David Benioff Explains How ‘3 Body Problem’ Made Episode 5 “Judgment Day” Even More Shocking Than in the Book

There is a sequence in Netflix‘s 3 Body Problem that repeatedly made me scream out loud in horror, even though I already knew exactly what was about to happen since I had read Liu Cixin’s original book years ago. Of course, I’m talking about what happens midway in 3 Body Problem Episode 5 “Judgment Day,” which proves — along with the gory end of Episode 3 — that former Game of Thrones showrunners, current 3 Body Problem co-creators and episode writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss still have what it takes to thrill audiences with shocking deaths and surprisingly timed horror.

**Spoilers for 3 Body Problem Episode 5 “Judgment Day,” now streaming on Netflix**

Halfway through 3 Body Problem Episode 5 “Judgment Day,” Thomas Wade (Liam Cunningham) and Raj Varma (Saamer Usmani) use the groundbreaking nano-technology developed by Auggie Salazar (Eiza González) to attack Judgment Day, the floating fortress Mike Evans (Jonathan Pryce) uses to stay in contact with the San-Ti (or Trisolarians, as the alien race is known as in Ken Liu’s English translation of the book). As we learned last week, civilians devoted to Evans’ and Ye Wenjie’s (Rosalind Chao) cult live on the ship, including children. While Liu’s version of The Three-Body Problem describes what happens next — its scientist protagonist cleverly sets up their ultra thin, unimaginably strong nanothread tech on either side of the Panama Canal to shred the ship to ribbons as it passes — only 3 Body Problem forces us to see the gruesome human cost. What results is a harrowing sequence of true horror with tons of blood, guts, and the horrific screams of children.

(The last time I felt so much dread watching something only to be even more horrified by the adaptation’s version of events? Uh, a little moment called the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones, folks!)

When Decider sat in on a press roundtable with 3 Body Problem co-showrunners David Benioff, D. B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo, Benioff explained how they pulled the terrifying sequence off.

“I think when you actually see something on a screen, it is going to be more horrific in the book,” Benioff said. “You’re reading these descriptions, but you’re not seeing blood. You’re not seeing a bunch of kids running away, you’re not seeing children’s backpacks getting split in half.”

“One of our favorite shots in the whole sequence is seeing the paper legs fluttering down which isn’t bloody at all, but it conveys so much.”

Benioff explained that it was important for them to “convey the horror” of what was happening aboard Judgment Day to force the audience to confront atrocities our heroes were willing to do, and if it was worth it to save humanity.

“It’s a massive scene that’s supposed to be memorable in part because these are supposedly the good guys, right? Humanity is fighting back against those who are in league with an alien force who’s coming to invade our planet and yet they’re perfectly willing to destroy a ship which contains one thousand people, many of whom are innocent children,” Benioff said. “And that the repercussions of that carry on throughout the season.”

Benioff is referring to the fact that of all the Oxford Five, Auggie soon seems the most disillusioned with helping Wade protect humanity from the San-Ti. Even though Will Downing (Alex Sharp) briefly convinces her to help their friend Jin Cheng (Jess Hong) bring her ambitious Project Staircase to life, Auggie eventually rejects allowing her scientific breakthroughs to be co-opted for military use, or indeed commercial use. The season ends with her breaking from Wade’s shadowy organization, sharing her patents with the world, and embedding herself with poor communities to use her tech to help people on the ground.

Benioff teased that he and Weiss and Woo hope they can follow Auggie’s evolution on this score “ideally into later seasons.”

“Auggie, who’s witness to this, is completely shattered by the fact that she was complicit in the murder of innocents,” he said.

As for how to bring this atrocity to life, Benioff admitted they had “get into the nitty gritty of exactly how much you want to show and how much blood.” He attributed the success of the sequence to episode director Minkie Spiro, “who did an insane job with that,” and production designer Deborah Riley.

“I think about all these meetings we had in the corridors of the ship…walking back and forth,” Benioff said. “We had these LED strips set up that replicated the speed of the wires, you know, as the ship passes through. Like how the wires are coming and just having to figure out how everything is sliced because every meter, so about every 3 ft there is, there is a nanofiber cutting through everything, whether it’s a human being or a poster on the wall or cafeteria trays, anything.”

“It was an incredible amount of prep work and then an incredible amount of post work from the VFX team And you know, the joy of making a TV show is the collaboration with all these talented people who are really good at their jobs. And for us, our job is just to try to tell them what we’re looking for and often they come up with something way better than what we had in mind.”

It probably goes without saying that if Benioff, Weiss, and Woo wanted us to feel the full horror of what Auggie had done — and why she might go on a different journey than her surviving Oxford Five peers in the future — it’s mission accomplished.