3 Body Problem's penultimate episode totally wrecked us

Who would’ve imagined 3 Body Problem, a labyrinthine sci-fi series, would have a storyline that reduced us to tears? Netflix’s drama pulls the rug out from under us often with convoluted twists—an extraterrestrial invasion, deadly nanofibers, a batshit virtual reality game, and proton-sized supercomputers, to name a few. Amid the plot turns lies an affecting arc that comes full circle in the penultimate episode. Will Downing’s (Alex Sharp) death, if we can call it that, isn’t a shocker. Season one builds up to it since his cancer diagnosis early in its run. What’s surprising is how 3 Body Problem takes the expected and renders it into a beautiful, absolutely crazy journey for him at the end.

It should’ve been a sign that “Only Advance” begins with Will collapsing on his deck. He was finally going to die, but instead of the obvious goodbye, 3 Body Problem makes us grasp how deeply he trusts Jin (Jess Hong), the woman he loves, even if he hasn’t told her yet, and would do anything for (as if spending £19.5 million to buy her a literal star wasn’t an indication already). So, he agrees to a plan Jin devised called the Staircase Project. It would mean getting his brain removed, freezing it, and launching it into space in a capsule for an incoming alien race to capture in 200 years or so.

The turn of events here is particularly hard-hitting because the writing effectively creeps up on you. Up until this episode, Will doesn’t stand out amongst the “Oxford 5,” the brilliant scientist pals who formed an unshakable bond in college. While most of them are now busy figuring out how to stop the San-ti from approaching Earth, he opted for a quiet life as a physics teacher. He’s loved his Oxford friend Jin since the day they met, but won’t dare to confess it. 3 Body Problem continually reminds us of this, with others in the crew like Saul (Jovan Adepo), Jack (John Bradley), and Auggie (Eiza Gonzalez) pushing him to tell her. But Will would rather anonymously buy her an expensive planetary object instead.

What else does he have to offer Jin, who is leading the charge in coming up with a solution to save humanity’s future? He tells her when she visits him in the hospital that she tends to aim big. Meanwhile, he’s at peace with an ordinary existence and always has been, especially after his career didn’t take off like his friend group’s. And that’s exactly what makes Will a stand-in for the rest of the mere humans. Everyone around him is critical to a survival mission, whereas he’s dealing with grounded problems—a health crisis, loneliness, regret, and yearning while trying to find moments of joy. He’s smart and helps out his friends, but he is also dorky and ridiculous, with no idea how to spend the wealth Jack left him. Hence, that insane star.

Will’s narrative in 3 Body Problem could seem tacked on compared to the high stakes of everything else in the show, sure. But “Only Advance” is a lightning strike, somehow connecting his tragedy to the larger story. Jin’s boss, Wade (Lian Cunningham), is determined to send a brain into the cosmos, placing it into a hibernation chamber traveling at hyper speed. The capsule can only carry two kilograms, so a body cannot accompany it. Wade and Jin know the San-ti will grab his brain and use their trailblazing technology to recreate his form to understand what makes people tick. Meanwhile, after being presumably rebuilt, he can spy on the aliens. It’s a massively complicated risk, but Will wants to take it to see Jin’s work through.

And it’s clear he’s the right choice. Will is intelligent, loyal, and a fiercely good human being. So why shouldn’t he be the first one the aliens interact with? Plus, he’s already dying. Even Jin, who mourns the thought of losing her friend in this manner, can’t disagree when he says there’s no choice. She doesn’t want him to do it, but she knows Will has to.

“Only Advance” has other poignant moments, too, including Ye Wenjie’s (Rosalind Chao) return to China, her meeting with Saul, and Auggie leaving the project. But Will and Jin’s interactions are the most crushing. After all this time, he conveys the depths of his feelings to her. With his brain about to be extracted, he’s got nothing to lose. So it’s perfectly climactic and tear-jerking when she asks him by his bedside, “Why are you staring at me?” He says, “I’m not. I’m seeing you...I see you, I love you, and it’s all right.” He’s comforting her. Cue the weeping.

Sharp and Hong bring nuance into the heartfelt confrontation. She was already 3 Body Problem’s breakout star, but “Only Advance” also allows Sharp to dig into Will’s vulnerabilities nicely. Their journey doesn’t have a happy ending: Jin isn’t able to bid him farewell, so he just longingly looks at the goldfish she gifted him. As revealed in the finale, the capsule has majorly gone off course, so who knows where his brain will end up floating for thousands of years. Still, Will’s ultimate sacrifice brings incredible humanness to a bewildering, heady TV show. These moments make it easy to digest, connect with, and yes, cry over. For all its portentous themes, 3 Body Problem is surprisingly mindful of character development, dynamics, and the not-so-out-there stuff that actually makes us human. And in that way, it’s almost hopeful.