While Spock and La’an’s connection has been forming, I hadn’t expected the show would build this up into an out-and-out romance until now. Spock has plenty on his plate already with the love triangle between himself, his ex Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), and his Vulcan fiancée T’Pring (Gia Sandhu). But “Strange New Worlds” is a prequel, so we knew neither of those options would work out. Unlike those characters, La’an’s fate is not carved in stone.

Chapel (played by Majel Barrett) was a recurring character on the original “Star Trek.” In her very first appearance, “The Naked Time,” the crew of the Enterprise lose their inhibitions. Chapel confesses to Spock (Leonard Nimoy) that she’s in love with him, both for his human and Vulcan halves, and has been for years. Spock, unwilling to compromise his strict emotional control, tries to keep it professional.

The next episode with Chapel, “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”, contradicted her buried love for Spock. She’d joined Starfleet, this episode said, to search for her missing fiancé Dr. Roger Korby (Michael Strong, and recently introduced onto “Strange New Worlds” played by Cillian O’Sullivan). Never throughout “TOS” did Spock and Chapel actually get together. Them sharing a romantic history, even a brief one, in “Strange New Worlds” doesn’t quite line up with “The Naked Time” either, which implies they’d never even talked about their attraction before. But hey, the “Strange New Worlds” team has shown before that it’ll play loose with canon.

As for T’Pring, her character goes back to “TOS” episode “Amok Time.” Spock returns to Vulcan to wed T’Pring (Arlene Martel), but she manipulates a duel between him and Kirk (William Shatner). “Strange New Worlds” is intent on fleshing out, if not redeeming, T’Pring’s character to understand how her bond with Spock turned sour.

We know from “Amok Time” that Spock and T’Pring’s engagement will eventually get back on track … and so, presumably, his relationship with La’an can’t last, either. Though La’an is related to an infamous “Star Trek” character, she’s an original creation of “Strange New Worlds.” She’s nowhere to be seen in “TOS,” so it’s unlikely she and Spock are the endgame any more than Spock & Chapel were. We all know who Spock’s true love is anyway, and based on her own fling with Jim back in season 2’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” I’m sure La’an would understand him falling for Kirk.

“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” streams on Paramount+, with new episodes arriving on Thursdays.