Spock and Chapel bookend Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 with dramatic outer space rescues that deepen their tumultuous relationship.
Summary
- Nurse Chapel and Spock bookend Strange New Worlds season 2 with dramatic outer space rescues in the season premiere and the finale.
- Despite being saved by Spock multiple times, Chapel remains a strong and independent character who fights for her own survival and even saves Spock in return.
- The possibility of a love triangle between Spock, Chapel, and Dr. Korby in season 3 adds an additional layer of complexity to their romance and could be further complicated by T’Pring’s potential return.
Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) and Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) give into their feelings for one another in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, and the couple dramatically bookends both the season premiere and the finale. Nurse Chapel had been pining for Spock for a while, but Spock was in a relationship with his Vulcan fiancée T’Pring (Gia Sandhu). Although Spock undoubtedly cares for T’Pring, the two spend a lot of time apart, and they eventually break up in Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 5. Even before Spock and T’Pring call it quits, Spock developed feelings for Nurse Chapel.
Spock struggles with his human emotions and how to reconcile them with his more logical Vulcan side. Chapel brings out Spock’s more human side, and he decides to embrace that while he’s in a relationship with her. Although they date for a while, Chapel soon receives an opportunity to leave the USS Enterprise and attend a prestigious fellowship studying archaeological medicine with Dr. Roger Korby. While Chapel still cares deeply for Spock, she also wants to advance her career. When the characters begin singing their true feelings in Strange New Worlds’ musical episode, Chapel sings that she will take the fellowship even if it means leaving Spock behind. Spock then decides to embrace logic and stop trying to be human, effectively ending his relationship with Christine.
Strange New Worlds Season 2 Is Bookended By Spock Saving Chapel From Deep Space Peril
In Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 1, “The Broken Circle,” Nurse Chapel and Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) find themselves trapped with Klingons and forced to help treat their wounded soldiers. M’Benga and Chapel use a strength serum M’Benga had developed years before, and they fight their way through the Klingons. In order to escape, Chapel and M’Benga eject themselves from an airlock, but without a helmet, Chapel nearly freezes to death before they are rescued by the Starship Enterprise. Spock frantically fights to save Christine, deeply affected by her near death, and showing more emotion than he ever did on Star Trek: The Original Series.
Although Spock saves Christine’s life in both the Strange New Worlds season 2 premiere and finale, Chapel never feels like a damsel in distress. When she’s in danger, she fights for her life at every turn, and even saves Spock a couple of times, too.
Christine’s life is put in peril again in Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 10, “Hegemony,” after she has left the Enterprise for the USS Cayuga, on route to her fellowship. While helping stabilize a new Federation settlement, the Cayuga and its crew are attacked by the Gorn. When the Enterprise arrives to render aid, they find the badly damaged saucer section of the Cayuga drifting in space. Spock desperately searches for Chapel’s life sign among the debris, but he doesn’t find her until later when he has to travel to the Cayuga. Spock and Chapel then go up against a Gorn, saving each other more than once during the fight before safely returning to the Enterprise. Deep space rescues of Chapel by Spock open and close Strange New Worlds season 2 in a thrilling, operatic fashion.
What Will Happen To Spock & Nurse Chapel In Strange New Worlds Season 3
Although Spock and Chapel seem to have ended their relationship in the Strange New Worlds musical episode, the events of the season 2 finale go a long way to repair their fractured friendship. Despite this, the two cannot end up together, based on what has already been established in Star Trek canon. According to Star Trek: The Original Series, Christine (Majel Barrett) will eventually become engaged to Dr. Roger Korby (Michael Strong), the doctor who is leading the fellowship she plans to attend.
Dr. Korby is likely to appear in Strange New Worlds season 3, adding a new wrinkle to Spock and Chapel’s roller-coaster romance. It’s possible Chapel could rekindle her relationship with Spock and then become involved in a love triangle with Spock and Korby later, and T’Pring’s return could complicate things even further. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 could show Christine pursuing a romance and engagement to Korby, despite the fact that her feelings for Spock never entirely go away.
