Rehydrate

Episode 1: The Wallfacers

Ye Wenjie

Sometime close to the time of the end of the Three-Body Problem, at the grave of her daughter, she meets up with an astronomy turned sociology professor, Luo Ji. She suggests that he take on the study of “Cosmic Sociology.” The study of the “supersociety” made up of all the civilizations in the universe.

Crisis Era - Year 3

Mike Evans / Second Wallbreaker / ETO

The Trisolarans speak to Mike Evans of the ETO about the nature of humanity to deceive, a concept that they do not comprehend since they communicate their thoughts directly. They become afraid of humanity and “abandon” them, leading Evans to his doom aboard Judgement Day.

The sophons reappear to the “Second Wallbreaker” and let them know that they have a mission. Afterwards the wallbreaker meets up with the remnants of the ETO within the world of Three Body

The old men

Three old men adjust to the world of both retirement and the Crisis Era. Afraid for the continuation of their family line, Zhang Yuanchao is tricked by Da Shi’s son, Xiaoming out of $65,000 when he promises to guarantee that his family is secured a spot on a ship that will leave Earth in about 120 years. Zhang realizes that he’s been duped after the UN passes a resolution declaring escapism a crime against humanity

Zhang Beihai

Zhang Beihai, a naval political commissar, ultimately joins the newly formed Chinese Space Force. He warns the newly formed organization about the dangers of defeatism within the ranks. He worries that the current military is too reliant on technology and because of the sophon lock and humanity's inability to progress scientifically, the soldiers in the coming fight vs. the Trisolarans will feel that the war is unwinnable.

Luo Ji

Luo Ji ultimately does take on the study of Cosmic Sociology, who he tells the women he’s been sleeping with that he could’ve been famous for. Even though he doesn’t even remember her name, their relationship comes to an abrupt end when she is hit and killed by a car in an accident right in front of him. He is taken to a safe room far underground, where he believes that he is under arrest and being questioned by our old friend, Da Shi.

It becomes clear that Luo isn’t under arrest, but rather is under protection, and he’s transported under heavy guard ultimately to the airport where he boards a long distance charter flight.

During flight, he recollects the time where his girlfriend at the time asked him to write her a novel. Luo works on this novel and in the process ultimately fantasies about falling in love with the character that he has devised.

Luo and Shi land in New York and go to the UN Headquarters, where the Wallfacer Project is announced. A program that is designed to combat the Trisolarans by exploiting the fact that they are unable to understand deception and cannot read human thought by charging 4 people with developing plans entirely inside the confines of their minds. They are given virtually unlimited resources and power as part of this project, and Luo Ji is named as the fourth Wallfacer.

Episode 2: Cosmic Brush

Zhang Beihai continues his work within the Space Force to ensure that the military is ready and believes in victory against the incoming Trisolaran invasion. When planning for the future of the fleet, Zhang is the only one that volunteers for the “high tech” area of research that includes life support, and fusion drives that go 5% the speed of light.

We’re introduced to the other Wallfacers and the start of their plans.

• Rey Diaz researches how to build a bigger bomb and in the process develops a fear of the sun

• Bill Hines and his wife think about ways to build on their neurological research to both better humanity and increase the cognitive abilities as a way around the sophon lock

• Fredrick Tyler starts to develop a plan for a swarm of small fighters equipped with large bombs. To help develop his plan he seeks information about WW2 kamikaze pilots and even meets with the leader of Al Qaeda

Luo Ji exits the UN building after being named a Wallfacer and is the victim of an assassination attempt by thr ETO. Thanks to his bulletproof vest and Da Shi’s quick reaction, he is relatively unharmed.

After trying to renounce his position of Wallfacer, he realizes that due to the nature of the program, no matter what he says, no one can really trust that he has left the program, so he embraces his ability to do whatever he wants. He requests an idyllic manor in the mountains and lives a life of luxury.

He also requests that Da Shi find his dream girlfriend in real life, which Da Shi does with the use of police face recognition technology, an art graduate named Zhuang Yan. Luo tells her that his plan is that she is to be happy, which starts with a trip to the Louvre where they explore the famous paintings together including the Mona Lisa.

The remnants of the ETO meet in Three-Body and assign three Wallbreakers to determine and expose the secret Wallfacer plans. Luo Ji is not assigned a Wallbreaker, saying he is his own Wallbreaker, but admitting that he ultimately poses the biggest danger since he is in “direct contest” with their Lord.

