After last week’s shocking and gory display, 3 Body Problem gets calm and meditative in this episode, “The Stars Our Destination,” which deals with the aftermath of the announcement to the world, as Jin pledges to help Wade with a dangerous mission as Auggie is racked with guilt.
Please Remain Calm | The world is taking the announcement of aliens rather predictably- with mass panic and riots while world leaders, President Biden among them, urge calm and instate a worldwide curfew, even setting up a website called The Stars Our Destination to help- not that that stops mass suicides in the streets.
Sometime later, Clarence (Benedict Wong) brings Jin (Jess Hong) to see Ye (Rosalind Chao), who hasn’t said a word in weeks. Jin angrily demands to know why Ye betrayed mankind and when Ye confesses to trying to save mankind from itself, Jin storms out and calls her a traitor to her species and that she’s going to fight back.
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Wade (Thomas Cunningham) assembles the brightest minds alive in a mansion with supplies and a deck of cards and hatches a plan to launch a probe into space to intercept the incoming alien fleet, but Nobel laureates claim that it would take 390 years for the probe to reach them and the aliens arrive in 400. They claim that the probe reaching even one percent of light speed is nearly impossible, but Wade isn’t taking no for an answer and asks Jin to find a way to boost the probe’s speed using only existing technology.
Project Staircase | With Raj (Saamer Usmani) guarding the mansion 24/7, Jin approaches the council of the greatest minds and proposes her plan: By placing nuclear bombs strategically throughout space towards the alien fleet and sending a small probe on that path, the detonating nukes will boost the probe’s path to catch up to 2 percent light speed. While the council scoffs at how much it will cost, not to mention the countless treaties it will violate, Wade gives the project the green light.
Raj talks to Wade about a secret project to build spaceships to find the aliens and wants in on it. Wade approves him for the project immediately, but tells him at the last minute that the ships will be built on the moon. Jin goes to see Auggie (Eiza Gonzalez), who is keeping Saul (Jovan Adepo) and Will (Alex Sharp) company and tells her what she’s planning, but Auggie is still fuming over Panama and that Jin is working for the man responsible. Jin has no idea what she’s talking about and Auggie asks her to find out the truth from Raj. Regardless, Jin asks Auggie for her nanotech to use for the probe, but Auggie refuses outright.
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Last Rites | After Jin leaves, Saul and Auggie both try to convince Will to go to London to tell Jin that he’s in love with her. Will finally gets up the courage to get on a train, just as Jin gets the truth about Panama from Raj and is horrified that Raj is okay with the result of the mission while Auggie is breaking down in tears about it.
Will goes to Jin’s apartment just in time to see Jin and Raj hugging it out and making peace, as Will walks away. Clarence visits Ye in her cell to ask why Vera killed herself, but Ye demands to leave custody since she hasn’t been charged with a crime. Wade approves the release, but wants a full report on her whereabouts.
Jin visits Wade and asks him why the aliens wouldn’t just destroy the probe and he says that they will pick it up because they are sending a human being into space. Auggie, at Will’s request, changes her mind and goes to the mansion to help Wade. Ye reruns to her house and promises to herself that she will fight back against the aliens. Will goes to the headquarters for The Stars Our Destination and pledges to use the fortune left to him by Jack to buy a star.
3 Body Problem is now streaming on Netflix.