Episode 6
The world reacts with riots and suicides to the revalation of the San-Ti, while governments try to raise money for the coming war effort by introducing a program call The Stars Our Destination.
Wade plans the defense of Earth at Wychwood Manor and recruits Jin, asking her to come up with a proposal; the only requirement is acceleration up to 1% of lightspeed using current tech. She proposes using nuclear pulse propulsion to incrementally accelerate a small probe with each explosion.
Raj speaks to Wade and asks him to join the space fleet and Wade agrees. They’re going to assemble spacefaring ships on the moon.
Jin visits Will on the beach and tells him that she knows that he has cancer. Jin folds two origami boats, and they watch them sail off into the water.
Saul and Will speak about Jin; Will is hesitant to say anything to Jin and ruin their friendship, but Saul and Auggie convince him to go to London to tell her how he feels, but after seeing Jin and Raj together back in London, he decides against it.
Will tells Auggie, who’s been racked with guilt over her role in Panama, what Jin really needs is her help. Despite her feelings about Wade, Auggie agrees to help.
Ye tells Da Shi that the real reason that Vera committed suicide is because she found out the truth about her mother’s role in contacting the San Ti. Da Shi gets approval to release Ye from custody.
Jin tells Wade that the probe doesn’t have any way to decelerate long enough to be intercepted by the San-Ti, but Wade reveals that the probe is going to be tempting enough for them to go out of their way to capture it because they’re sending a human being on it.
Ye Wenjie returns home and prays to her lord revealing that she knows they’re coming to stamp humans out, but she tells them that she still has an idea, and that when they get here there might be a fair fight or no fight at all.
Back on the beach, Will sees a vision of the boats and visits The Stars Our Destination. He tells them that he wants to buy a star.
Episode 7
Will points out DX3906 to Saul, saying it’s 401.5 light years away. Will demands that Saul never tell her that he bought it for her. Shortly after, Will passes out.
Raj brings in a gift of a plaque that Jin has been given of the star DX3906 from an anonymous person, but she dismisses it, saying no one can own a star.
Wade gets a demonstration of hibernation technology: the test subject has been hibernating for a month and is brought back with only minimal side effects.
Wade tells Jin that he intends to hibernate and wake up for a week a year until the SanTi arrive since no one else can be trusted.
Wade tells Jin that they can only get 300 bombs, so they need to reduce the size of the payload. Wade says that they will only be sending a brain.
Auggie open sources her work for all the world to be able to use.
Jin visits Will in the hospital and talks about the Staircase Program. Will shows Jin the book of fairy tales that she gave him in 2015. Jin tries to tell Will not to volunteer for the project. Will realizes that she doesn’t have any other options and tells her that it’s all right.
After looking at books on Game Theory and the Fermi Paradox, Ye and Saul speak in the graveyard. Ye tells Saul a cryptic “joke” about Einstein trying to play music with God in heaven, but he gets his violin destroyed, and the angels tell him that “you never play with god.” She says that humor is a personal thing, some jokes only make sense to 2 people, and that we wouldn’t survive without them. She adds that she hopes the joke won’t cause him any trouble.
Will refuses to sign a pledge of allegiance to humanity, passing Wade’s test, and cementing him as the perfect candidate
Sophon contacts Tatiana and tells her she is needed for their cause.
Saul and Will talk about the possibility of what will happen if the probe is captured. Saul brings up the possibility that they will bring him back just to torture him just to get information that will help conquer the human race. Will is undeterred and goes through with his decision.
After Wade tells Jin that Will bought her the star, she runs to the hospital, but is too late and they’ve already conducted the procedure to remove his brain
At Red Coast Base, Ye slips her bodyguard and contemplates jumping from the cliff, Tatiana meets her there. Knowing that she is there to kill her, Ye asks if they can watch a final sunset together.
Episode 8
Saul, who just had a one-night stand with a woman, waits for a ride with her. Suddenly, a car veers off the road in what appears to be an accident, resulting in her death as Saul, who has tripped, looks on.
Da Shi tells Saul that he believes that this was an attempt on his life. Ye Wenjie was murdered in China and he was the last person she spoke with before she left for China.
Da Shi gives Saul bulletproof clothes and brings him to a private jet, escorted by fighter jets.
Wade refuses Jin’s request to include seeds in the capsule, saying that any weight will slow down the capsule and delay intercepting the enemy fleet,
Saul’s flight lands at the UN building; at the Planetary Defense Council, Sec. General Joseph gives a speech about a new program called the Wallfacer Project, in which 3 people will be named “Wallfacers” and will have wide latitude to do whatever they want to develop a plan in secret to defeat the San-Ti. After two more conventional choices, Saul is surprised to be named the third Wallfacer.
Sec. Joseph says that the enemy knows why Saul was chosen. Saul tells her that he rejects the position. She tells him that he is free to do anything.
Saul is shot in the chest by a sniper shortly after demanding Da Shi and Kent allow him to leave alone.
Raj asks if Jin loved Will, she corrects him and says that she loves him, and that he’s still alive.
Saul asks Da Shi to meet his would-be assassin, and when Saul asks why he did it, he says that he gets to be a soldier in the army of the lord.
The Sec. General expresses that they have only an indirect reason for why Saul was chosen and that she believes he’ll know when the time is right.
Will’s brain is loaded into the rocket, and Wade tells Jin that he included the seeds in the capsule after all.
Saul arrives and he and Jin take a walk on the beach where they try to understand why he was chosen as Wallfacer.
Auggie is in Mexico installing water filters that use her nanofibers to provide clean drinking water. While demonstrating them, she ignores a call from Saul.
The Staircase Project’s rocket makes it to the first set of bombs and successfully harnesses the power of the explosion to increase speed. However, after the 3rd bomb, one of the supports on the sail malfunctions and the capsule veers off course, lost forever to space.
Wade returns back aboard his private jet when Sophon takes over his screen, and then appears in front of him. She says there will be a place for him when they arrive and that he is part of their plan. He sees a hallucination of Sophon, the countdown, and a vision of himself without eyes.
Da Shi takes Jin and Saul for a drive out to a swamp swarming with bugs. He points out that humans have been trying to get rid of bugs forever, but they’re still there no matter what we do to them. He pours out a drink for the bugs and says they have work to do.