‘3 Body Problem’ Recap, Episode 5: ‘Judgment Day’

Well, see you, Mike Evans. I have a lot of complaints about it 3 physical problemsThe style of characterization so far; It feels like something is missing, perhaps because each episode covers a lot without really going too deep into any one character (besides Ye Wenjie). If we’re talking wasted potential, there’s plenty of it in “Judgment Day,” which completely eliminates one of the show’s biggest antagonists (and biggest actors) from the chessboard along with most of his disciples. Makes it out. Before we could really understand the lives and beliefs of these people, they were all dead, literally cut in half and buried in the wreck of an oil tanker. They have all been turned into “anonymous cultists”, remembered by Auggie, but in the grand scheme of things they are otherwise insignificant.

And yet I can’t argue too much with this style of storytelling when the results are so entertaining. “Judgment Day” is probably the most fast-paced episode of the season, with a simple focus: a violent, morally compromising action-movie heist to get the MacGuffin, followed by a thrilling outcome where the heroes get some of their answers. I wanted it very badly. It’s disturbing, thought-provoking, and appropriate Cold, even when there’s nothing particularly romantic or bad about the level of undeserved bloodshed. And it makes me wonder where this story could go next. this is a good episode 3 physical problems,

The idea of ​​the operation comes up very quickly after the raid on the summit. people riding judgment day Restless, unable to overcome the personal pain of seeing friends and family arrested, although Evans continues to reassure everyone that it is all part of God’s plan. Of course, we know he’s not on good terms with the San-Ti, he’s essentially branded their entire species as pathological liars. While tensions run high on the boat and Auggie and Jin hide out in a heavily guarded safe house, Wade sticks to his usual plan. The way he figures it out, there must be some kind of hard drive on the boat with records of communications between Evans and San-Ti. If they ever have any hope of fighting back against the slowly approaching aliens, they will need information about what kind of technology and weaponry the invaders are working with. If it means sacrificing over a thousand “traitors to humanity” in the process, so be it.

The perfect opportunity for this act of covert mass murder arises when Clarence reveals judgment day Moving towards the Panama Canal. Wade has the perfect tool to pull it off: one Augustina Salazar, whose nanofibers may prove to be an ideal weapon for the purpose. Yes, it’s Auggie’s turn to support the war effort after spying on Jin at the summit in the last episode. Obviously, she is very nervous about the whole concept and it has upset Jin’s boyfriend Raj (recruited by Wade to select the Royal Navy’s engineers). Not there. Be nervous about any of this. I’m not necessarily rooting for Jin to abandon Raj and stay with Will as much as the show would prefer, but Raj is actually quite a blind follower, isn’t he?

Except for some preparation time, the episode builds to the big operation very quickly. In the centerpiece sequence, Auggie’s nanofibers are stranded in the Panama Canal. When the boat finally passes by, they are easily cut off, so quietly that at first nothing seems strange. Then a hose on the deck gets cut inexplicably and the person holding it gets cut in half. He’s certainly not the last person to suffer that fate in this episode; We see this happen again and again over the next few minutes.

Director Minky Spiro has some really nice touches here, like the paper doll’s chain falling off the wall as the nanofibers advance. It’s disgusting and, well, it’s fun to watch Carnage play out, no matter how objectively messed up it is. Maybe there’s a strange inconsistency in those two sentiments: On the one hand, people enjoy watching B-movies. final destination 2Racing from one end of the collapsing boat to the other, and on the other side, the complete silence of the control room. Of course, the show’s scenes of dying children are limited to one child’s severed leg, which is witnessed by a nauseated Auggie.

All things considered, I am not convinced that such a specific and bizarre attack was necessary; If the idea was to catch Evans unawares before he had a chance to access his hard drive, they failed. But fortunately he did not destroy the drive in his last moments. Two weeks later, Wade’s people have had no chance of breaking into the encrypted drive, but SAN-TI is finally granting access. Wade needs Jin’s help again, so he hires him for his high-dimensional expertise.

