Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Ending & Cliffhanger Explained

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Finale – “Hegemony”

Summary

• Captain Pike faces an impossible decision as he must choose between following orders and leaving his crew as prisoners of the Gorn or ignoring orders and risking their lives.
• Captain Batel has been infected by the Gorn, and there are baby reptiles growing inside her. Nurse Chapel is working to find a cure and save Batel’s life.
• The Enterprise landing party, except for Lt. Sam Kirk, has been captured by the Gorn. Lt. Scotty and Commander Pelia work to duplicate a Gorn transponder to save their friends.

Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) faces an impossible decision in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2’s finale about which members of the USS Enterprise crew to save from the Gorn. Directed by Maja Vrvilo and written by executive producer and co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers, Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 10, “Hegemony,” is an intense nail-biter that concludes with a harrowing cliffhanger that could spell doom for some of the show’s beloved characters.

Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), who was empowered to understand her true value as Communications Officer by Strange New Worlds’ musical episode, hatched a plan with Commander Pelia (Carol Kane) to destroy the Gorn beacon on Parnassus Beta. Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) space walked to the remnants of the destroyed USS Cayuga to attach rockets that would send the saucer section crashing into the beacon on the planet’s surface. The destruction of the beacon allowed Captain Pike, Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano), and Lt. Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn) to beam aboard the Enterprise, but they soon came to understand how dire the crisis against the Gorn truly is. Here’s a breakdown of the major events of Strange New Worlds season 2’s finale and what it all means for season 3.

Captain Pike Faces An Impossible Cliffhanger Decision In Strange New Worlds Season 2’s Finale

As soon as Captain Pike returned to the bridge of the USS Enterprise, he was faced with a no-win scenario. Starfleet communications from Admiral Robert April (Adrian Holmes) ordered Pike to withdraw from engagement with the Gorn. Pike had already illegally breached a demarcation line around Parnassus Beta created by the Gorn that forced Starfleet to stay on their side. The Gorn realized that Starfleet crossed the line again when the Cayuga’s saucer destroyed their beacon on the planet’s surface, and they attacked the Enterprise in retaliation. Pike’s ship is gravely outnumbered and outgunned by Gorn hunter and destroyer ships, with even more en route.

When the Enterprise detected no human life signs on Parnassus Beta, Captain Pike realized the Gorn beamed the survivors onto their ship, including his own Enterprise crew members. Pike is now in the unenviable position of deciding whether to follow orders and withdraw, thereby leaving his crew to be prisoners of the Gorn, or ignore orders and fight, risking the lives of the Enterprise’s crew. In Strange New Worlds season 1 finale’s alternate “Balance of Terror” future, Captain Pike sought peace with the Romulans, which inadvertently sparked a forever war. There seems to be no peaceful solution to Pike’s dilemma in Strange New Worlds season 2’s finale, which is Chris’ own real-life Kobayashi Maru scenario to test his true mettle as Captain of the Enterprise.

Captain Batel May Not Survive Infection By The Gorn

Captain Pike led a landing party to Parnassus Beta to rescue Captain Marie Batel, and he was confused as to why Marie was so upset at him. Pike soon learned the truth when a Gorn juvenile came face-to-face with Batel but didn’t attack: Marie has been infected by the Gorn, and there are baby alien reptiles growing inside her. Pike and the Enterprise crew faced this horrifying dilemma in Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 9, “All Those Who Wander.” Lt. Hemmer (Bruce Horak) took his own life the Gorn infected him with their eggs to save his friends on the Enterprise. However, Pike refuses to let Batel meet the same fate.

Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) sedated Captain Batel and is holding her in a stasis field while she works to find a cure, and Chapel is choosing to ignore Marie’s orders to “take me out” if she starts manifesting baby Gorn. Since the Gorn crisis began in Strange New Worlds season 1, Starfleet has developed new weapons against the cannibalistic alien reptiles, but it’s unclear if Starfleet Medical has advanced its research into Gorn physiology. Perhaps Chapel, who was a battlefield nurse during Star Trek: Discovery‘s Klingon War, can find a breakthrough to save Batel from the Gorn inside her. But it’s also possible that Batel may die when Strange New Worlds returns for season 3. Since Fleet Captain Pike (Sean Kenney) is alone in Star Trek: The Original Series’ “The Menagerie,” this could be the tragic end of Batel, but Strange New Worlds may still defy expectations and find a way to save Marie.

