>>2244002Watch 3.33 then you'll understand.
Basically, she's dead and/or trapped in EVA 01, and Shinji gets to meet a fresh clone who spent all their life in a simple barrack with not even Gendo imput, hence she's practically a philosophical zombie at the start of the film, although that changes later. It's more a basic emergent awareness than an identity search plot à la classic!ReiIII.