Jin and Wade’s return to the “game” allows for another information dump from a woman named Sophon, similar to what she and Jack experienced in level four. But now we better understand the truth of what the name represents. She explains that the San-Ti know that human technology will easily surpass them by the time they arrive on Earth; Scientific progress takes too long due to the chaotic eons in the three-body system. The only way to combat the San-T is through Sophons: protons transformed into sentient computers, using massive amounts of energy to manifest their higher dimensions. They created two pairs, one of which they sent to Earth at faster-than-light speed (the small size makes this easier) so that they could hear, see, and report everything back to their planet.

It sounds like a lot of weird, made-up scientific nonsense, and the technology is used to “explain” almost everything that remains unexplained: countdowns, the twinkling night sky, nonsensical particle accelerator results, the incomprehensible. The instantaneous communication occurring over great distances, and we knew that all surveillance was taking place somehow. But clarity (if you can use that word) feels good. Plus, it makes sense that Sophon tech would sound too good to be true. This is not literal magic, but ultra-advanced science feels Like magic for those who are behind the times.

Sophons aims to disrupt science on Earth and “wrap the world in illusion”. San-Ti demonstrates this with the episode’s ending message: “You are insects,” displayed via Sophon on every screen on Earth. It’s a shiver-inducing moment, partly for the eyes looking into the sky, but especially for how it takes advantage of the late Mike Evans’ lesson about treating your enemies as “pests.” .

The giant mirror-like dome illusion materializing on Earth is an apt image: It’s an episode centered around a ridiculous R-rated robbery that kills countless civilians, but it also revolves around how we see ourselves. . Wenji has full confidence in San-Ti that he will have humanity’s best interests in mind, or at least Improvement By conquering humans, but that says as much about him as it does about them. He is just as flawed and human as anyone outside his cult organization. She sounds completely genuine and confident when she tells Clarence, “I wish I could show you what the future looks like,” but he makes a good point: “At twenty it won’t be as wonderful as you’re thinking. “

Hearing the recording of Evans’ last conversation with the Lord is enough to finally shake Wenjie’s faith in San-Ti. The horrified look on her face is telling: not only does she realize that her species may indeed be doomed, but she is experiencing a kind of alienation. His own personal relationship with San-Ti goes back decades. It’s one thing to accept that Wenzi’s own role in his grand mission has ended; She didn’t do any of this for the fame, and she’s humble enough to accept a small role in a bigger scheme. But it’s another thing to know that the unquestioning faith that guided his life for 40 years may not have mattered. Maybe the dream Mike Evans had of him – living in peace with other intelligent life, comparing notes about their respective planets and ways of life – was always just science fiction.

• This is probably my favorite Auggie episode ever. Besides his deeply conflicted feelings about this mission, I like his early conversation with Jin about not wanting to be a puppet, and when he fails to restart the countdown after restarting the nanotech lab. When she leaves, I really felt her immense relief. (As Clarence says, “The Lord has ceased to protect His flock.”)

• Once again, there’s a different scene for Will and Saul, the former of whom inherits half of Jack’s £40million estate. However, predictably, he refuses to use the money on high-end treatments, preferring to spend his final months (weeks?) simply enjoying life.

• “What do you really look like?” “You won’t like this.”

• Wade is exactly the kind of guy who would pull out a few thousand-year-old metal stirrups from Genghis Khan’s army to make a point about the role of technology in empire-building.

• Speaking of Wade, there are several poignant quotes from him in this episode: his comment about the thousands of forgotten people who died building the Panama Canal, his congratulations to Auggie after the operation is done, and his sarcastic “Your Sorry for the loss”. The father of her dead child also dies.

• I’m not always completely sure who is actually communicating over the SAN-T. This implies that some leader or leaders are deciding what to communicate to humans, right? Were some of their messages invented by the sentient Sophon himself, or is the Sophon merely a means of communication (and illusion)? And is the game version of Sophon (as in “Sword Lady”) part of that AI, or a direct representative?

• Actually, Jonathan Pryce’s time on this show extended less than I expected. But I guess that was not part of the Lord’s plan.