Yeah, I was surprised that Spock hit him at all after that, because didn't Uhura say "he's our only chance of saving Kirk"? I didn't think she specified how or what, not even alive or conscious or anything, so I felt like the logical thing for Spock to do would be *nothing* until he had more information. What if it was a memory they needed, and another blow to the head made it irretrievable? o.O Totes agree that that was unlike him, and I felt like they threw the last punch in there only for the sake of storyline symmetry, to show that Spock now understood how Jim felt about losing Pike.