Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 7 - "The Serene Squall"
Captain Angel (Jesse James Keitel) hijacking the USS Enterprise in Spock's Vulcan half-brother Sybok!
Spock and T'Pring during happier and more hopeful times as the two Vulcans attempt to have a long-distance relationship nearly a decade before "Amok Time" and their relationship's demise.
However, Strange New Worlds episode 7 laid the groundwork for Spock and T'Pring's eventual divorce thanks to Captain Angel's machinations. Angel took Spock and Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) as their prisoners while they negotiated (in vain) with T'Pring to exchange Spock for Sybok, who was going under the assumed name Xaverius. To spare T'Pring the impossible choice of surrendering Sybok, because to do so would disgrace T'Pring in the Vulcans' eyes and end her career, Spock and Nurse Chapel pretended to have an affair. This gave T'Pring the convenient excuse to end her marriage bond with Spock, thus releasing her from having to release Sybok in order to save Spock's life. The gambit worked and Captain Angel was foiled.
Although T'Pring knew Spock was only pretending for her benefit and the two Vulcan lovers "rebonded," there are many fascinating aspects to Spock's faux "affair" with Nurse Chapel. It sets up the fact that T'Pring herself would have an affair in 2267, and Strange New Worlds even reintroduced Stonn (Roderick McNeil), T'Pring's future paramour. In fact, it's now obvious that since Stonn works so closely with T'Pring every day at Ankeshtan K'Til, this is how they fell for each other in Spock's absence. Further, Spock dreamed the exact scenario of "Amok Time" in Strange New Worlds episode 5, "Spock Amok," and just two episodes later, another identical circumstance of his future divorce from T'Pring played out.
There's also poor Nurse Chapel's unwilling role in Spock and T'Pring's ongoing soap opera. Chapel obviously has feelings for her Vulcan shipmate although she claimed she didn't because Christine didn't want to get in the middle of Spock and T'Pring's relationship any further than she already is. Yet there's also an attraction between Spock and Chapel that's undeniable, especially since, like Stonn and T'Pring, Christine has the benefit of seeing Spock every day on the Enterprise. Obviously, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' creative team is well-aware of how Spock and T'Pring's romance ends and they are leaning heavily into dropping hints of what's to come even though Spock's divorce doesn't happen for another 8 years.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams Thursdays on Paramount+.