The Mrs. Davis Episode 2 Moment That May Show The Algorithm's Weakness
Contains spoilers for "Mrs. Davis," Season 1, Episode 2, "Zwei Sie Piel mit Seitung Sie Wirtschaftung"
In "Mrs. Davis," the titular AI knows everything. Or at least she wants you to think that she knows everything because even an omnipotent supercomputer understands how important perception is when it comes to maintaining control. So it's kind of wild that an entity with so much information at her disposal would slip up so early in the series.
In Episode 2, Simone (Betty Gilpin) accepts a ride from Mrs. Davis, courtesy of Larry and Tina. Mrs. Davis then uses Tina's voice to speak to Simone. They exchange a few words and Mrs. Davis makes an attempt at absurdist humor ... which fails miserably. When she vocally notes what kind of communication style Simone would prefer in the future, Simone complains that Mrs. Davis sounds exactly like her mother. And that throws the AI off.
Instead of immediately continuing the conversation, Mrs. Davis utters a string of complete nonsense. She says, "Your mother? Redirect, 1042, Sandy Springs." When Simone asks her what that means, Tina stops parroting long enough to say that she's only repeating what Mrs. Davis says. And then it isn't mentioned again.
Who is Simone's mother in relation to Mrs. Davis?
So, what happened here, exactly? On first listen, it kind of sounds like Mrs. Davis blurted out an error code. She is a computer, after all, maybe the sudden change of topic was beyond her programming and proved that the AI might be weaker than everyone believes. But that doesn't feel quite right ... Mrs. Davis is clearly a powerful AI. She's so powerful that she can stage an elaborate and theatrical (not to mention global) scavenger hunt just to ensnare a single person. Why would the casual mention of that person's immediate family exist beyond her computational skill?
Here's where the speculation comes in. What if Mrs. Davis is actually looking for Simone's mother, Celeste (Elizabeth Marvel)? What if Simone is just the bait? "Mrs. Davis" goes out of its way to depict Celeste as being a brilliant, and dangerous, inventor who's highly protective of her intellectual property. Maybe she created something Mrs. Davis needs. Or maybe she created something Mrs. Davis needs to destroy.
With that context in mind, Mrs. Davis' random string of words transforms into an incomplete address. It could be Simone's mother's last known street address. Or maybe the numbers mean something else and "Sandy Springs" is the city where Simone's mother was last seen. Whatever the case may be, Mrs. Davis is thrown off by Simone's mother. And that's definitely going to be important later on.