Star Trek: Discovery: Erigah
May 9, 2024 10:47 PM - Season 5, Episode 7 - Subscribe

The Federation captures Moll and a badly wounded L'ak, but the Breen come to claim their own.

Memory Alpha is like a bank, but it protects knowledge.

Memorable quotes:

"You haven't lived until you've tried my Seven of Limes" - Reno, talking up her upcoming shift in the bar

"It seemed preferable to claims of a tribble infestation." - President T'Rina getting Burnham an hour to figure out a new plan

Personal log:

Hooray for Nahn's return!

As soon as Book started describing it, I knew we were heading for the Badlands.

Kind of expected Moll to announce that she was carrying the next heir to the Empire.

Anviliciously mentioning (finally) that it's believed the Progenitor's tech can resurrect dead people kinda sets up the last couple of episodes. My money's on resurrecting L'ak, having him ascend the Breen throne, and a change in Breen opinions of the Federation.
posted by hanov3r (15 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I really enjoyed this because of the way it pivots the season and welcomes the Breen as villains to centre stage. The adventure is still happening, but the political machinations here are fun. I do hope if they resurrect someone it's Lak and they don't kill one of our regulars just to resurrect them - though this show has done that a lot in the past, so at least it's consistent. Haha.

Three episodes left and the season is still pretty strong.
posted by crossoverman at 11:44 PM on May 9, 2024 [1 favorite]


This was my favourite episode of the season (the space politics episode is my favourite kind of episode).

I liked the huge Breen ship -- it was just the right level of intimidating without being ridiculous. I also liked that this episode recontextualised the seasonal arc into something more grounded and specific: we started off with a hunt for a McGuffin with unimaginable power which could potentially destroy all humanoid life, or something, and now it's a hunt for a McGuffin to keep it out of the hands of the Breen who are likely to use it as a weapon to attack Starfleet, which is still a high-level threat, but definitely an improvement.

L'ak is totally getting resurrected, right? Sorry, Book's Planet, I don't think the McGuffin can be used more than once.

There's clearly some kind of interesting story behind L'ak's rebellion against his culture, and his visceral disgust with it. If only we could have seen some of it in those flashbacks. This is just an extension of my complaint about how thinly Moll and L'ak's backstory was sketched out -- it's a missed opportunity. I'm getting the impression that we're just supposed to assume that L'ak is a nice guy, and the Breen are terrible, so obviously he wanted to leave, and no further explanation is required. This feels very unsatisfying to me.
posted by confluency at 12:00 AM on May 10, 2024 [4 favorites]


Any episode with Jet Reno is worth my while, I’ll say that much. I kind of like the fact that they’re actually exploring the Breen, and hey, they did in fact call back the DS9 Weyoun bit about the suits keeping them very cold despite the temperate climate of their planet
posted by DoctorFedora at 9:27 PM on May 10, 2024 [3 favorites]


I knew it’s just Trek being Trek, but it was funny that they had to dig up some 800-year-old Breen technology to make things colder so L’ak’s special healing powers could kick in.
posted by jimw at 2:00 PM on May 11, 2024 [2 favorites]


I wish the Breen Doctor who came in would have said something like "What have you got him hooked up to? This is ancient!"

Discovery is doing more Trek references than they ever have before and I am loving the DS9 connections; the Breen were a faction in the Dominion War and the city that Tilly talks about being destroyed was San Francisco! Lucky it got rebuilt by the time of PICARD.
posted by crossoverman at 10:57 PM on May 11, 2024 [2 favorites]


I am so out of sync on which episodes I like compared to y'all. This one was good in that it moved the plot along and brought in some new story. But so many details of the story didn't work for me. L'ak's whole arc now just seems silly. Moll is genuinely tragic though, so that balances out. Anyway, some observations made with love but snark.

Take a shot every time the universal translator doesn't.

The Breen brand themselves when married? Intense but... OK. But then.. they brand themselves on their skin, underneath the suits they always wear? You'd think the public affirmation of the bond would be more visible somehow. Maybe it's exactly the opposite, something just for each other.

Who were those two Federation security guys? They looked like mooks from central casting. And were entirely useless when shit went down, even Dr. Culber got more space judo hits in than they did.

I'm glad they found an excuse to keep Tilly around. And nice to see Commander Nhan back for an episode. Shame about the fight director for her fisticuffs with Moll, that scene looked ridiculous.

Jett Reno continues to be the best. I love she worked as an antiquities smuggler. Of course she did. I am fascinated by the lines she delivers, the writing is very un-Trek in its ironic remove. The Seven of Limes gag was hilarious, if a bit anachronistic given she started bartending 100 years before Seven of Nine was reborn as Borg. There were a couple of other hilarious lines too, like the holodeck adventure for The Littles. Does Notaro write her own dialog? Big stand-up wisecrack vibes.
posted by Nelson at 7:27 AM on May 13, 2024 [1 favorite]


“Seven of Limes” did get me laughing for sure, glad they have Notaro on here.

