"Erica Ortegas has been at the center of one of this season's ongoing storylines, and, frankly, it's been pretty rough on her. It's less that more horrible things have happened to Erica than other members of the Enterprise crew, and more that Erica has been batted around pretty badly by memories of one particular awful experience: her encounter with the Gorn."
"That's left her with a lingering case of PTSD that's manifested as anger, recklessness, and general hostility. These aren't good qualities in a Starfleet officer (or anyone). They're especially ill-suited for a pilot who prides herself on her nerves of steel. Erica's issues haven't been constant, however. She lied to Una and lost her confidence in one episode, but was back on the bridge in the following installment and has had seemingly no troubles since then."
Strange New Worlds emphasizes self-contained episodes while maintaining running storylines like Spock's romantic entanglements and Pike's foreknowledge of a grievous injury. The show avoids heavy serialization compared with Discovery and Picard. Erica Ortegas endures a season-long arc marked by trauma from a Gorn encounter, producing lingering PTSD that shows up as anger, recklessness, and hostility. Those traits undermine her duties as a Starfleet pilot known for steady nerves and briefly erode her confidence after lying to Una. She prepares for a solo mission into a peculiar area of uncharted space to clear her head before a wormhole interrupts her return to the Enterprise.
Read at Vulture
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