Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5 - "Mirrors"

Summary

• L'ak is a complex new Breen character in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, adding depth to the traditionally mysterious alien race.
• L'ak's love for Moll drives him to defy Breen culture and pursue the Progenitors' technology to barter with the Breen against their Erigah bounty.
• Star Trek: Discovery season 5 sheds light on the enigmatic Breen species, revealing their complex society and motivations through L'ak's storyline.

L'ak (Elias Toufexis) is more than one of Star Trek: Discovery season 5's villains, but the Breen rebel is also a historic Star Trek character. Along with his lover, Moll (Eve Harlow), L'ak is a new creation of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, and they function as antagonists to Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the USS Discovery. Moll and L'ak are in a race with Discovery to find the ancient treasure of the Progenitors, which is the source of humanoid life in the galaxy.

Moll and L'ak began Star Trek: Discovery season 5 as mysterious marauders who matched wits with Captain Burnham and the USS Discovery. Although Burnham's new First Officer, Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), had past encounters with Moll and L'ak, Discovery brought in Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) to help Burnham outmaneuver the former couriers. Burnham and Boom finally caught up with Moll and L'ak in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, "Mirrors," which revealed L'ak is a Breen who fled his people out of love for Moll. As a Breen without a helmet, L'ak is a revolutionary Star Trek character in more ways than one.

The Breen placed an Erigah, or blood bounty, on L'ak and Moll's heads and they need the Progenitors' technology to bargain with the Breen in hopes they'll rescind it.

Discovery’s L’ak Is Star Trek’s First True Breen Character

L'ak takes the Breen to another level

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 has laudably made L'ak into the first fully-realized Breen character in Star Trek. Before L'ak, the Breen were essentially faceless and interchangeable, albeit certainly memorable. L'ak is the first Breen with a genuine personality, individual goals, hopes, dreams, and love. L'ak is head-over-heels in love with Moll, who encouraged "green eye" to show her his true face - an act that is culturally anathema to the Breen. By choosing Moll over his own people, and even attacking his uncle, Primarch Ruhn (Tony Nappo), L'ak completely stands apart from the Breen Imperium. But even before L'ak ran away with Moll, he was already against the Breen's culture of isolationism and xenophobia.

Elias Toufexis previously appeared in Star Trek: Discovery season 1, episode 3 before returning in season 5 as L'ak.

There were other notable Breen in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine such as Thot Gor (Todd Slayton) and Thot Pran (Max Omega), who were often seen with the Female Changeling (Salome Jens) and Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs) during the Dominion War. But DS9's Breen never showed their faces, and they spoke in the Breen language only Weyoun and the Female Changeling, not the viewer, understood. The Breen were never presented as three-dimensional individuals before Star Trek: Discovery season 5. Elias Toufexis' layered and resonant portrayal of L'ak takes the Breen to a whole new level.

How L’ak & Discovery Changed Star Trek’s Breen

Some Breen mysteries have been solved by Discovery

The Breen were first mentioned in Star Trek: The Next Generation - Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is a sequel to TNG season 6's "The Chase" - but the mysterious warriors wearing distinctive refrigeration suits made their true impact in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7. The Breen allied with Changelings in the waning days of the Dominion War, and they were devastating adversaries whose energy-dampening weapon destroyed the USS Defiant. The Breen even attacked Earth, the homeworld of the United Federation of Planets. Yet what was known about the Breen was hearsay, and the helmeted aliens were shrouded in mystery until Star Trek: Discovery season 5.

If they gain possession of the Progenitors' technology, the Breen will wipe out the Federation.

The shroud of the Breen has been lifted compellingly by Star Trek: Discovery season 5. Through L'ak's backstory with Moll, the Breen are revealed to be gelatinous humanoids who rely on their refrigeration suits as a cultural touchstone, to the point that showing their true form to others is a sign of weakness. The 32nd-century Breen Imperium is broken up into factions fighting for dominance, but if they gain possession of the Progenitors' technology, the Breen will wipe out the Federation. The Breen are fearsome adversaries in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, but thanks to L'ak, they now have a distinctiveness and depth that make them even more interesting.

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 stream Thursdays on Paramount+