How L'ak's Costume In Star Trek: Discovery Sneakily Hinted At His True Identity

This post contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Discovery."

In its final season, "Star Trek: Discovery" has reintroduced a species of aliens that "Star Trek" fans haven't seen in live-action in decades. The Breen, a mysterious warrior race that first appeared in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," have made their surprise return in recent weeks thanks to the gooier half of ill-fated courier duo Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis).

In their original incarnation, the Breen appeared clad in metal helmets with snout-like protrusions and green laser-like eye bands. They were typically covered up in outfits featuring diagonal metal bands, and though characters on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" often made offhand comments about what the then-unseen aliens might be like, little was explained about their culture in the 20th century "Star Trek" shows. Enter "Discovery," which has a long track record of building upon and deepening existing in-universe lore. The final season's fifth episode revealed L'ak (who died soon after, R.I.P. to a real one) as a member of the Breen, but according to costume designer Anthony Tran, the clues to his identity were there all along.

In a recent episode of the "Trek" aftershow "The Ready Room With Wil Wheaton," Tran explained how he came up with the costumes for Moll and L'ak, who he said were described to him as "a futuristic Bonnie and Clyde." While he cited biker gangs as the main inspiration for the duo's outfits, Tran also noted that he was able to design L'ak's getup with the Breen in mind after being told where the season was headed. "L'ak, knowing that he was a Breen from the beginning and trying to nod to that, we look at the tubing that we also used in our Breen as kind of the idea of this kind of coolant refrigeration thing," Tran explained, showing off the details of the costume.

Writer Carlos Cisco explained the thought process behind L'ak's "refrigeration suits" further on the podcast "The 7th Rule" (via ScreenRant):

"The thinking was that the Breen always had these refrigeration suits, at least as far as we'd seen them. Our thinking was the Breen as sort of a natural species were bifurcated in the sense that they can be both gelatinous and solid in that sense. But the solid state takes an intense amount of focus and concentration in order to maintain. And it was basically there as this is your protective shell. This is how you stay safe."

According to Cisco, the show's writers decided that, over time, the Breen had evolved away from showing their "solid face," going so far as to nickname the current version of the Breen audiences are seeing as "the Jelly Breens." It's those Breen who, like L'ak, are able to show off a funky gelatinous version of their own faces. Since Tan knew L'ak was a Breen, he was able to design the costumes to include nods to the "Deep Space Nine" version of the beings, including plenty of diagonal metal tubing that looks like an updated version of the outfits from the very '90s TV show. "All of his seams are all kind of diagonal, which again was meant to kind of give a subtle nod to the Breen, as was this kind of grid texture that comes from the 'Deep Space Nine' Breen," Tran explained.

Interestingly, this is actually the second time the Breen have popped up in a modern "Star Trek" series. "Star Trek: Lower Decks" portrayed the species back in late season 3, though the animated series' vision of the species was more in line with the "Deep Space Nine" version of the Breen, glowing green snout masks and all.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery" premiere Thursdays on Paramount+, with the series finale set to arrive on May 30, 2024.