Gosh, will Spock and Chapel survive this time?!

No, that’s how they get back to the canon. Sad. I’m as confused as you about the Gorn, though. I’m also wondering about the affable/bloodthirsty crew and trying to make sense of the title, “Hegemony.” Here’s one way might make sense: The demarcation line was a power play, kind of like NATO moving to Russia’s back yard or Russia reclaiming Crimea. Pike crosses it, another power play. Are we looking at a battle for unipolar power? Depicting the crew as both affable and bloodthirsty might be a way of holding up a mirror to ourselves. The Gorn are from hell. Demonizing people makes it easier to kill them. Interestingly, toward the end of the episode, Pike has a sentence about understanding the Gorn. Don’t groan. All Star-Trek series have included social commentary. (Remember Pelia’s comment, a couple of episodes ago, about holding onto valuable art in case this no-money experiment in socialism were to fail?)