3 Body Problem is a bold new science fiction thriller from Alexander Woo and Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. The Netflix series is based on a series of novels written by Cixin Liu. Let’s break down what happened in 3 Body Problem episode 1...
We begin in Beijing in 1966 during a university protest. Ye Zhetai, a physics professor, is forced to his knees in front of a crowd while the masses chant about revolution. His wife is brought to the stage by a zealous young soldier; she denounces her husband for teaching against the political party’s beliefs, namely, that science does not allow for the presence of God. The crowd calls for blood as the young soldier starts attacking him while his young daughter, Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng), watches in horror as he’s beaten and, eventually, killed. Wenjie is heartbroken, cradling her father’s body. The female soldier returns, gun in hand. Wenjie is under arrest.
Back in the present, Clarence Shi (Benedict Wong) arrives at a crime scene where a physicist, Dr. Sadiq Mohammed, was found dead. Numbers are scribbled on the wall along with a message: “I still see it.” One of the other officers says that the crime mirrors "the others," with no suicide note and his eyes gouged from his head.
At the Oxford particle accelerator, Dr. Vera Ye finds Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo) at his desk. She reminds him that the program was shut down but he says the power will be on until midnight. He wants to find a solution because “science is broken” and all of their theories from the past 60 years have been wrong. She’s convinced that if anyone can figure out what’s happening, it’s Saul. She asks if he believes in God. He says no. She looks stricken as he says science doesn’t allow for God. “So what’s left?” she asks. She leaves the room and heads to the giant power chamber that looks like something out of The X-Men. She opens the gate and plunges to her death.
Mixed messages
Jin Cheng (Jess Hong) and Auggie Salazar (Eiza González) are listening to bad karaoke. A man hits on them and asks what they do. Auggie develops synthetic fibers and Jin is a theoretical physicist. That sends him packing. Jin says that about a month prior all of the particle accelerators started returning information that doesn’t make sense. As she looks around, Auggie starts to see lights flashing in front of her eyes. Outside, Auggie has a cigarette and studies the data Jin shows her. It doesn’t make sense. Jin says everything has been inspected and nothing is wrong with them. These experiments are designed to teach them how the universe works, but the data coming out of the accelerators is “like Alice in Wonderland.”
Jin’s phone rings. It’s Saul. Clearly they have some kind of past relationship because she rolls her eyes and silences the call. When he calls back, Auggie tells Jin to take it. Suddenly Auggie sees numbers flashing in front of her eyes. Jin interrupts her, telling her that Vera Ye just killed herself.
Clarence looks at his evidence board, studying the names of all the scientists who have died and the people they’re connected to. Jin, Auggie, Saul, Will Downing (Alex Sharp) and Jack Rooney (John Bradley) are listed.
Jack asks Will if he’s excited to see Jin, but Will points out that this is hardly the time to think about that. Will shakes his head as Jack opens his jacket and pulls out a bag of crisps. Though he studied with the rest of them, he now makes millions from selling snacks. He tells Will that Jin has a new boyfriend, but he’s “probably a squid.”
Outside, Jin greets her boyfriend, Raj Varma (Saamer Usmani), who’s actually a high-ranking member of the military. Saul arrives and Jin fixes his tie, signalling that they were close at one point. Jin greets Vera’s mom, offering her condolences. Auggie is running late; she keeps seeing the numbers everywhere, even when her eyes are closed. When Auggie arrives, Jin asks if she saw the neurologist but the doctors have no idea what’s happening. Billionaire Mike Evans (Jonathan Pryce) arrives, approaching Vera’s casket for a few moments before leaving.
Clarence is in his car taking photos of the guests at the funeral. He spots Evans and follows his car to a nearby helicopter waiting in a field. He takes a few photos before it flies away.
After the funeral, all of the friends meet at a pub. Jack mentions Auggie’s company, saying that they’re all going to be coming to her for loans when the company goes public. Jack picks up on the tension between Auggie and Saul, suspecting that there’s something happening with them, but in reality Auggie keeps seeing the numbers. Auggie runs outside for a smoke and a mysterious woman (Marlo Kelly) joins her. The woman immediately starts talking about the stars and how the world isn’t hopeless. Auggie tries to dismiss her but when she suddenly asks “how much time do you have left,” referring to the countdown, she says that it will stop if Auggie shuts down the nanofibers lab. The woman offers proof: the next day, at midnight, the universe will wink at her. She hands Auggie a package of cigarettes with a cereal box decoder ring in it and tells her not to let the countdown get to zero because bad things will happen. She slips away into the night.
