This is how disposable they are.
Spoilers ahoy...
This is Lt. Cmdr Airiam in S01
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This is her in S02, a different actress.
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In S02 they kill her off, giving her, for the first time, a decent storyline and some screen time and her position is replaced on the bridge by Lt Nillson
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Who is actually the actress that played Airiam in S01.
I still don't actually know why she had to die in the show as there were so many ways they could have saved her. Still it gave Burnham an opportunity to have a good cry and show her emotional range beyond stoic, those seem to be the entire range of Burnhams emotion and why is there so much crying in Star Trek?