Answering a distress call sent my Mol and L’ak, Discovery apprehends the treasure hunters only to find themselves staring down one of several Breen overlords looking to get their hands on the duo leading to a potential revival of war against the devastating power of the Breen.
As Burnham and Vance look for a diplomatic answer to a fight they can’t win, Moll looks for a way to escape (of course!) while Stamets rounds up the troops to try and figure out the final clue, including recruiting a bored and frustrated Book…
The kick off to the episode is fairly straight forward and predictable. Thankfully it does manage to surprise as it goes on. Moll and L’ak need help and think only other couriers can hear their signal. Seeing as Discovery is a Starfleet ship who’;s captain moonlighted as a courier and her former love interest and master smuggler are on board and leading most of the series, it’s the usual bad guy mucks up and gets caught opener.
Neither of them are in good shape, though L’ak is worse and will die without immediate treatment. Which Culber tries to muddle through despite there being no one who really knows how the Breen’s physiology works in the Federation aside from some recovered tech from the Dominion war centuries earlier. Which is a nice touch. Star Trek’s always had the super doctors and super engineers and it’s key point in this episode that the specialists are a bit out of their depth.
Of course heading back to the archives at Federation Headquarters to dig out that old Breen tech also turns out to be a bad idea. The Breen are on the hunt for L’ak after he abandoned his lowly post and are sending a ridiculously oversized and overpowered ship to get him. Not nearly having enough firepower to defend themselves against the dreadnought or a Breen Primark despite Rayner demanding full war
The main plot revolves around that scenario. The Breen demand L’akj be handed over. L’ak has to admit to Burnham that he’s royalty and the only way a Primark can gain control is through him. With Saru gone the diplomacy is down to T’Rina, who has her moment to shine without being part of the romance this season, working with Vance and Burnham to find a way forward that won’t get them killed or have Moll and L’akk’s knowledge of the artefact handed over to the enemy.
That story comes with a lot of surprises. L’ak overdosing as a distraction to get Moll out of sickbay was a bit of a surprise, especially as in the end there was no saving him even with the Breen’s help. Rayner gave a little about his past, revealing to Burnham his anger towards the Breen came down to his world being occupied by them before he fled for Starfleet as the sole survivor of his family.
It took two watches to properly enjoy it all, but the way everything played out and the solution being goading the Primark into letting them protect L’ak so other Primark’s couldn’t stake a claim was an interesting choice. Especially as it let T’Rina have her moment, Burnham to have more tension with Book and for Rayner to turn his anger into a useful tool against the enemies in smug deception.
But it was also just nice to see the Breen advance form the powerful enemy turned sidekicks they were in Deep Space Nine and really show how much of a threat they were now. Moll surrendering herself as L’ak’s wife after his death was also a surprising touch and even with her teasing the Breen with her knowledge of the hunt, it leave s feeling of unease over whether the next three episodes will see her join the Breen or be the insider to help Burnham. After all, without L’ak whats the point in cooperating with the family and culture he hated?
Sure, some elements may have been predictable and it’s Star Trek, we know the good guys (mostly) prevail. But despite some over politeness in portraying how civilised Starfleet were against the war lords, this felt like it had more tension than previous instalments and helped to tie a lot together. Especially giving Moll and L’ak some purpose and Rayner some background.
By and large the antagonists of the season have been mildly pointless and their romance a little dull. Having it all end here, in the middle of a political stand off and suddenly making them matter after dropping bits of information was a nice payoff. Even if I suspect it’;s not the end.
In the sub plot everything was fun, but a little bit of a stretching out the season narrative moment. With only one clue left it is of course a difficult one. A bit of metal with symbols leading to an ancient transcript thats impossible to find. Some of its a bit dull. Though bringing Reno is as an expert of ancient books after Zora tells Adira and Tilly that the engineer used to be a smuggler in her pre-Starfleet days did bring an extra bit of fun to it all.
Overall it was a fairly good episode. Admittedly I didn’t think much of it on a first watch as some clunky dialogue put me off. Rayner doing an exact copy and paste of a speech in Deep Space Nine was one of the most obvious, and as Q2 member John Locke pointed out in our post-episode discussion, Moll’s fight scene of taking out Nahn and literally everyone else with relative ease was a bit silly, and a bit of an overused Hollywood trope these days.
As we get to the end of the series though, in a bigger picture it’s a nice piece of the narrative puzzle and where the next clue leads, we’ll follow into the Badlands with likely some more Deep Space Nine references!
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