"And... you plan to find that out without talkin' to him how, exactly?" The 'dumbass' is heavily implied. "Pretty sure he'd rather be down an arm than mind controlled."

Odds are high it's a bit hypocritical of Shinji to say this, if this conversation is happening before his birthday. But that's also slightly different - he didn't have a chance to say much of anything about it to Ken back in Iwatodai, and it's also very obvious when someone in SEES has made it past the beginning of October 2009.

(There's a little variation, sure, but the basic shape of it's the same.)