8 New Details Star Trek: Discovery Revealed About DS9’s Breen

April 26, 2024, 2 p.m.

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8 New Details Star Trek: Discovery Revealed About DS9’s Breen

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WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery, season 5, episode 5, "Mirrors".

Summary The Breen from Star Trek: DS9 make a proper return in Discovery, revealing their secrets and motivations.

L'ak is a unique Breen who fell in love with Moll, breaking the standard mold of his species.

Discovery reveals the Breen have two faces, one translucent and one solid, hinting at a deeper evolution storyline.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, "Mirrors" reveals a raft of new details about the Breen from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Breen are the latest DS9 aliens to appear in Discovery, making their proper return in the flashback sequences that fill viewers in on the backstory of Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis). Written by Johanna Lee & Carlos Cisco, and directed by Jen McGowan, "Mirrors" finds Moll and L'ak stranded in interdimensional space with Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala).

With the four treasure hunters forced to work together, there's a chance to reveal more about Moll and L'ak's motivations in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5. The bombshell reveal that L'ak is actually Breen is the first of many revelations about the enigmatic Star Trek: Deep Space Nine aliens in the episode. The flashbacks to Moll and L'ak's burgeoning romance shed light on a number of aspects of Breen culture in the 32nd century, including just what sits underneath those helmets.

Related Star Trek: Discovery Vs. DS9's Breen Is Now Inevitable Discovery's darkest timeline makes a fight between Burnham and DS9's Breen inevitable, seriously upping the stakes for Star Trek: Discovery season 5.

8 L'ak Is A Breen

But he doesn't fit the mold of a traditional Breen.

As Burnham and Book try to reason with Moll and L'ak, the couple reveal that they're trying to outrun an Erigah, a Breen blood bounty. This confirms to Burnham that L'ak is a Breen, albeit without the helmet and refrigeration suit. The flashbacks to how Moll and L'ak met reveal that L'ak was a member of the Breen royal family, but he didn't fit the mold. Demoted from his royal duties, L'ak was assigned to shuttle bay duty, where he met and fell in love with Moll.

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) once stated that nobody had seen a Breen without their helmet and lived to tell the tale. The revelations about L'ak's origins mean that half the cast of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 have managed to do just that. However, as the flashbacks show, the Breen are still incredibly secretive about showing their faces, which makes L'ak a unique member of his species.

7 Moll Used To Sell Dilithium To The Breen Imperium

It's how she made her living during The Burn

During the time of scarcity following The Burn, Moll supplied the Breen with dilithium for use in their starships. However, Moll was cutting her dilithium supply with "impurities", meaning that the Breen's supply was considerably watered down. Confronted about this by L'ak, Moll offered to go into business with the mold-breaking Breen to make things go smoothly. L'ak agreed, partly due to his desire to get payback for his demotion, and partly due to his immediate attraction to Moll.

Moll and L'ak became a courier couple like Burnham and Booker, giving Book hope that he could get through to his new "sister".

Moll and L'ak were eventually found out for their scam, for which the punishment was execution. However, as L'ak couldn't bring himself to kill the woman he loved, he turned on his own people, instead. In response, the Breen placed an "Erigah" on L'ak, a blood bounty that could never be cleared. While Burnham and Booker offered Federation protection from the Breen, Moll and L'ak were unconvinced that they could truly help erase the Erigah.

Related Star Trek: Discovery Stars Eve Harlow & Elias Toufexis Break Down Their Villainous Romance Screen Rant interviews Elias Toufexis and Eve Harlow about joining Star Trek: Discovery and playing season 5's villainous lovers, Moll and L'ak.

6 The Breen Placed A Blood Bounty On Moll And L'ak

"Can they erase an Erigah?"

Although the Erigah was placed on L'ak, Moll refused to leave his side, meaning that the Breen blood bounty was placed on them both. This explains Booker's assessment that the couple were having fun and engaging in "cliffs-edge kind of stuff". Moll and L'ak's devil may care attitude so far in Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is likely driven by the fact that they're on the run for their very lives. Moll and L'ak are so committed to each other that the Breen tells Burnham that he'd "rather die" than be separated from Moll in a Federation prison.

An Erigah is an aspect of Breen culture that wasn't previously mentioned in the species' multiple appearances in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It's therefore unclear how one collects a blood bounty, but Moll, L'ak, Burnham, and Book all seem troubled by the mention of the name. Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 7 is titled "Erigah", so it will presumably shed further light on the blood bounty placed on Moll and L'ak's heads, and who will attempt to collect it.

5 The Breen Atmosphere Is "Quite Comfortable"

Just as DS9's Weyoun said it was.

It's long been speculated that the Breen lived in sub-zero temperatures, with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine characters like Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) and Quark (Armin Shimerman) referring to their planet as a frozen wasteland. While Moll doesn't visit the Breen homeworld in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, she is in their territory and doesn't need to wear any protective clothing to cope with the temperatures. This, therefore, confirms something that Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs) said in DS9 season 7, episode 20, "The Changing Face of Evil".

