‘3 Body Problem’ Season 1 Finale Recap: “Wallfacer”

Even without prior knowledge of Liu Cixin’s Three-Body Problem or the award-winning novel’s two sequels, plot points of which have already entered the TV bloodstream of 3 Body Problem, viewers anticipating the Episode 8 Season 1 finale could not possibly have expected creators David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo to conclude a season this sprawling with a bow tied around the adventures of humanity against an omniscient alien aggressor. The showrunners even said as much in a recent interview – even they don’t know if they’re getting a second season, but uncertainty over Netflix’s sometimes bizarre renewal decisions and continued access to its cash hopper has never stopped them from realizing their adaptational vision. 3 Bod P’s first season concludes with some promising moves toward global defense, as well as significant setbacks. But a series main character doesn’t say something like “We’ve got a lot of work to do” at the end of the show if it doesn’t plan on showing him actually doing the work. And that’s not all Da Shi says to Jin Cheng and Saul Durand. Stomping, poisoning, zapping – humans have been trying to eradicate insect populations forever. Nothing worked. In 3 Body Problem as in real life, broods are resilient. The San-Ti might think we’re bugs. But bugs don’t die easy.

“If one of us survives, we all survive.” It’s a popular mantra among the San-Ti faithful, people like a pre-sliced Mike Evans or Tatiana, their earthly dirty deeds doer. But it applies to humans, too. While Saul struggles to defend his cynical views about the alien threat to Nora (Lily Newmark), a woman he spent the night with, she is suddenly and shockingly killed in a car collision. This was not a random incident. It was orchestrated by sophons, which hacked the vehicles’ autonomous systems. Nora was an innocent, but she died in battle. Saul was their true target. Because if he survives, humanity has a greater chance to defeat the San-Ti. Whisked by Da Shi from London to New York City, Saul finds himself in Assembly Hall at the United Nations. “The sophons see and hear whatever they want, whenever they choose,” says CCH Pounder as UN Secretary General Lilian Joseph. But while they can kill us by crashing cars, they can’t read our minds. And alongside a Kurdish war hero and a Chinese army general, Saul becomes the Planetary Defense Council’s third official Wallfacer. 

Now, even though we’re talking about fate of humanity stuff, this is a funny, well-written sequence. From Joseph, to her associate Sebastian Kent (Josh Brener), to his new personal security attaché Da Shi, none of the officials Saul encounters can say out loud why he’s been chosen for the Wallfacer Program. They can’t even write it down, because that would further compromise mission security. As Wallfacers, Saul Durand, Professor Leyla Ariç (Salem Hadeed), and General Hou Bolin (Clem Cheung) will be given unlimited resources in their effort to strategize against the alien threat. But those plans, however wild or incomprehensible, must stay completly inside their respective palaces of the mind. It’s the only way for their thoughts and plans to remain pure and private from San-Ti meddling, until it’s time to execute. “We can only do what Mr. Durand instructs us,” Kent says during one of these opaque back-and-forth moments. (It’s all very Catch-22-esque.) But Saul understands the gravity of the situation when a human sniper beholden to the San-Ti tries to snuff him out. Even if he denies the Wallfacer position – which he does – and even if the public knows he did, it’s a matter of what people believe he is working on inside his mind. And, adds Secretary General Joseph, what “non-people” believe, too. Saul is the chaos agent of Wallfacer.

Not being able to share your thoughts with anyone, even the people closest to you, that’s a tuffy. (At one point Saul starts to express something to Jin, then hesitates; can’t do that anymore, buddy.) But what if all you had left were thoughts? What if thoughts were all you were? What if you were just a head, the impulses in your brain chemically chilled and slowed, and you were flying through space, with your soft matter secure in a cryo tube as nuclear bombs detonated and consistently increased your speed? That’s the afterlife trajectory of Will Downing after his neural self is launched into space. Jin’s Staircase Project sees the successful deployment of Auggie’s nanosail, and pushes the probe past three successful detonations until it’s cruising toward the San-Ti fleet at 80 kilometers per second. But when a structural malfunction causes the probe to falter, Jin can only watch from the control room at Cape Canaveral as Will’s disembodied brain becomes a speck in the vast reaches of space. Staircase was worth a try. And Will wanted to go. But it’s a tough break for Jin and Will’s protracted love story. 

Da Shi told Saul that Ye Wenjie was found murdered in China, so we can assume that was Tatiana, doing the bidding of her alien overlords. Ye’s joke about Einstein with his violin causing the ire of God the saxophonist was aso cryptic at best. But doesn’t the “Never play with God” punchline make more sense in light of Saul’s new position as a Wallfacer? In other words, what did Ye Wenjie know about Saul, the aliens, and humanity’s fight against them, and when did she truly know it? The San-Ti certainly are not done with Tatiana, who discovers a custom game headset in her camper van and is presumably given new instructions in the alien fight against the Planetary Defense Council. And while Da Shi shows Jin and Saul the cicada broods of Florida – bugs might be slow, dumb, and easily squashed, but they never go away easily – Thomas Wade’s private jet experiences a little San-Ti turbulence. “We’re sorry the Staircase Project failed,” the sophon tells him. “We would have liked to meet Will Downing. And we hope to meet you, if your hibernation technology works. We want you to know there will be a place for you when we arrive. You are part of our plan.” 

We’ll have to see what 3 Body Problem has in store for the surviving members of the Oxford Five, for Thomas Wade and his efforts to lead the fight against the San-Ti, and for the existence of humanity in general. We can’t see a dozen generations into the future, so who knows if TV shows will still be around when the alien fleet finally arrives on Earth. But assuming Netflix makes the right call and renews 3 Bod P, then we’re certain to see science doing its damndest to defend against a threat that our brains – either here or out in space – can still just barely comprehend.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.