3 Body Problem spoilers follow.
3 Body Problem was always going to be a beast to tackle. The mathematical enigma that gives it its title has even the greatest scientific minds bamboozled and when folded into the fictional narrative of Liu Cixin's 2008 novel, it proved a thinky read for many.
Still, Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss, together with producer Alexander Woo, were not intimidated by the task of transforming Cixin's work into an intriguing mystery fit for the small screen.
While successful in their efforts to hook us in, 3 Body Problem requires some patience to deal with the more head-scratching moments.
If you were a little confused by the ending or tapped out early but still want to know what happened, that's where we step in.
Here's everything that happened in the 3 Body Problem ending.
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What happened in 3 Body Problem?
If you've come here in a 'skip-to-the-end' type of fashion, then here's what you need to know before we dive into the finale.
The San-Ti, the aliens the younger Wenjie (Zine Tseng) was warned against contacting but did anyway, have broken ties with humanity.
The aliens were surprised to learn about the concept of lying, something they discovered human beings are prone to doing. This revelation appeared to shake their confidence in their Earth-bound allies, so they turned their backs on their human followers, saying: "We no longer trust you. We're afraid of you."
Since then, things have spiralled out of control. The San-Ti have made their presence known globally and essentially waged war on the planet by vowing to 'kill science'.
Impossible? Sounds that way, but they mean to use their Sophons (proton-sized higher-dimensional computers, entangled with protons back in their system, that can spy on everything on Earth) to achieve this.
The San-Ti will use the knowledge their two Sophons gather to destroy any plan that can defeat them.
"The answers to your questions will become chaotic and meaningless," the San-Ti explain, harking back to Saul's (Jovan Adepo) inability to develop his scientific thesis in episode one, despite being sure it was right.
"The universe will remain a mystery to you forever," they say, and without these advancements, there is no way of furthering human knowledge to defeat the San-Ti. Despite not being able to arrive in less than 400 years, the San-Ti are afraid of humanity's capacity to advance its own technology beyond theirs during those 400 years.
This is where we pick up with Jin (Jess Hong) and the rest of the team in the finale: scrambling for a solution with the 400-year deadline breathing down their necks.
3 Body Problem ending explained - What is the WallFacer project?
Saul's interaction with Ye Wenjie (Rosalind Chao) when she told a joke about Einstein was the catalyst behind the San-Ti's hit on him.
He may not have understood Wenjie's coded message, but whatever importance was buried in her humourless joke is enough for the San-Ti to fear his eventual understanding of it, which could lead to their undoing.
After the failed attempt to unalive him, Saul is scooped up by his now-bodyguard Clarence (Benedict Wong) and covertly taken to a meeting of the Planetary Defence Council, where he learns that he is to become one of three 'WallFacers'.
These WallFacers are humanity's leading defence against the San-Ti, tasked with thinking their way out of the alien invasion dilemma.
In order to plot against the San-Ti, who can see and hear everything, the WallFacers must formulate strategic plans solely in their minds, sharing these plans with no one until it's time to execute them.
Saul takes the immense pressure of this task as well as any average Joe would and firmly rejects the job offer.
"It doesn't make sense – I'm a low-level researcher," he tells the secretary general, but his resolute 'no' doesn't seem to take.
After he turns down the project, he is almost immediately shot by another of the San-Ti's assassins.
He then realises that it is impossible to walk away from this new calling, because it's all about perception.
From the San-Ti's perspective, his open rejection of the project could be a double bluff. After all, humans lie, right? Better to kill him just in case.
Does Will die in the 3 Body Problem?
While Saul is wrestling with the weight of his current predicament, Alex Sharp's Will (who was dying of cancer) has sacrificed himself for Operation Staircase.
For those who checked out before this utterly wild plot point, shame on you. It was an emotional ride. Nevertheless, we'll fill you in.
To gather intel on the San-Ti, Wade and his team intend to send a data-gathering probe onto their ship. To do this, they need something to travel faster than they could, essentially at one-percent light speed.
Jin worked out a way to do this, but the probability of getting a probe onto a San-Ti ship long enough to gather data is low.
The only way for them to do so is to send a living being in place of a probe in the hope that – in wanting to gather their own data – the San-Ti will be intrigued enough to willingly pick that person up.
If that wasn't enough of a problem to buck up against, to achieve this, they need a volunteer that weighs under 2kg.
There's some to-ing and fro-ing that eventually results in the decision to shoot a brain in a capsule into space, the understanding being that once the San-Ti get their hands on the floating noggin, they will be able to remake the body.
How that person would then make contact with the humans again to relay what they'd learned about the San-Ti would be up to them, so a super smart, quick-thinking volunteer is needed.
Enter Will, who is in love with Jin and wholeheartedly believes in her plan.
Though she feels guilty for stealing "the last weeks of his life", she doesn't try to deter him from this huge responsibility.
Will's brain is separated from his body and catapulted into space, but much to Jin's horror, Operation Staircase is a bust.
How does Operation Staircase fail?
While Will makes it off the launch pad, problems arise along his mapped-out route when one of the cables holding the sail attached to the capsule breaks off, taking Will off his intended course.
Will's 2kg brain is left drifting aimlessly in space.
Jin is devastated by this development, not least because she was only able to admit to herself that she was also in love with him after he was dismembered.
How does 3 Body Problem end?
Auggie (Eiza González) is pretty absent during the final episode, but she has her own trauma to digest. Not only is she still reeling from the brutal deaths of the misguided, alien-worshipping people her technology helped murder in an earlier episode, but her technology also facilitated Will's failed space mission – a mission she was dead set against.
"It was kind of hard for me, for a long time, to not judge her," González told Digital Spy.
"It was really complicated. I had a real crisis within Auggie, because there were things that I ultimately agreed, and others that, in a moral way, I couldn’t agree with her sort of giving in."
It seems González and Auggie were aligned in that respect. In a desperate attempt to atone, Auggie finds herself in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, helping an impoverished community overcome their dysentery epidemic by using her technology to teach them how to build clean water infrastructure.
If the battered team hasn't already taken enough of a beating, Wade receives a message from the San-Ti that puts his hibernation plan in jeopardy.
Wade's plan (so that he can extend his life span and continue to lead the anti-San-Ti cause until their arrival) comes under threat when the San-Ti make it known that they have a particular interest in him.
"There will be a place for you when you arrive," they tell him, adding, "you are part of our plan," before making clear this is not a good thing.
"We'll always be with you. Whatever we want you to see, you will see, until the day you die," they say – the insinuation being that they mean to make him go mad and in doing so will scupper the human race's plans to defeat them.
The only one coming up trumps in this dismal end is Tatiana (Marlo Kelly), best remembered as the callous alien-worshipper who crushed the lovable Jack Rooney (John Bradley) to death.
Tatiana has been rewarded for her dedication to the San-Ti in the form of her very own headset device, which will now allow her access to the converted virtual-reality world, giving her more direct communication with them.
3 Body Problem's heroes, who started out strong, limp to the finale dispirited and in great need of a pick-me-up.
Clarence takes Jin and Saul to a clearing that is swarming with bugs (the very creatures the San-Ti liken the human race to). There, he gives them a rousing speech about the resilience of bugs, and they are motivated. If the humans are to survive, they are going to need to be as stubbornly persistent as a cockroach. And on that cheerful note...
All episodes of 3 Body Problem are available to stream now on Netflix.
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
