‘3 Body Problem’ Episode 6 Recap: Man with a Plan

Season 1, Episode 6: ‘The Stars Our Destination’

It had to let up at some point. After five escalating episodes in which each ending was more spectacularly grim than the last, “3 Body Problem” took its foot off the gas for its sixth outing. It’s hard to begrudge an eight-episode literary adaptation a bit of breathing room.

This installment launches the bulk of its fireworks in its opening minutes, a montage reactions to the so-called “the Eye in the Sky Incident,” when the San-Ti revealed their intention to conquer the planet. Global chaos. Worldwide rioting. Doomsday cults. Food shortages. Alien worshipers. Bad comedy. Sloganeering politicians. A tasteless fund-raising effort called The Stars Our Destination, in which everyday people can pitch in to help billionaires purchase other solar systems, which will help … someone, somehow, supposedly.

In short, it is an all too plausible nightmare world. Contrary to the argument made in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s classic graphic novel “Watchmen,” the existence of an alien threat does nothing to bring humanity together.

To the extent that anyone has their eyes on the prize, it’s Wade. On a show that keeps its heroes’ clay feet firmly on the ground, he strides around like Nick Fury, recruiting a Nobel-laureate Avengers and building bases on the moon. He gives Jin license to devise a mind-bogglingly complex and expensive “staircase” of nuclear bombs in space to propel a probe into the heart of the alien fleet. He then reveals that the probe will be a human being; dollars to doughnuts he’s referring to Jin’s boyfriend, Raj. Seriously, the guy is spy-fi movie mastermind stranded in a prestige TV drama.

For now, however, even the almighty Wade isn’t capable of ginning up some bogus charge by which to keep the San-Ti cult leader Ye Wenjie under lock and key. She goes free, and immediately begins attempting to communicate with her Lord, saying she holds the key to thwarting humanity’s attempt to fight back, which might well be successful otherwise. Her desire for a global tabula rasa outstrips that of even the most fanatical Red Guards, who still dominate her mental landscape.

Elsewhere, Will’s concerns remain down to earth, at first. He is convinced by his friends to profess his feelings for Jin, Raj be damned. But he chickens out at the last minute, not realizing their relationship is strained and it is the best shot he’d ever have.