Agreed, pp. Experience has taught me that no words can counter the brutal finality of death, so I usually resort to a dignified silence when confronted with it; but I'm sure we all extend our deepest sympathies to sulu.
An unwanted complication here is the possible relevance to TP - we all know he was going overseas, and so if your speculations as to his relatonship with S are incorrect we'll have no way of knowing for quite a while.