The Ending Of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Explained

Contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 2, Episode 10, "Hegemony"

A return to episodic adventures in outer space, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" has been dazzling audiences and impressing critics since its 2022 debut. Its second season picked up right where the first left off and continued the story of Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew of the USS Enterprise. Alongside returning fan favorites like Number One (Rebecca Romijn), Mr. Spock (Ethan Peck), and Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), Pike's mission in Season 2 has seen him at odds with Klingons, the Kalar of Rigel VII, and even Starfleet itself.

Over the course of the second season, the crew of the Enterprise has gone back in time, gotten visitors from the future, and encountered a dangerous entity from another realm. But the stakes are bigger than ever in the Season 2 finale, "Hegemony," as the Enterprise must face off with one of the galaxy's most terrifying alien threats: the Gorn. A mysterious race of lizardlike monsters, the Gorn are more than a match for Pike and the crew of the Enterprise, and it takes everything they've got to get out alive. If your head is still spinning from the season's jaw-dropping final moments, you can relax, because we're here to explain the ending of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 2.

As the season finale "Hegemony" begins, we find Christine Chapel alongside Capt. Batel (Melanie Scrofano, of "Wynona Earp") and the crew of the USS Cayuga, who are visiting a Federation colony on Parnassus Beta, just outside Federation space. It quickly comes under attack by the Gorn, and we soon learn that the alien race has claimed this sector of space. Answering Batel's distress call, the Enterprise races in only to find the Cayuga destroyed in orbit and survivors in hiding on the planet's surface.

Evading detection, Pike and a small landing party make it to the colony, where they are under constant threat by the Gorn. Aboard the Enterprise, though, communications are dead, and Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and Pelia (Carol Kane) realize the Gorn are using a planet-based device to jam their sensors and comms. Now, it's up to Spock to turn the burned-out hull of the Cayuga into a missile that will strike the Gorn's device on the surface, restoring communications so they can beam the survivors home. 

Aboard the remnants of the Cayuga, meanwhile, is Nurse Chapel, who has managed to survive and must get off the ship before Spock sends it hurtling to the planet below. Standing in their way is a deadly Gorn, who wants nothing less than to turn them into its next meal. Down on the planet, a young and resourceful Starfleet engineer and fellow survivor believes he has the key to stopping the Gorn.

Thematically, Season 2 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" could be described in some ways as the season of broken romances. In addition to the awkward love triangle that has played out between Mr. Spock, his betrothed T'Pring, and Nurse Chapel, Pike has struggled to maintain his long-distance relationship with fellow starship commander Batel. That relationship goes all the way back to the series premiere but has faced continued challenges, with a near-breakup in the previous episode, "Subspace Rhapsody."

But that's not all, because multiple episodes this season focused on the cross-dimensional romance between La'an Noonien-Singh and James T. Kirk, which also came to a head in "Subspace Rhapsody" when she's forced to come clean about her feelings. In "Hegemony," however, the story focuses on the latter two romantic pairings, with Nurse Chapel having left the Enterprise when the episode begins to start her fellowship with Dr. Roger Korby. But when the Gorn attack, she's seemingly killed aboard the USS Cayuga, leaving Spock distraught. A mission to rig the Cayuga debris with retro-rockets in a plan to destroy a Gorn device leads to the discovery that Chapel is still alive, and she and Spock reunite after teaming up to kill a Gorn.

Meanwhile, Pike risks everything, going against orders on a rogue mission to find Batel on the planet's surface. But it's later discovered that she has been implanted with Gorn eggs — something that no humanoid has been able to survive.

Though the crew of the Enterprise wasn't made aware, Starfleet has apparently been making preparations for a war with the Gorn for quite some time. It's likely they began plans behind the scenes following the attacks by the Gorn seen in Season 1, because by the Season 2 premiere "The Broken Circle," Starfleet brass had taken notice of recent Gorn aggression near their space. They'd spotted a Gorn ship near the Galdonterre system and were increasingly concerned that a war might be inevitable, something they aren't exactly eager for so soon after the end of their long and bloody conflict with the Klingons.

By "Hegemony," we learn that those fears were well-founded. But from what we see in the Season 2 finale, it's clear that the Federation may have underestimated the Gorn. They may not even be ready enough for a war, because when the Gorn attacks a Federation colony, and even destroys the USS Cayuga along with many of its crew, they're not prepared to retaliate, and Starfleet orders Pike and the Enterprise away from Gorn space. The Gorn have marked their territory, and it would seem that Starfleet would rather respect the lines on a map than look for justice for the death of its people.

April, however, could have a bigger plan up his sleeve, and the Enterprise's retreat could just be one part of a wider strategy to counter the Gorn. But we'll have to wait until Season 3 to find out what that is.

Season-ending cliffhangers were once a staple of "Star Trek," and they make a big comeback with "Hegemony," which leaves audiences left to wonder how Pike will save the colonists and Cayuga crew after April orders him back to Federation space. But even as it stands, the episode has major ramifications for the series as it moves into its third season in 2024. The biggest ramification, of course, might be the presence of engineer Montgomery Scott.

Heading into Season 3, it's possible that Scotty will become a part of the regular cast. Actor Matt Quinn would be a fine replacement for a departing Jess Bush, assuming she leaves the series with Nurse Chapel leaving the ship to take part in a fellowship at the Vulcan Science Academy. In fact, Scotty could even become the ship's new chief engineer, should actress Carol Kane decide not to return as Pelia for another year on the series. 

Of course, the episode's most dramatic development is the inevitability of a war with the Gorn. Whether the crew's current conflict with the Gorn dominates the entirety of the next season or is simply resolved within the premiere episode remains to be seen. Still, the episode's cliffhanger ending feels reminiscent of the "TNG" two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds," which saw Picard face down the Borg. Similarly, an all-out battle with the Gorn could see serious consequences, including the possible death of Capt. Batel, and scars that would leave a lasting impact on the series.

From producers to actors, it's clear that the cast and crew of "Strange New Worlds" wanted "Hegemony" to be a real showstopper. "The finale is a very dark, very driving action-oriented episode," said showrunner Henry Alonso Myers, who relished the chance to bring back a number of iconic "Trek" elements. From the season-ending cliffhanger to the return of Scotty, it's part of the show's mission statement, after all. "What we traffic in on this show is modernizing the classic ideas that came out of those original 'Trek' shows," he said.

With all of these new, updated elements, "Hegemony" brings the crew of the Enterprise back to face the Gorn. "Pike's initial approach to the Gorn is to assume that there is an intrinsic set of ethics to any given sentient life form," said actor Anson Mount. But the Gorn don't seem to stick to this philosophy or to have any moral code at all, making them a perfect threat to the do-gooding crew of the Enterprise.

"La'an is very composed this time around," said actress Christina Chong, whose character, La'an, has a traumatic personal history with the alien race. "And when she does go on to the planet and she kills the first Gorn youngling, she gains power over the Gorn." But Chong wasn't the only one who relished her character's opportunity for redemption, because Melissa Navia, who plays Lt. Ortegas, was thrilled to finally get her away mission. "I've been asking for this as Ortegas as Melissa," she said.