A lot to unpack here. Definite ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ vibes. Great end of season episode. Hopefully this time they have the resolution to the cliffhanger written.
I figured Batel would suffer the fate she did, even before the episode started. It was lazy writing that she should end up in the situation she did and so it happened. The writing team can and should do better than this.
Scotty appearing was a nice touch, and was well played by the actor. Given that Chapel is probably going to be rotated out for a while I think pairing him with Pelia for season 3 might be fun.
The Gorn were also well done, although the Aliens homages are getting tiresome and unless they are going completely retcon ‘Arena’ then there isn’t a huge amount more than can be done with them. Thankfully so far they seem to using them sparingly. Hopefully they will move onto other TOS races in season 3. The Tholians, for example, have a unique feel and less alpha continuity to worry about.