Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5 – “Mirrors”
Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, “Mirrors,” revealed L’ak (Elias Toufexis) is a Breen, but it was foreshadowed in the season 5 premiere. Written by Johanna Lee and Carlos Cisco and directed by Jen McGowan, Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5 sends Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) into interdimensional space after L’ak, Moll (Eve Harlow), and the next clue to the ancient treasure of the Progenitors. The foursome are stranded on the derelict ISS Enterprise from the Mirror Universe where Burnham and Book learn L’ak is a Breen without his helmet.
The Breen were introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation but became cult fan-favorite alien villains on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Breen allied themselves with the Changelings in the waning days of DS9‘s Dominion War, and the fearsome adversaries even attacked Earth. The Breen are recognizable for their distinctive helmets, refrigeration suits, and their unique language. Before Star Trek: Discovery season 5, no one had ever seen what a Breen looked like before, but it turns out audiences have been watching a Breen – L’ak – all along since Discovery season 5’s premiere.
Star Trek: Discovery season 5’s premiere, “Red Directive,” cleverly foreshadowed that L’ak is a Breen. When Moll and Lak first arrived on the 24th-century Romulan starship of Doctor Vellek (Michael Copeman) seeking the first clue to the Progenitors’ treasure, the lovers were wearing spacesuits with helmets. When Moll and L’ak shed their headgear, Moll complained about the smell of the ship, but L’ak replies, “It’s better than wearing a helmet.”
L’ak’s remark flew over audiences’ heads at the time, but it was the seed planted for Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5’s revelation that L’ak is Breen. In fact, L’ak is the nephew of the Breen Primarch Ruhn (Tony Nappo), who relegated L’ak to working in the shuttle bay. L’ak fell in love with Moll, who was a courier selling dilithium to the Breen Imperium, but L’ak violated one of the Breen’s fundamental laws when he showed his true face to Moll, an offworlder and a “lesser being” according to the Breen.
The flashbacks in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, “Mirrors”, told the backstory of Moll and L’ak’s romance, and why they are seeking the Progenitors’ technology. Moll and L’ak are a forbidden love, and L’ak turned his back on the Breen for Moll. Worse, when they were discovered and confronted by Primarch Ruhn, L’ak defended Moll and shot his own uncle. For his crimes, the Breen placed an Erigah – a blood bounty – on Moll and L’ak’s heads. This is an irreversible condemnation, and it means that the Breen will never stop hunting Moll and L’ak.
L’ak and Moll are actually desperate to find the Progenitors’ treasure, which they hope to turn over to the Breen in exchange for them lifting the Erigah. There is no guarantee that the Breen would abide by this request, but it’s the only chance Moll and L’ak have to be free. L’ak already had conflicts with the Breen’s laws and culture, and it’s unlikely L’ak would ever be allowed to return to the Imperium, not that he wants to. All L’ak wants is the freedom to live his life with Moll without the Breen hunting him. L’ak’s dislike for his helmet in Star Trek: Discovery season 5’s premiere was a hint of his true story as an outcast from the Breen Imperium that was told in “Mirrors”.
New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 stream Thursdays on Paramount+