Finally, the military has taken over the operation of the Hubble II space telescope and despite its inability to see Trisolaris, they are forced to point it in that direction, and while expecting to see nothing, they do notice “lines” in the cosmic dust that resembles a brush. They are shocked to realize that they are looking at the trails of the Trisolaran fleet on the way to Earth

Episode 3: The Spell

Crisis Era: Year 8

Tyler

Wallfacer Frederick Tyler is visited by his Wallbreaker, who was able to figure out his entire secret plan. His plan (in the English translation, more on this later) consists of recruiting ETO members to help double-cross and destroy the Earth’s space force. He would then make a peace offering to the Trisolarans of large quantities of water from Europa and Ceres to help them rehydrate. Furthermore, his plan was that as the ETO ships approached the Trisolaran fleet, we would detonate the bombs at close range.

Fully defeated by his plans being exposed, he visits Luo Ji at his estate, and shortly afterwards commits suicide by the lake near his house.

Luo Ji

Luo Ji, meanwhile, continues his life of luxury, and in the ensuing years, he has married Zhuang Yan and had a daughter, Xia Xia.

Shortly after being visited by Tyler, he finds that Zhuang Yan and Xia Xia have been taken away from him by the PDC, a plan that has been in place since they originally found Zhuang Yan to match Luo Ji’s description. They realize that he is the Wallbreaker that Trisolarais fears the most in the repeated attempts to kill him, and want him to refocus his efforts to figure out why.

While strolling his estate, and eventually wandering onto the frozen lake, he falls through and has an epiphany as to the nature of the universe, and remarks to himself, “Wallfacer Luo Ji, I am your Wallbreaker.”

He leaves his estate to work far underground for security, and gets to work on what he calls a “spell” that has to do with broadcasting the location of a star about 50 light years away. However, the ETO’s latest plan to get to Luo Ji appears to work. They have developed a genetically engineered virus that gets everyone around him mildly sick, but is deadly to specifically Luo Ji. He turns to his last resort after there’s no medical solution.. hibernate, and hope for a future cure.

Crisis Era: Year 12

Zhang Beihai seeks out Ding Yi, who has just made a breakthrough in fusion drives and see if he can hide his research. Zhang is worried that the research into more conventional technology that won’t produce interstellar ships will ultimately lead to humanity’s defeat.

Zhang takes matters into his own hands, purchases meteorites, fashions them into bullets, and assassinates the lead scientists in space by shooting them with the meteorite bullets to make it look like a meteorite shower. This effectively moves all research into the “non-media propelled drive” research that he feels has the best chance of future success.

The sophons and the ETO observe this, but they feel that this research and triumphalism are ultimately losing efforts and of no risk.

Zhang Beihai then goes into hibernation to help the future Space Force.

Crisis Era: Year 20

Hines

Hines wakes up from hibernation to find that his wife, Keiko, has continued on the research of faster computers, and by utilizing a neural network of sorts, they are able to increase efficiency and speed by about 10,000 times.

In their continued research, they come across a method which they name the “menal seal” in which they can implant an idea. There is broad skepticism since this plan is tantamount to mind control. However, they develop a compromise, they will only implant the idea of faith in victory if a member of the military happens to volunteer. After a slow start, there is a steady stream of volunteers, after which both Hines and Keiko decide to go into hibernation. Shortly before losing consciousness, Keiko also has an epiphany, but is not able to alert anyone before she falls into the deep sleep of hibernation.

Diaz

Finally, Wallfacer Diaz emerges from hibernation to find that they’ve been able to develop “stellar” hydrogen bombs. He requests a test in an underground tunnel on Mercury. After the PDC debates, they eventually allow it after it is described as the most secure fallback location against the Trisolaran fleet.

After the successful test on Mercury, Diaz is also confronted by his Wallbreaker. His Wallbreaker details Diaz’s diabolical plan to destroy the entire solar system by detonating enough bombs on Mercury to make it fall into the sun, causing a chain reaction destroying planets up to Jupiter or further, thereby making the solar system uninhabitable by the Trisolarans, however destroying the Earth and all the people on it as a consequence.

The PDC wants to charge Diaz with the to-be-created law against the “Extinction of Life on Earth”, however Diaz tells them that he has rigged a dead man’s switch to himself, and should anything happen to him that a bomb will detonate under New York City. His only demand is that he is allowed to return home, to which they reluctantly agree. However, upon returning home, he is not greeted with open arms, but with a shower of rocks, as his people ultimately stone him to death.