Silent Spring
We move to Inner Mongolia in 1966, where Wenjie was imprisoned at a labor camp where trees were being cut down in a forest. It’s cold and the work is hard, but she labors along with everyone else. She studies a felled tree and a man, Bai Mulin, asks how old it is. He’s working for the local paper but he’s not talking to her on record. He just wants to talk. They hear a noise coming from the hill nearby where a giant satellite is positioned. He says that he’s climbed the mountain but no one knows what they do there. He offers her a book, Silent Spring, and tells her it reveals what the future could be. He says she can keep it, but she can’t let anyone see it.
Wenjie reads at night, breezing through the English effortlessly. Over the following days and weeks, she and Mulin grow closer, to the point of them holding hands and making love in stolen moments away from her work. During the days she grapples with the trees they’re cutting down and its impact on the environment.
She returns to her bunk at one point and finds her book missing. Two soldiers come in demanding to know where she got it. Mulin is there and she doesn’t tell on him. She’s taken to the division headquarters, where a high ranking official comes to her cell and says she knows that she’s as talented as her father. They could use her knowledge but she would have to sign papers and take a political class to absolve her sins. Wenjie refuses to sign. The woman dumps a bucket of freezing water on her and walks away.
Later, Wenjie is taken to the top of the hill. Even the soldiers escorting her are wary of the place. The soldiers who greet her ask if she wrote a scientific paper, and when she can recite the information in it, they tell her that they need her talents. If she goes inside, though, she will be forced to stay at the base for the rest of her life. She’ll take it.
Connecting the dots
Back in present-day London, Clarence gets a call from Thomas Wade (Liam Cunningham) and gives him an update on the case. He’s got strange footage of Auggie after the funeral and footage of Evans leaving in a helicopter, though they don’t know where he went despite all of the satellites and systems in place.
At Vera’s house, Vera’s mom (Rosalind Chao) and Jin set up an altar for Vera. As they go through some of her things, Jin says she doesn’t understand why Vera killed herself. “That wasn’t Vera,” she says. Vera’s mom agrees, saying her work wasn’t going well. Jin says that Vera had asked them all about God, but Vera’s mom insists that they were not believers. All Vera was interested in was a video game. She gives Jin the strange metallic helmet, and Jin asks if she can have it. As she’s leaving, Jin spots a picture of Vera’s mom on the wall and asks if that was her. “In another life,” she says. Vera’s mom is Wenjie Ye.
Back in 1966, young Wenjie watches the satellite in action. As it projects its signal, hundreds of birds are drawn to it and die once they get close. She asks what the target of the signal was but gets no answer.
After taking her meds, Jin puts the helmet on and finds herself in a virtual reality game that is startlingly realistic. There’s a temple ahead of her with a rising sun. As it rises, the earth turns to fire and she sees a charred body there. She rips the helmet off her head, pulling her from the game.
Clarence studies a photo of someone wearing one of the same helmets. Wade is very interested in the helmet and wants to get one, believing it to hold answers to what they’re looking for. Clarence tells his associate that with science being broken, it’s a terrible time to be a scientist.
Auggie and Saul sit on the stairs at Oxford. He’s high, but he asks her about the message from the weird woman. Auggie tells him that the decoder ring is from a cereal that hasn’t been made since 1963. She mentions the stars winking, but she doesn’t want to tell him anything else so he’s not biased. As midnight approaches, they look to the sky.
Back in 1966, Wenjie meets with her superiors who tell her that she’s being given special access to information about the Red Coast Project despite her political affiliations.
In the present, Auggie and Saul look to the sky in total shock.
In 1966, Wenjie knows that Red Coast isn’t a weapon. The emissions from the satellite are modulated because it was made for communication.
Auggie and Saul watch as the stars light up brightly, then they flash on and off.
Clarence runs to the roof, where Wade is also looking at the sky. He says the blinking stars are from their enemy.
Saul realizes that the stars are blinking in a code. It’s not letters, just numbers. The numbers match the numbers Auggie is seeing.
The complete first season of 3 Body Problem is available to stream on Netflix now.