Which Strange New Worlds Enterprise Crew Are Captured By The Gorn

Unfortunately for the rest of the Enterprise’s landing party, they were beamed aboard the Gorn ship instead of the safe confines of Federation’s flagship. The alien lizards now have Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), Lt. Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte), and several residents of Parnassus Beta as their prisoners. For La’an, this is her worst nightmare redux as she is a survivor of a Gorn abduction as a child.

However, the Enterprise landing party, except for Kirk, are all veterans of the Klingon War, and that experience may be a difference-maker in the clutches of the Gorn. Meanwhile, Sam’s abduction also now means he was the first Kirk to meet the Gorn, not his younger brother, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), in Star Trek: The Original Series‘ “Arena.” This is one unwanted ‘honor’ Sam has over Jim, but the Kirk brothers will likely see each other again since Sam doesn’t canonically die until 7 years later in the TOS episode, “Operation: Annihilate!”

How Scotty & Pelia Can Save The Enterprise

Scotty may be the key to saving the Enterprise so that Captain Pike can rescue his crew from the Gorn. Lieutenant, junior grade Scott was stationed on the research vessel USS Stardiver when it was attacked by the Gorn. Scotty realized two crucial things about the Gorn that allowed him to survive: the Gorn seem to respond to coronal mass ejections, which may have led them to swarm and attack, and Scotty deduced how Gorn transponders work, so he built himself one and escaped on a shuttle that was invisible to Gorn sensors. Scotty’s Gorn transponder was destroyed when he crash-landed on Parnassus Beta, but he certainly has the know-how to create another one on the Enterprise.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Scott was one of Commander Pelia’s best engineering students at Starfleet Academy, but he also earned some of her worst grades. This is similar to Number One (Rebecca Romijn), who harbored a grudge against Pelia for years because the very long-lived Lanthanite instructor didn’t give her top marks. Strange New Worlds season 2’s finale marks the first time Scotty sets foot on the USS Enterprise, the starship he would fall in love with and serve aboard for three decades. However, the crisis at hand means Scotty and Pelia need to quickly duplicate his Gorn transponder. With it, the Enterprise will be invisible to Gorn sensors, and they have a fighting chance to save their captured friends.

Spock & Chapel Fight A Gorn 7 Years Before Kirk In Star Trek: TOS

Nurse Christine Chapel miraculously survived the destruction of the USS Cayuga, but Spock believed she was dead when he undertook the mission to attach rockets to the saucer section. Chapel donned a space suit to meet Spock, but the Vulcan Science Officer was attacked by a Gorn soldier who also wore a space suit. Chapel and Spock battled the Gorn together, and Spock shattered the lizard’s face shield. The Gorn’s death debunks the Star Trek theory that the reptiles can survive in the vacuum of space. Spock and Chapel completed the mission to attach rockets to the Cayuga’s saucer, and it crashed into Parnassus Beta, destroying the Gorn beacon just as Uhura and Pelia planned.

Spock and Chapel’s Gorn fight means they faced one of the reptiles in hand-to-hand combat at least 6 years before Captain Kirk fought a Gorn Captain in Star Trek: TOS, a retcon that certainly colors how the Vulcan behaves in “Arena.” Meanwhile, Spock and Chapel broke off their relationship in Strange New Worlds’ musical episode after Christine celebrated her acceptance for a 3-month internship in archeological medicine with Dr. Roger Korby, who is Chapel’s future fiancé according to Star Trek: TOS canon. At this point in Strange New Worlds, Chapel and Spock don’t know this yet. But the Gorn crisis at hand, as well as the fate of Captain Batel, means any resolution to Spock and Chapel’s romantic woes must wait until Strange New Worlds season 3.

When Will Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Return For Season 3?

Unfortunately, the wait for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 could be far longer than previously expected. Strange New Worlds season 3’s filming was to start in early May, but the Writer’s Guild of America strike put a halt to the production of most TV and films, which includes all live-action Star Trek shows. SAG-AFTRA declared their own strike in July, and this unprecedented tumult in Hollywood has largely crippled the film and TV industry. With the strikes looking to continue indefinitely, it could mean that Strange New Worlds season 3 won’t make any 2024 release date.

Strange New Worlds season 2’s production was completed in mid-2022, and obviously, no one had any idea writers, actors, and performers would be forced to strike to seek better terms from studios and streaming services in 2023. This makes Strange New Worlds season 2 ending on a heart-stopping cliffhanger truly unfortunate since there’s no telling when the strikes will end, production can resume, and when Strange New Worlds season 3 would be able to be released on Paramount+. In the summer of 1990, Star Trek fans endured a few months of waiting until Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “The Best of Both Worlds’ Borg cliffhanger was resolved, but that will be nothing compared to the long wait ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 is streaming on Paramount+.