The Breen were also said to wear refrigeration suits to cope with the higher temperatures of other planets, something which is also seemingly contradicted by Star Trek: Discovery.

The Breen were powerful allies of the Dominion in the latter stages of their war with the Federation Alliance in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. After the Breen and the Dominion had signed their alliance, Weyoun reflected that the temperature on Breen was "quite comfortable". It was always possible that this was wry sarcasm on Weyoun's part. However, the atmosphere inside Star Trek: Discovery's huge Imperium spaceport appears to confirm Weyoun's assessment of the temperature on Breen.

Related Star Trek: The Dominion War Timeline, Explained The Dominion War was the bloodiest conflict in Star Trek history, and its complicated timeline was filled with shocking twists and turns.

4 The Breen Primarch Is L'ak's Uncle

Part of the Yod-Thot royal caste.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 1, "Red Directive" revealed that the Breen Confederacy had become the Breen Imperium in the 800 years since the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Not much was known about the inner workings of the Breen Confederacy in DS9, other than negotiations with the Dominion were led by Thot Gor (Todd Slayton). In the 32nd century, the Breen Imperium is run by the Yod-Thot royal caste, suggesting an ancestral link with DS9's Breen.

One of the key members of the Breen Imperium is Primarch Ruhn (Tony Nappa), the uncle of L'ak in Star Trek: Discovery season 5. The Primarch is disgusted by L'ak's relationship with Moll and his insistence on denying his heritage. L'ak stopped short of murdering his uncle while escaping with Moll, meaning that Primarch Ruhn may return later in Discovery season 5. Especially if Moll and L'ak open negotiations with the Breen Imperium to provide them with the Progenitors' powerful technology.

3 The Breen Imperium Destroy The Federation In An Alternate Future

They're the "wrong hands" that the Progenitors' technology must not fall into.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange" revealed that the Breen took possession of the Progenitors' technology in a timeline where the USS Discovery never defeated the time bug. The Krenim chronophage, left over from the Temporal Wars, was supposed to keep Discovery out of the treasure hunt until Moll and L'ak could secure the Progenitors' technology. The Breen Imperium then used the powers of the Progenitors to destroy the entire Federation in one of the most striking scenes from Discovery season 5, episode 4.

The Breen previously launched an attack on Federation Headquarters in Star Trek: Discovery season 7, episode 20, "The Changing Face of Evil".

At the opening of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, "Mirrors", Burnham and Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) reflected on the stakes of their mission. "Mirrors" also revealed that Moll and L'ak are still determined to use the Progenitors' technology to bargain for their lives with the Breen Imperium. As Moll and L'ak escape the ISS Enterprise at the end of "Mirrors", they are more desperate than ever, making Discovery's bleak future look like a serious possibility.

Related Star Trek: Discovery Reveals A Voyager Enemy Played A Big Role In The Temporal Wars Rayner reveals the links between Star Trek: Discovery's time bug and a deep-cut Star Trek: Voyager enemy, tying them to the Temporal Wars.

2 The Breen DO Bleed

Or leak, at the very least.

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 5, episode 14, "In Purgatory's Shadow", Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) confidently states that the Breen have no liquid circulatory system. Conducting blood screenings to root out Changeling infiltrators in the Dominion prison camp, Bashir says everyone bar the Breen prisoner has been tested because they have "No blood". Star Trek: Discovery appears to reveal that this isn't the case, as L'ak appears to bleed after falling on his own knife during the fight with Burnham.

Given the revelations about the Breens' physiology in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, there are some possible explanations for the contradiction. Firstly, the Breen are an incredibly secretive race, who were largely unknown to the Federation in the 24th century. The Breen prisoner in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine could, therefore, have just been lying to Bashir about not having any blood. The other explanation is that L'ak isn't bleeding, rather he's leaking the gelatinous organic material that constitutes a Breen body.

1 The Breen Have Two Faces

One solid face, one translucent face, both green.

The biggest reveal about the Breen in Star Trek: Discovery is what they keep underneath their helmets. It's stated that a Breen has two faces; one which is translucent and gelatinous, and another which is solid and firmly humanoid. This revelation is delivered as if the viewer was already aware of such a fact, which means that Discovery doesn't dive deeper into the reasons for the Breen having two faces. Primarch Ruhn tells L'ak that the Breen have evolved past their solid forms, and that their translucent form is a sign of strength.

Star Trek: Discovery doesn't reveal what role the Breen's armor plays in maintaining their form, translucent or otherwise. Still, the idea that the Breen's softer, more vulnerable face is stronger than the hard shell is a decent sci-fi concept that will hopefully get further exploration later in Discovery season 5. However, both faces are very clearly humanoid, which heavily implies that they may also originate from the Progenitors. Whether this information will lead to peace between the Breen and the Federation remains to be seen as Star Trek: Discovery season 5 continues.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Streams Thursdays On Paramount+