3 Body Problem: Only Advance

"I never had many friends. But thanks to you guys, always felt like enough."
"Will, I’m – I’m gonna miss you, man."
"Good. If they bring me back, I’ll miss you too."

How do you plan for a campaign against aliens who know everything you do and say? Because in this episode we learn the San-Ti are still around. In the meantime, some characters choose life, some choose death, and some choose in-between.

After dealing with the shock of learning humanity may be wiped out in 400 years, life goes on. After all, doom won't happen for 400 years – that’s not going to impact most people on the planet alive today. Also, some have more immediate situations. The episode opens with Saul listening to the dying Will describe the star he purchased for Jin. Saul teases Will; of course he does not know the numbers assigned to various stars. But, at the end of this scene, Will collapses and Saul rushes to his side. Their time at the beach house is done; the next stage is the hospital. In many ways, Saul steps up in this episode, supporting those who need supporting.

Jin learns about the gift of the star, but not the donor. Raj – who senses she’s slipping away from him – is more curious about the giver than she is. Jin does not guess Will, but at least, when she visits Will, he finally tells her how he feels.

Auggie is working on Project Staircase, which is part of the plan that Wade calls “Only Advance.” She still hates and mistrusts Wade, but she nevertheless makes a nanofiber sail. Later she leaves the project/plan, screws her investors by releasing all her work to the public, and flees the country. Auggie is the character whose arc bothers me a bit. She is always deeply, deeply passionate about what she believes to be right, but her goal keeps changing, yet she’s so intolerant of others. Or maybe she’s consistent in her inconsistency? Or maybe she does have a north star, but she will veer when pressed sufficiently? Anyway, it’s no surprise Saul can’t maintain a stable relationship with her.

I adore the out-of-the-box science in this series, and in this episode they focus on cryogenics. The idea is to send a human to meet the San-Ti. But then, when they can’t get all the nuclear warheads they need, they need to reduce the payload. Wade says: We don’t need to send an entire person, how about just a brain! The San-Ti can rebuild the person later. As this means the death – and probably permanent death, rather than resurrection by the San-Ti, as the mission is so risky – it’s best to take someone who is already dying. Now we learn why the story creators cursed Will with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Will has an estranged sister who shows up at his deathbed. She wants him to leave her his money, to make it easier for her and her husband can start a family (apparently they are not concerned about humanity being wiped out). You can see that Will has qualms that he just spent 19.5 million pounds to give Jin a star, but the sister’s request is much smaller. She just wants what their mum left him, and that Will can promise her. I wonder if we’ll meet the nibling in a future episode, as the story may have 400 years to go, or if this was just a scene to remind us of the business of dying.

Wade takes the “we want your brain” proposal to Will. The others try to talk Will out of it. Jin is against it, but she’s not especially articulate. Saul, whose brilliance is usually dulled by drugs and a lack of purpose, tells Will some of the things that could go wrong. Despite the possibility of 10,000 years of torture, Will chooses to let his brain be taken for science. I love how the visual metaphor of him floating in a paper boat – and then how he checks the weather, which seems like sleety cold. Perhaps that represents his brain being chilled down for the sake of the journey.

In the previous episode, Wenjie told the San-Ti she had some tricks up her sleeve. She then contacts Saul and they meet at Vera’s grave. Wenjie must know the San-Ti are interested in this conversation, and as she knows she’s being followed, she knows that Earth’s authorities are interested as well. She praises Saul as the smart one and then tells him a strange story about Einstein playing a violin in heaven. Is there a clue in this? Or is she just using this ploy with Saul as a means of distracting the Sophons and possibly the human authorities? Saul’s puzzled expression shows that he has not figured it out, and she tells him she hopes that her "joke" will not get him in trouble.

After the meeting at the cemetery, Wenjie goes to the airport and heads to China. I like how she decides to sit with the guy who has been tailing her with reports due every four hours. Her goal is to commit suicide at the place where she committed her great crime against humanity, the lab where she invited the aliens to come to their world.

Tatiana, the young woman who murdered Jack, has been living mostly off the grid in a small RV. While she is eating, the TV she is watching is taken over by a Sophon. Even Tatiana has not liked being called a bug, but the Sophon assures her that does not apply to all humans. She is given tasks, and when she talks to Wenjie at the end, the way she speaks of the man assigned to Wenjie makes it clear that she has already killed him. She offers Wenjie an easy death, a beautiful death, but first they sit to watch one last sunset.

Title musings. “Only Advance” is the title of the episode. It's also the name Wade has given his plan, whatever it is, and shows his steely resolve to beat the San-Ti. It seems to apply to some characters in their arcs. Auggie designs the sails then gives away her research and then leaves the country. Will’s sister asks money to help her start a family. Will, about to die, chooses to do something advanced for science. Wenjie chooses death, but only after leaving a puzzle with Saul. The title works.

Bits and pieces

They don’t say why they only got 300 nuclear warheads out of the 1000 needed, but it could be because some have degraded. If weapons are not maintained, they can degrade, and that could apply to nuclear as well as non-nuclear weapons.

I don’t have a Magic Eight Ball anymore but I sometimes type in questions to a program on the computer that simulates it.

Wenjie looks at two books before she arranges to meet with Saul. One is about Fermi’s paradox, which we had explained to us in an earlier episode. It’s about calculating the probability of intelligent life on other planets. However, the other book she examines is on game theory. I am sure she is trying to game out her response to the San-Ti.

I assume that Kolya, the chimp, is computer generated. Well done.

The cryogenics is not just for the brain going into space. Wade intends to use it to stay alive long enough to meet the San-Ti, coming out for a week each year in order to oversee the plan. I hope the recovery time from each waking up is quick. Kolya’s vomiting looked unpleasant.

Quotes

Raj: Jin, you seem to be in denial about how weird this is.
Jin: This is weird? This is maybe the 28th weirdest thing I’ve seen this month. Adjust your weirdness horizons. Some crazy-rich person bought me a star, or someone’s taking the piss. Almost certainly someone’s taking the piss.

Wade: There are dozens of people who could oversee the project. There’s only one person on Earth can oversee the plan.
Jin: On Earth? That’s a bit much.
Wade: Aristotle thought false humility was just as bad as arrogance.

Auggie: “Only advance”? What kind of Magic Eight-Ball shit is that?

Will: I know my main qualification is that I’m dying, but you can’t just send anyone.

Will: Sometimes, when you’re really high, you see people. Or maybe it’s when you’re dying. But I see you. And I love you.

Wenjie: She was smart like you. She figured things out.
Saul: You failed her.
Wenjie: I failed more people than anyone ever.
Saul: How can you live with it?
Wenjie: I won’t have to much longer.

Jin: Why’s he perfect for the project? He wouldn’t sign the oath.
Wade: He’s our man because he’s not our man.
Jin: He really might not be.
Wade: I know. He really might not be. That’s why they’ll go out of their way to pick him up.

Saul: Bugs don’t know why terrible things happen to them. They’re bugs. Right? Maybe it’s an exterminator. Maybe it’s a science class. Maybe it’s just some nasty little kid that’s ripping their legs off for fun.

Wenjie: Where’s Officer Collins?
Tatiana: Was that his name?

Overall rating

I really enjoyed this episode. Four out of four Magic Eight Balls.

Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.

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