We end with a wrap of the secondary characters we met along the way, and look towards the future.

Episode 4: Natural Selection

Luo Ji

Luo Ji wakes from hibernation to find himself 170 years into the future cured of his illness. Humanity has significantly progressed from the time that he’s been asleep. They’ve moved largely into underground cities, every aspect of the environment seems to be personalized and connected together, and have a large fleet of spaceships that can travel up to 15% the speed of light.

People of the era believe that because of this progress and the fact that the Trisolaran fleet seems to have slowed down to even stopped except for a probe that they’ll have no choice but to enter into peace talks once they arrive.

Future History

Luo Ji also gets a recap of all the events that have happened to humanity in the past 170 years. Humanity focused all of their efforts and resources on defeating the Trisolarans plunging humanity into a period called the “Great Ravine” where billions starved and died. Humanity eventually decides that the cost of this preparation is not worth the cost and instead refocuses on the needs of the people, ultimately leading to technological breakthroughs.

There has also been a major political realignment with space fleets breaking off and forming three independent nations.

Wallfacer program

Another relic of the common era that didn’t survive is the Wallfacer program. The few people who even remember it think of it as an ancient joke, a relic of a time when humanity was easily scared. The Space Fleet Joint Council that now oversees the Wallfacer program officially ends the program and returns Luo Ji and Hines to be ordinary citizens.

Luo Ji’s Bad Day

A remnant of the past that does still exist, however, is the malware that the ETO installed called Killer 5.2 that turns technology against Luo Ji on multiple occasions to try to kill him, however because he’s now joined by our old friend Da Shi, he’s saved from being killed on multiple occasions.

Hines

Hines, also freed from being a Wallfacer, has his own bad day when his wife Keiko reveals herself as being his Wallbreaker. She tells the SFJC that not only was Hines’ plan from the start to build the Mental Seal, but he built 4 other machines in secret, which may still be operational today. Furthermore, in secret, he changed the operation of the machine to not implant a faith in victory, but to “imprint” an unshakeable defeatist and escapist mindset, a belief that Hines has imprinted on himself.

Zhang Beihai

Finally, Zhang Beihai also is awoken from hibernation when the current commanders of the space fleet need to find commanders they can trust were not imprinted by the mental seal. Since Zhang Beihai has always shown a triuphialist spirit, they decide to temporarily give him control of the ship Natural Selection while they conduct their investigation into who’s been imprinted.

However, as they’re handing over control, they’re all shocked to learn that Zhang himself is actually an escapist and his plan the entire time has been to take control of a ship and escape the solar system as fast as possible.

Episode 5: Droplet

Humanity prepares for the inevitable Trisolaran surrender by debating exactly how generous they should be when they do reach the Solar system. They eventually come to an agreement they call the “Strong Survival Plan” that would grant rights for the Trisolarans to settle on Mars after the probe, now called the droplet due to it looking like a droplet of mercury, comes into visual range, and humanity considers it to be a peace offering gift.

Ding Yi, who has awoken from hibernation, leads a team to be the first humans to have physical contact with the droplet. They are just one ship in a combined fleet of over 2000, lined up in a rectangle formation that is sent to encounter the droplet as a show of both unity between humanity (but actually just so no fleet can claim they got there first) and a show of force to the Trisolarans.

When Ding Yi’s team gets to the point where they are able to physically examine it, they realize that no matter how powerful magnification they use, the object still seems perfectly smooth. At this point Ding Yi realizes that humanity has vastly underestimated Trisolaris’ technical capability since they are able to build large objects out of strong interaction forces, something humanity thought could only be done at the atomic level.

However, his realization comes too late for not just his team, but for nearly the entire combined space fleet. The droplet rapidly accelerates and unfathomably takes a precise route directly through the engines of the entire fleet, causing them to explode in succession “like a string of firecrackers.”

The only ships that aren’t destroyed in the attack are Quantum and Bronze Age, which only survive because prior to contact, Ding Yi convinced them to enter a deep-sea state, allowing them to escape at high speed when the battle started.

On the other side of the solar system, Zhang Beihai and Natural Selection continue to speed away, pursued by Blue Space, Enterprise, Deep Space, and Ultimate Law. Initially the goal was to capture Natural Selection, but after they learn about the droplet attack, they quickly realize they are now the only hope for humanity and form a new civilization called Starship Earth that faces an uncertain future of deep space travel.

