Everything she’s been through has made her into a badass who can more than take care of herself. Also, FitzSimmons is adorable (they crossed space and time to get to each other-how poetic is that) though I do wish they had more FitzSimmonsy moments like they did in the first season. Anyway, she grew so much, something that I noticed even more acutely rewatching the first episode after finishing the finale.