For a moment, Alex just stares at Simon mutely. A mute Alex Reagan is a irregularity but she can't help it. Her brain is working of course, taking the words that Simon had said and fitting them into her thoughts like a tetris board, slotting them into the right places for her to make a leap that makes Alex shake her head. This is something that's impossible because it has to be--hasn't Strand proved it over the years? Doesn't he prove it again when he disappears on her while she's waiting for the end of the world? Alex Reagan isn't a priority for Dr. Richard Strand of the Strand Institute with his two degrees and a missing wife. If there is something that Strand values from her, why he could keep coming back it's because of Alex being a tool. Not just Alex being a tool but the whole show and Nic and the interns and everything else. It's more bodies trying to figure out things rather than just Strand and Ruby trying to find the same information with much less resources.

"What?" It comes after a moment when Simon mentions him admitting that he'd manipulated her into all of this. Even if Strand does say it was, Alex wouldn't have believed it was a subconscious thing anymore than Simon clearly did. In her head, Alex is definitely working through all of the instances where she'd felt manipulated, where Strand had lied, where he'd denied the connections that Alex had cleared seen. It's a lot, reevaluating two years of what she'd lived, and her voice is just quiet. "Get out Simon." For the first time in history, Alex is the one putting an end to their conversation. "I mean it. Get out."