Starship Earth tries to organize itself for survival and cooperation for the long journey ahead of them, but it is not too long before they realize that none of the ships have enough fuel and resources on their own to make it to any destination. Separately, they all make plans to capture the resources from the other ships while inflicting what they see as necessary casualties of the crews of those ships so they can continue. The leadership of the Natural Selection comes to this realization and goes to Zhang Beihai, now back in command, that he must fire infrasonic h-bombs to take out the crew but preserve the ship.

Zhang Beihai had already come to this realization and was prepared to give the order, but he hesitates at the last moment and is too late when Ultimate Law launches an attack first, killing Zhang Beihai, Dongfang Yanxu, and the rest of the crew. Blue Space was the only ship ready for the attack and ultimately was the only ship to survive the Battle of Darkness.

Meanwhile on the other side of the solar system, Quantum and Bronze Age have come to the same realization and ended up with Bronze Age killing the Quantum’s crew. Blue Space and Bronze Age accelerate away from the solar system to start their journey to distant stars.

Episode 6: The Snow Project

Immediately following the Battle of Darkness, Luo Ji proclaims that he knew it all along and that he holds the key to human victory. While Beijing descends into chaos, he travels a great distance away from the city, and waits for the droplet to kill him in the middle of the desert.

Luo Ji’s demise is not meant to be as the droplet suddenly changes course and starts an electromagnetic wave towards the sun, effectively blocking humanity from using it to send any more messages into deep space the way that Ye Wenjie had done centuries ago and how Luo Ji had sent his spell.

Upon returning to the city, Da Shi and Luo Ji see another mob has grown, but this one has a much different makeup, they are there in reverence for Luo Ji. His spell has worked and the distant star 187J3X1 has been destroyed by a small object travelling at near light speed called a ‘photoid.’ He is now worshiped as the savior of humanity and has his Wallfacer status restored by Hines and Ben Jonathan,

Da Shi is finally able to get Luo Ji to tell him the secret of the spell in confidence. The basis of the spell is rooted in the cosmic axioms imparted to him by Ye Wenjie all those years earlier (even though he doesn’t reveal it was her who told him.)

From those axioms he extrapolated the theory of the “chain of suspicion”, such that a civilization can be considered to be either benevolent or malicious, however, due to the nature of space and the inability to communicate, the true nature of distant civilizations cannot be determined. And even if it could, there’s no way to determine what that civilization considers you to be. This is coupled with the other principle of “technological explosion”, the fact that in the cosmic timescale, civilizations can make great progress in a short time.

The Battle of Darkness was a microcosm of these axioms, and among cosmic civilizations, like a hunter in a dark forest, if a society makes itself known to another, it is simply safer for that civilization to fire upon them rather than make themselves known to the other hunters in the dark forest or risk being found themselves.

Luo Ji used the sun to broadcast the coordinates of a distant star to the universe, and like he predicted, it was destroyed by another cosmic civilization not willing to take the chance and decided that destruction was the safer alternative.

Unable to awaken his family from hibernation and unable to send another “spell” since the droplet has blocked the sun, Luo Ji immerses himself in a relatively inconsequential project known as The Snow Project, which is to encircle the solar system in stellar bombs covered in oil from Neptune that will help detect the location of the 9 other droplets on the way to Earth.

After 3 years of working on the project, Luo Ji falls out of favor with the public and is once again considered to be a fraud. Disheveled, he packs a shovel and heads to the cemetery where Ye Wenjie and Yang Dong are buried to dig his own grave.

It is there where he has his final confrontation with the Trisolarans. Similar to Ray Diaz’s threat, he has rigged a dead man’s switch to himself that when triggered will signal the bombs encircling the solar system to detonate in a very specific pattern that will broadcast the coordinates of Trisolaris to the universe. Realizing that Luo Ji’s well-being is now critical to the survival of Trisolaris, a trio of sophons unfold and negotiate with him. They agree to divert the droplets, Trisolaran fleet, lift the sophon lock, and help humanity build gravitational wave antennas.

We end with Luo Ji and his family going to observe the gravitational antenna five years later where he once again encounters an unfolded sophon. This time it is the Trisolaran pacifist who sent the warning to Ye Wenjie all those years ago, and Luo Ji concludes that he hopes that one day a brilliant sunlight will illuminate the dark forest