Starfleet’s decisionmaking in this episode seems really flaky and contingent, written like it’s a volunteer gig or at-will employment for these folks. Burnham wins a 30 second argument with her admiral over an entire strategic approach to protecting HQ, Tilly is interrupted in the middle of wandering off from her assignment to be convinced to hang around anyway, previously-fired Rayner mouths off to his boss, boss’s boss, and boss’s boss’s boss in a meeting, and Book is allowed to visit with prisoners over the objections of security and even participate in the closing roundtable conversation with top brass. I understand using insubordination to a hierarchical organization for dramatic effect but it doesn’t need to be Every Single Time. Does Starfleet even hold a state monopoly on violence in this?
posted by migurski at 8:44 AM on May 13, 2024 [5 favorites]


This episode was a mixed bag only because I'm tired of L'ak and Moll, and L'ak dying because he accidentally goofed up his distraction was just a bit over the top. Moll just keeps reminding me of Pris from Blade Runner and that's distracting. They've become the Nicki and Paoulo of Discovery for me with the best episodes so far this season being the ones they've had less time in.

I did enjoy the Breen confrontation and what have you. The one thing I'm not really looking forward to would be a Breen vs Federation space battle because at the moment, it feels too reminiscent of Starfleet vs Borg, given how big their ship is.
posted by Atreides at 11:03 AM on May 13, 2024


The Seven of Limes gag was hilarious, if a bit anachronistic

I also noticed this and rewatched that segment. Reno mentions this cocktail immediately after revealing that she currently guest-bartends at the ship's bar, which implies that this is a contemporary drink which she has learned from someone at some point since the time jump.

Memory Alpha has the full quote.
posted by confluency at 3:40 PM on May 13, 2024 [3 favorites]


I'm glad people are enjoying this season, and I've been a Discovery defender in the past, but so far this season is only fine for me. The credulity of the action is too consistently strained in the name of the plot. Like, keeping two people locked in a room is still beyond the capabilities of the 32nd century. I actually liked it that their half-baked plan back fired. I think in general (like other people have mentioned) a lot of the details, from the content of the love story, to the logic of the political decision making, always feels too high level to feel believable, and ultimately invested in. Also I have no idea why the progenitor's tech is so obviously a super weapon? Maybe it's just some cool science?

Though to be honest, Season 4 was the only season where I didn't feel like this at some point (hence why it was my favourite season)... I usually start to get impatient with Disco about two-thirds the way through the season, but then I find they usually stick the landing. Let's see how this last one goes.
posted by Alex404 at 12:07 AM on May 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


Also I have no idea why the progenitor's tech is so obviously a super weapon? Maybe it's just some cool science?

It is because we've been told it is...for whatever that's worth. I wouldn't mind a "no, actually" like you're suggesting, tbh. But I guess we can extrapolate that a technology that can successfully seed engineered life on multiple planets throughout a galaxy can potentially end life, too. I guess we're supposed to see the Progenitors' tech as being capable of controlling life and death on a god-like scale. When watching the TNG episode, I don't feel like they came across as god-like beings, say like the Q, but more just "Hey, we did this science thing to create humanoids like us!"
posted by Atreides at 7:58 AM on May 15, 2024 [1 favorite]


The Breen are really kind of dumb; it's like the Klingons with the different houses jousting for the Big Chair only without all the stuff that make the Klingons cool and fun. And the Progenitor tech is supposed to bring L'ak back? In what way? Unless the Breen have a katra like Vulcans (and Romulans, I guess), they're basically just cloning him, right? Unless this Progenitor tech is some serious space magic. Waaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiit... are they gonna end up "solving" this by turning the tech on the Breen so that they too have Progenitor genes and make them part of the Grand Siblinghood of Humanoid Persons? Would they do that? Are the Tholians eventually gonna get humanoided, too?
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:02 AM on May 27, 2024 [1 favorite]


I think the Breen are already humanoid, we are all Progenitor's Creatures. But maybe this tech is good news for the Crystalline Entity and the Organians! Finally their corporeal forms can resemble rubber suits that a human actor can wear.
posted by Nelson at 7:08 AM on May 27, 2024 [1 favorite]


L'ak is basically on ice, so I guess the idea is that she'll download his transporter signature and then the Progenitor's tech will work like a super defibrillator. Guess we find out tomorrow!
posted by Atreides at 2:23 PM on May 29, 2024


How does branding work on a species that spend most of their time in gelatinous form? I get that L'ak chooses to stay in flesh form 100% of the time, so he can have a brand, but I was under the impression that everyone in those suits are just Jell-O people. Speaking of which, why didn't L'ak's body revert into goo when he died? In the flashback episode, Ruhn said that choosing to stay in solid form reduced focus. So if it is an act of will, one would presume death would result in reversion to goo form, unless L'ak had been flesh so long it became permanent, which is a whole 'nother can o worms.
posted by Saxon Kane at 4:52 PM on September 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


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