How Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 finale sets up season 3

But if you thought things would slow down for season 2's final episode, you're in for a rude awakening.

The finale starts off peacefully enough on a remote world named Parnassus Beta where people live in a town made to look like modern Mid-West America. There, Captain Marie Batel and the crew of the USS Cayuga are sharing supplies and vaccinations with help from Christine Chapel who's on her way to the research fellowship she accepted last week.

Christopher Pike calls Batel because he misses her but things suddenly go to hell when the comms cut out and an ominous looking spaceship appears in the sky over Parnassus Beta.

The planet is under attack from the Gorn, those funny looking reptile aliens from The Original Series who have since been reimagined into something far more lethal.

Admiral April immediately calls Pike up to tell him that the Enterprise cannot get involved because this attack is happening outside of Federation space. To act now could start a much bigger war.

The crew fly closer and discover the debris of the Cayuga floating in space. Everything is malfunctioning too, including comms, transporters and more, all because of an interference field set up by the Gorn. There's no way to transport anyone off planet, assuming that the crew of the Cayuga are even still alive down there.

A Gorn hunter ship appears then to hold what turns out to be a demarcation line between the Enterprise and the planet below. Starfleet orders Pike to stay where he is, but one quick crew meeting later, everyone is geared up and ready to fly down to the planet via some sneaky flying through the debris.

While a small team heads down, Spock and Una Chin-Riley search said debris for signs of life, but with the Med-Bay destroyed, Christine's chances of survival seem slim.

Using weapons from a secret Gorn Protocol Box, Pike's team manage to fend off a Gorn youngling, but then dozens more arrive, so they barricade themselves away in a nearby shop until the coast is clear.

Meanwhile, Nyota Uhura has a "crazy theory" for how to work around the Gorn's interference shield, but she'll need Pelia's expert engineering knowledge if she has any hope of pulling this off.

Pike's team pick up a human signal down the street, only to discover that said signal is actually a Gorn trap set by none other than a younger version of Montgomery Scott, AKA Scotty, who's making his full debut here in Strange New Worlds. With his help, the other human survivors are located, including Batel, who tells Pike that coming for them "was a crazy idea."

Together, Uhura and Pelia figure out the beacon's location, but regular weapons can't be used to destroy it without alerting the Gorn. So instead, they decide to place some retro-rockets onto a large piece of debris so it can be crashed directly into the beacon, thereby destroying it before the Gorn realise what's up.

Placing said rockets won't be easy though, so Spock volunteers knowing that no regular human would be up to the task, despite his grief.

But there's no need to be sad because Christine is actually alive, after all. She's in one of those rare pockets of oxygen hidden amidst the debris, yet even with power restored, still only one hour of life support remains.

Spock appears then outside in a space suit where he's attaching the rockets, but he doesn't see Christine through the window. And then an adult Gorn appears in the corridor right behind her.

Pike, Batel, and Scotty encounter a Gorn youngling at the exact same time on their hunt for equipment, but the baby runs off after Batel makes a stand.

Things don't go so well for Spock and Christine though. When the Gorn attacks, Spock loses his phaser which spins off into another direction. Defenceless, the alien's tail wraps around Spock's neck as it tries to pull his helmet off. Thankfully, Christine grabs the phaser just in time and uses it to distract the Gorn long enough for Spock to puncture its helmet and expose it to the vacuum of space.

Planetside, Batel reveals that the youngling didn't attack her because she was infected with Gorn eggs just one day previously, and she's now dangerously close to them hatching inside of her. Because Batel's time is numbered anyway, she decides to crash Scotty's device into the Gorn's beacon so that everyone else can be transported off planet to safety.

But there's no need because Spock was successful in his mission. The debris rockets directly into the beacon, destroying it long enough for both Spock and Pike's parties to be beamed back onto the Enterprise.

Spock apologises to Christine for the way they had left things before she originally departed. There's no time to talk though because Spock is needed on the bridge and Christine gets to work on removing the Gorn eggs from Batel's body.

There's a cute moment where Pelia meets Scotty – "one of my best students who received some of my worst grades" – and then panic sets in when the crew discover more Gorn ships are on their way.

At this point, we learn that all of the other survivors on the planet have already been beamed away by the Gorn before the Enterprise could get a lock on them.

War erupts then as more Gorn ships descend onto the Enterprise's location. There's chaos outside and all Pike wants to do is fight to rescue the residents of Parnassus Beta, but Admiral April orders him to immediately withdraw on behalf of Starfleet.

Pike's left with an impossible decision to make; either he follows orders and leaves the area or he stays to fight the Gorn and save his people while risking an even larger scale war where countless more could die.

The crew wait for their next order from their Captain as Pike takes a gulp and surveys the carnage outside.

And then, the words no one wants to see at this point flash up on screen: "To Be Continued…"

That's right. Season 2 of Strange New Worlds ends with one whopper of a cliffhanger, and we won't know what decision Pike will make until the show returns in 2024, or even 2025 if the actor and writer strikes continue for much longer.

But if we had to guess, our money's on Pike staying to fight. No matter how much he's been through during his time on the Enterprise, Pike will always strive to do what's right, no matter what his orders are or what the consequences might be.

Read more:

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Strange New Worlds is available to stream on Paramount+. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight.

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