she did it better because she broke out without needing a speech or anything. hell, i don't get where you're coming from when you say his initial actions affected anyone. you can't be arguing 'well viral got out after he saw simon!' and argue yoko didn't snap out of it on her own since she did it before he ever showed up or did anything of note to her. she called the scene wrong, saw the memories were wrong, turned off the tv to a setting change, then got the drill and went over to the flying simon.
there's no implication that simon's initial actions affected anyone. there's the implication he can go to the others' conciousness, but that's really about it. there's nothing there saying that if simon didn't do anything she wouldn't have, but instead you clearly see her, without any interference of anything, knowing this isn't right. there also is absolutely NOTHING saying anything about the person was changed, but EVERYTHING saying nothing was through both simon and yoko. it's a mind attack and visualization and these guys didn't really have any mental defenses of any sort. even then, recognizing something's wrong is very clearly an indication that you're the exact same person you were mind trick'd to. you didn't change at all. you got put into a different setting and know it's wrong. how you get that somehow they were ANY different mentally is beyond me as none of what you said there is in the show.
and it's not a smart move because if you want to kill a group, you don't go with a slow torture method. if that was the best he could do then sure, it'd make sense. but as we learned soon afterwards, it really wasn't even close to it and really just something to make 'em depressed and screw 'em slowly.
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The future must protect the clone's past.
"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.