Star Trek: Discovery's L'ak Actor ‘Sussed Out’ His Character’s Big Twist Early On And Told Us What Made 'Erigah' Difficult To Film
L'ak fans, how're you doing after this episode?
Warning: SPOILERS for the Star Trek: Discovery episode “Erigah” are ahead!
After making a guest appearance as Cold in Star Trek: Discovery Season 1, Elias Toufexis returned for Season 5 to play L’ak, who’s been looking to acquire the Progenitor technology with his lover, Eve Harlow’s Moll, so they can finally stop being fugitives. L’ak stands out as the first Breen to have their face shown in the Star Trek franchise, but just a few episodes after that was revealed, the character is no more. “Erigah,” which just dropped on the 2024 TV schedule, saw L’ak accidentally dying by his own hand. While speaking with CinemaBlend, Toufexis opened up to us about how he “sussed out” this twist was coming early on and what made his scenes in the latest Discovery episode so difficult to film.
Why Elias Toufexis Figured L’ak Was Going To Die
L’ak was injured towards the end of Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth episode, “Mirrors,” and although he and Moll (whom some say looks like Ashoka’s Shin Hati) were able to escape from the ISS Enterprise in a warp pod, the Federation was able to recapture them in “Erigah.” He was in bad shape at the beginning of the episode, but there’s a chance he ultimately could have recovered. Unfortunately, L’ak decided to inject himself with a massive dose of tricordrazine as a distraction so that Moll could escape, but he ended up giving himself an overdose. Here’s what Elias Toufexis told me ahead of “Erigah” releasing to Paramount+ subscribers of how he reacted when he learned about L’ak’s fate:
So Toufexis was smart enough to predict that L’ak wouldn’t make it out of Star Trek: Discovery alive, and the death did indeed worsen the conflict between the Federation and Breen. Primarch Ruhn, L’ak’s uncle, arrived with his Breen troops to Federation headquarters demanding his nephew’s release. The situation was already incredibly tense, with Ruhn prepared to go to war with the Federation if he didn’t get his way, but L’ak’s death pushed him over the edge. As far as what shooting his final moments as L’ak were like, Toufexis said:
As for why Ruhn was so desperate to get L’ak back, it was revealed that the latter was the Scion of the Breen Imperium, i.e. a direct descendant of his species’ emperor. Ruhn needed L’ak in order to properly rule the Breen, but his nephews death ruined that plan. However, after watching the love of her life die, Moll informed Ruhn about the Progenitor tech that she and L’ak had been hoping to trade to the Breen to erase their erigah. Now she’s willing to help the Breen acquire that tech to use against the Federation, though she’s only doing this because she believes it can revive L’ak. In order to avoid war, inspiring captain Michael Burnham and her superiors agreed to hand Moll over, though Booker disapproved of this.
Why Elias Toufexis Had Difficulty Shooting His Scenes In “Erigah”
Whether or not L’ak will be brought back to life by the Progenitor tech remains to be seen, but if this is indeed the character’s last appearance, then it was a pretty inactive finish to his story. Because L’ak was so badly injured in “Erigah,” he was confined to a bio-bed, and as Elias Toufexis explained below, that didn’t make for an easy acting experience:
Yet despite all that discomfort, Toufexis was understanding of why it was necessary for him to be laying down throughout the entirety of this Discovery episode. Besides, he now has an interesting statistic for the role that he can share about his time on “Erigah.” In his words:
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There are now just three Star Trek: Discovery episodes left, so head to Paramount+ these next three stories to see how this corner of the franchise comes to a close. If you’d rather look further ahead into the future, look through the lineup of upcoming Star Trek TV shows.
Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.