9 Ups & 1 Down From Star Trek: Discovery 5.8 — Labyrinths

A gigantic UP for Eve Harlow this week and her exceptional performance as Moll. Through the subtlest of facial expressions to the most powerful of emotional displays, Harlow adeptly portrays her character's absolute devotion for L'ak, and her steadfast resolve to restore him to life with the help and the hope of the Progenitors' technology. Moll and L'ak continue to be the power couple of the season, in spite of the death of the latter, perhaps even more so with the shift in power dynamics the Scion's demise has caused within the Breen. No offense, Elias. We do want you back too!

What Moll manages so cleverly in Labyrinths is to recognise a certain disquiet amongst the Breen troops when faced with the increasingly irrational Primarch Ruhn, who is only out for himself on a crazed quest for dominance. Over the course of the episode, Moll carefully takes this disquiet and transforms it into dissent. In all that we also learn there is, contrary to popular belief, a lot of nuance to the Breen. And just who is this Lieutenant Arisar?

For one, the Breen have a deep respect for their culture and history. As Hy'Rell informed us, they were contributing members of the Archive, which also stored "several priceless Breen artefacts". The thought of destroying the Archive was anathema to the Breen, as were threats against the life of the wife of the Scion. In his hubris, Ruhn defied this, and paid the price. Moll shoots him dead, and then leads a chant for L'ak: "Long will he reign!"

Nicely done! I'd say it was Machiavellian, but I think it might simply be Moll!