X

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

Continue with Facebook Continue with email

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

What Did Wade Tell Jin? 3 Body Problem Stars Answer Our Biggest Questions About the Finale

What happens after the Staircase Project?

portrait-cropped.jpg
Kat Moon

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for 3 Body Problem Episodes 7 and 8. Read at your own risk!]

The final episodes of Netflix's 3 Body Problem left us with more questions than answers. That's entirely expected from a science-fiction show so gargantuan in scale and scope. In David Benioff, D. B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo's sprawling adaptation of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem, our main characters slowly uncover the identity of their shared otherworldly enemy throughout the first season. In the Season 1 finale, we finally witness the launch (literally) of The Staircase Project — a mission aimed at giving humans a fighting chance against the aliens en route to invade Earth. To the dismay of everyone involved, it does not go as planned.

TV Guide spoke to the cast of 3 Body Problem about that ambitious project, Dr. Ye's Einstein joke, Saul's assignment as Wallfacer, and more.

The Staircase Project failed. What's next?

Spring Guide 2024

See above for our guide to spring TV

We'll start with the big mystery from Episode 8: What in the world did Wade whisper to Jin? After the Staircase Project failed and Jin watched Will's (Alex Sharp) brain float into the abyss, Wade approached her and "whispered inaudibly." We of course asked Liam Cunningham about what his character said. "I'm never gonna say, but you have to remember how devastated [Jin] was after her beautiful ideas didn't transpire as well as they would have liked," Cunningham told TV Guide. "He's a very driven individual, and he sees what happened to that particular plan as a blip — that battle may have been lost, but the war continues. So it may have had some reference to that."

Jess Hong, who stars as Jin, shared about what it was like to film that scene. "On the day, Liam literally didn't say anything," Hong laughed. "He just made his lips move." But the actor has her theories on what Wade said. "Because it's the last episode, it should be something that leads on to [his] future plans," she shared. "There's still more work for them to do."

Regardless, it's clear that Jin was in great distress. "All I know is in that moment, [she] is going through so much having watched Will's brain go out there and the whole experiment essentially fail," Hong said. "And what he said was just a trigger for that all to come out." While the whispered words remain a mystery, Hong confirmed Will's brain was on that rocket. "It's definitely out there," she said. "Where in space, we don't know."

Liam Cunningham, Eiza González, Jess Hong, Benedict Wong, 3 Body Problem

Liam Cunningham, Eiza González, Jess Hong, Benedict Wong, 3 Body Problem

Netflix

We also can't talk about Wade in the finale without addressing his terrifying encounter with Sophon. "We want you to know there will be a place for you when we arrive," she says to him. "The only time he's ever come across Sophon was during the game," Cunningham said. "And she appears on his personal mode of transport and imparts this knowledge to him that he's maybe of use — which is an interesting thing that I'm sure he wasn't expecting." For the entire season, Wade has led the charge against Sophon and the aliens. "It's great mystery, when she visits me there's horror and it's very scary," Cunningham added. "What is the human race gonna do?" 

3 Body Problem Review: This Ambitious Sci-Fi Drama Doesn't Always Make Sense — But It's Undeniably Good TV

About that Einstein joke from Dr. Ye...

Another pivotal conversation in the final episodes is one between Dr. Ye Wenjie (Rosalind Chao) and Saul (Jovan Adepo). For reasons we do not know yet, Saul was the last person Ye asked to see before leaving the U.S. and traveling to China. They are at her daughter Vera's grave when Ye shares a cryptic story about Einstein playing "Take the A Train" in heaven. Saul responds with a blank face. "Jokes are important," Ye tells him. "We wouldn't survive without them."

Adepo said that when he first read the joke in the script, he also didn't understand it. "The good thing is that we have showrunners to explain things to us like children," the actor shared. "But I think Saul 100 percent, even in the scene as she delivers this joke, I feel like he can tell that it's clearly a loaded statement — it means something else, he just doesn't know quite what it is." And was this conversation between Ye and Saul a big part of why he was chosen, against his will, to be a Wallfacer? "Perhaps," Adepo said. "That's a very strong possibility."

The actor also shared how Saul views his assignment as Wallfacer by the end of the season. "He still hasn't accepted that role," Adepo explained. "By the time that those credits come up on the last episode, he's embracing the fact that no matter what he says, they're going to continue to push him to do that job."

The Best Shows on Netflix Right Now

The Lord is not done with everyone

Rosalind Chao, 3 Body Problem

Rosalind Chao, 3 Body Problem

Netflix

Given that Sophon appeared to Wade, it's safe to assume the aliens are still open to interacting with some humans. One of them is Tatiana (Marlo Kelly), whom Sophon also talked to. In Episode 7, Tatiana makes an unexpected visit to Ye. She had returned to the government facility in China, where everything started. "I thought the Lord was done with us," Ye says. "Not all of us," Tatiana responds. 

"I don't know if she fully expected for Tatiana to arrive," Chao said. "But once she did arrive, I think [Ye] was capitalizing on that maternal relationship that she knew Tatiana would respond to. And I think she was hoping for some information from Tatiana as well." Chao shared more about Ye's mixed emotions. "There's a lot of betrayal involved. And I think that involved Tatiana," the actor said. "[Ye] put all her faith in the Lord, prior to that all her faith in her family, prior to that all her faith in her government — she was betrayed by each one and that includes Tatiana."  

Ye asks Tatiana whether she knows why the Lord sent her. "Perhaps it's just your time," Tatiana guesses. "You've fulfilled your purpose." It's all incredibly ambiguous, which makes the news in Episode 8 more shocking. In the finale, Clarence (Benedict Wong) tells Saul that Ye was murdered in China. Though the astrophysicist's last conversation with Tatiana does seem like a farewell, we know better than to completely trust in an offscreen death.

All episodes of 3 Body Problem are available to stream on Netflix.