If that's the case then all it accomplished was to highlight why exactly many viewers found her too much. It's like your complaints about your dish having too much salt being answered by replacing your entire meal with a salt shaker. As I said, I don't have problems with her awkwardness itself, but its entertainment value wears itself wafer-thin at warp speed if there's nothing else her character can offer. A waste of both a good character and a great performer, really.
I remember those discussions from last year and how vigorously I've defended her... what I find different now is while I was able to explain or at least rationalize most of the concerns raised about her then, there's been simply nothing to defend in the last few episodes, except for her scenes with Airiam of course. At least the main problem about her during Season 1 was the perception that she was far too often involved in plotlines which didn't quite require her specific expertise, which could be argued for or against.
To be fair, Saru didn't even bother to interrupt her this week and just went back to what he was talking about. The comedic timing reminded me a bit of the 'Broccoli' scene from Hollow Pursuits when Data caught himself with his foot in his mouth mid-explanation and just very theatrically turned back to his workstation as if nothing happened. Of course, Data at least had something more to do than just being awkward.
After An Obol for Charon and Space Oddity, one would think the writers remember they already have an established, mentor-apprentice relationship with a great level of trust. Even all the way back to the first season, she was the one to actually confront Stamets about behaving strangely when the spore drive started to affect him.
Science!
Oh shit I'll have to edit my other post but found this ship chart
From Ex-Astris-Scientia
