History Recap / StarTrekDiscoveryS5E05Mirrors

* ArtEvolution: The Breen armor and helmets have been redesigned and updated from their [=DS9=]-era template, removing the prominent nose-like protrusion but keeping the green visor line (both to account for the TimeSkip since the 24th Century and also likely to less resemble Boussh from ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' this time around).

* AffectionateNickname: Moll dubs L'ak "green eye" in flashbacks based on the design of Breen helmets.

* NumberTwo: Rayner steps into this role fully, leading the ''Discovery'' bridge crew in collaboratively solving the problem of wedging open the wormhole aperture. He has also embraced his place on the ship: when asked how it felt to sit in the captain's chair, he replies, "That's for the captain." And, indeed, throughout the entire crisis, he never sits down in it, instead supervising it from over the chair's shoulder. Whether this is due to an acknowledgement of his role or an unwillingness to get too comfortable in the center seat, it's relatively unprecedented in the history of the franchise.

* ADayInTheLimelight: For the Breen Confederacy (or rather, the Breen Imperium as they are known by 32nd century), as L'ak and Moll's flashbacks provide long-needed world-building for the Breen (such as more details about their government and ''finally'' answering what they look like beneath their helmets).

* ADayInTheLimelight: For the Breen Confederacy (or rather, the Breen Imperium as their known by 32nd century), as L'ak and Moll's flashbacks provide long-needed world-building for the Breen (such as more details about their government and ''finally'' answering what they look like beneath their helmets).

** L'ak is Breen, specifically part of a royal family. He and Moll are attempting to buy their way out of an Erigah, a type of bounty reserved for high crimes that L'ak incurred for attacking his uncle to save Moll when their romance was discovered. Moll also wants to escape to a safe haven in the Gamma Quadrant, which her father promised to take her to before just disappearing from her life without warning.

* ADayInTheLimelight: For the Breen Confederacy, as L'ak and Moll's flashbacks provide long-needed world-building for the Breen (such as more details about their government and ''finally'' answering what they look like beneath their helmets).

* GoingToGiveItMoreEnergy: To solve the problem of Burnham about to fly an entire starship through a wormhole barely the size of the shuttle, the crew brainstorms until Rhys hits on the idea of feeding even more anti-matter into the reaction that causes the aperture to dilate periodically. This will stabilize the wormhole and force it open wide enough for the ''Enterprise'' to fly through, but only for one minute, after which it will permanently collapse.

** When Book walks in on Burnham in the final scene of the episode, she has a Memory Alpha file called up and is reading about the Female Changeling who served as the BigBad of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Aside from the fact that the Breen joined her version of the Dominion, the significance of this research is not known.
*** Based on the bit of white robe we see, that's more likely the Progenitor we see at the end of "The Chase."

* WhamEpisode: Fan speculation on the true nature of the Breen and what they look like has been going on since [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]. In this episode, we discover the truth: L'ak is a Breen. The Breen themselves have two appearances they can shift between: one is a corporeal biological form, and the other is a translucent green form that may be liquid or non-corporeal as it is treated as a superior advancement from their fleshy form.

* WhamEpisode: Fan speculation on the true nature of the Breen and what they look like has been going on since DS9. In this episode, we discover the truth: L'ak is a Breen. The Breen themselves have two appearances they can shift between: one is a corporeal biological form, and the other is a translucent green form that may be liquid or non-corporeal as it is treated as a superior advancement from their fleshy form.

** Possibly, Burnham describes an Erigah as a Breen "blood bounty", and L'ak bleeds after getting stabbed -- despite the fact that Breen were previously stated not to have blood (unless that was a misconception, along with the belief that their homeworld was a frozen wasteland). Alternatively, L'ak's conscious use of his solid form may be the reason for this, as Ruhn stated that L'ak was weaker and more vulnerable than the other Breen by using that state.
** The I.S.S. ''Enterprise'' is presented in a mid-2250s configuration like she was on ''Discovery'' and ''Strange New Worlds'', despite being in the more familiar ''TOS'' look in her last appearance in "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E4MirrorMirror Mirror, Mirror]]"--and it's doubtful that anyone had time to refit her back to that old look while they were trying to book it out of the Mirror Universe. That being said, it was far cheaper to reuse the existing ''SNW'' sets and models rather than recreate the ''TOS'' sets from scratch.

* BizarreAlienBiology: Breen are green humanoids capable of surviving in multiple environments. They also have two faces: a solid state one and a fluid state that the Breen think of as their true face. While L'ak argues that both are part of their true form, being half of their nature, Primarch Ruhn claims that the Breen have evolved past their more solid state and that taking on that form just makes them weak. In hindsight, this explains why the Female Changelings was more comfortable around them than other "Solids", as they share a similar nature.