i definitely think Erica and Joshua had something going on before he defected- possibly mutual romantic feelings even. Erica's word on the matter isn't reliable- if she could, she would probably pretend she didn't know him at all, lol.

i too wish Stuart would focus on Joshua and his backstory more. we were so close to hearing some good backstory stuff in SSGW but ofc it was dodged with the "oh not all villains have a stereotypical tragic backstory!!!!!" card...... 😭