Okay, I was certain for a quite a while that L'ak's death was a fakeout...up to a certain point. L'ak said Moll wasn't going to like his plan, which made me think that dying, or appearing to die, was part of it.
But...that was before a Breen medic showed up to help - they should be a lot harder to fool than Culber, who has only a rudimentary understanding of Breen physiology. And the episode certainly framed it as real. And they've dangled a possible motivation for Moll, in a desire to use the Progenitor technology to revive him.
And yet something still screams "bluff" to me. Thoughts?
I really think they just overplayed their hand, and he really did overdose by accident - or because he thought it was the only way for Moll to get away. I don't believe either of them are basing a strategem on the Progenitor tech actually being able to resurrect him, but Moll is desperate now, so she's willing to believe it might work because it's the only hope she has left.
They have gone out of their way to portray L'ak as a doofus (and writer Carlos Cisco even gave an interview where he suggested that Breen are dumber in their fleshy form), so you may be right.
It's definitely a a nice nod to the character. If bar patrons 600 years later still get the reference, that speaks well of her lasting influence on the Federation.