Paramount+At first glance, the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is yet another high-concept romp full of hijinks. And while it's true that Season 4 has been stuffed with genre-bending episodes — from puppets to a soap opera riff — the truth is, Strange New Worlds has done some of its best character work in some of its wackiest episodes. Case in point, the now-famous musical episode from 2023, “Subspace Rhapsody,” actually did a fair amount of narrative heavy lifting for the Season 2 finale. And now, with Episode 9 of Season 4, “Once La’an a Time,” a storybook fairytale episode actually helps complete a character arc that La'an Noonien-Singh has been going through since the very first episode.“This is what she's been trying to get to since Season 1,” Christina Chong tells Inverse. “This is kind of the ultimate lesson she's learned.” But what is that lesson? Other than Ortegas, La’an is one of the few characters in SNW who isn’t a legacy character embodied by a contemporary actor. She was one of the first new characters we met in the Season 1 debut, and for those new to Star Trek, La’an is both an audience surrogate and kind of an Easter egg basket; through her, a newbie can learn about not just the history of Khan, but also the Gorn. But through all of that unfolding of Trekkie lore, in many ways Strange New Worlds has been, at least partially, the journey of how La’an figures herself out. In “Once La’an a Time,” a fairytale world, similar to the one we got in Season 1’s “The Elysium Kingdom,” creates mythological doppelgangers of the entire Enterprise crew. But for Chong, the episode was actually about as down-to-earth as you could imagine. Warning! Spoilers ahead for Strange New Worlds’ “Once La’an a Time.”La’an is able to finally accept herselfLa’an (Christina Chong) confronts her fears — and werewolf boyfriends — in the penultimate episode of Strange New Worlds Season 4. | Paramount+Since Season 1, despite being a capable officer, La’an has been beset by survivor’s guilt, concern over her hereditary connection to literal tyrants, and, after Season 3, as well as Season 4, the fact that her brief time as a Vulcan almost turned her into a Romulan. “ I don't know how the writers do that, but they always tend to write to your real life,” Chong tells Inverse. “Even though they don’t know what’s going on, it’s like this idea of self-acceptance was imitating what I was going through in my own life.”Through encountering a fairytale version of herself, who is full of love and hope, La’an is able to think about the softer sides of herself that she tends to hide away. This doesn’t mean she has to stop being herself, but rather, just the opposite. “I think something we probably all want to do is to love and accept ourselves,” Chong says. “I think it’s about accepting pain, fear, and ugly emotions. But deciding that she deserves love.” La’an Plus KirkA visage of Kirk appears in the fairytale world, too. | Paramount+While a faux-version of Kirk shows up as a foppish prince in the fairytale world, Kirk himself (Paul Wesley) reappears at the end of the episode, sharing a drink with La'an. While fans might have been shipping La’an and Kirk after La’an became involved with an alternate universe version of the famous hero in Season 2, she’s been in a strange kind of romance with Spock (Ethan Peck) for a while. But that’s off now, and maybe, just maybe, Kirk and La’an are...back on?“I think Kirk is probably the best guy for her,” Chong says. “I mean, if we're choosing between Spock and Kirk. Because where she is now, especially learning to love, growing emotionally. Kirk can help her with that. Whereas Spock is only half human and isn't quite able to fully access emotions in the way that I think she would want to. I think that’s the amazing growth lesson for her — to fully accept love and therefore grow and love someone else.”That said, we know La’an doesn’t appear in The Original Series; maybe this romance is doomed. Or is it?Is the end of Strange New Worlds the end of La’an?La’an on the haunted USS Griffin in Strange New Worlds. | Paramount+In 2027, with Season 5, Strange New Worlds will come to an end. And while fans are aware of the adventures that Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and Chapel will have in the future, what about La’an? Even if the character will live on in Trek lore forever, Chong says it’s very hard for her to even accept that the show has stopped filming.“I can’t really go into it, because I’ll get emotional,” Chong reveals. “But I have a really special connection to this character. She is me, partly. I put my personal stuff, my personal trauma, into her. And so I do feel very, very close to her. “Chong says that “it was a really sad last day on the set” of Strange New Worlds, referencing a moment that fans won’t see until next year. And yet, despite the “bittersweet” feelings Chong has about the end of her time on Star Trek, it’s possible that this isn’t the end, but rather the end for now.After all, don’t Star Trek actors often return years after their respective series end? “That’s true!” Chong says, talking about the longevity of the franchise. “Well, I guess you never know.”Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams on Paramount+.