Three-Body Episode 27 Recap
> Three-Body Recap
Ye Wenjie reflected on her daughter Yang Dong’s relationship with her mother, Shao Lin. While Ye Wenjie never forbade Yang Dong from seeing Shao Lin, Yang Dong seemed to intuitively avoid mentioning her grandmother. Ye Wenjie revealed that she had long despaired of human civilization and harbored no intention of seeking revenge for her father's death; rather, she felt she had already exacted her revenge on all of humanity, including those responsible, on the morning at the Red Coast Base.
Her unwavering ideal had become to introduce a higher civilization to the human world. She clarified that it was not she who first contacted the Trisolaran Civilization. Half a year after returning to university, Ye Wenjie embarked on a major project to design a large radio astronomy observatory. This led her and her team to a remote mountainous area in the Northwest, chosen for its optimal electromagnetic environment.
There, they encountered locals who offered them water and spoke of a peculiar foreigner they called “Bethune,” who had been planting trees on the back hill for nearly three years, supposedly to save a dying species of bird. The villagers found his actions baffling, even suspicious. Ye Wenjie soon met the man, Mike Evans. Due to his meager living conditions, he couldn’t even offer them coffee.
When asked by a villager what he was doing there, Evans declared his purpose was "Saving lives." He quickly clarified he was not saving local human lives, but rather a specific subspecies of the Northwest Brown Swallow, whose ancient migration routes were imperiled by disappearing vegetation, pushing them toward extinction.
He explained that he was creating an “Eden” by planting trees to provide them habitat, stating that saving other species was as significant as saving humans, who he felt lived “much better than they deserve.” He observed that while his swallows weren’t as charismatic as pandas, countless unnoticed species went extinct daily. Though he had initially hired locals, he ran out of funds for saplings and irrigation.
When the villagers conveyed the county’s desire to reward him for his efforts, Evans simply asked if the reward included "some hands to help plant some trees," baffling the villagers. Ye Wenjie was drawn not by the swallows, but by Evans's underlying reasons for his actions. Mike Evans, the son of a multinational oil company president, seemed far removed from his billionaire background.
He shared with Ye Wenjie a pivotal event from his childhood: his father's explanation of why human civilization prioritized oil over the lives of seabirds, even in the face of accelerating mass extinctions. His father asserted that ensuring human survival and comfort was paramount, with all else being secondary. In Evans's view, all humans, including his father, were "executioners." Ye Wenjie, having her own complex relationship with her father's ideals, understood Evans's sentiment.
Evans recounted how the eyes of those dying seabirds haunted him, shaping his life. At thirteen, he declared his desire to be a "savior," not for humanity, but for any endangered species, no matter how insignificant. He later studied biology, specializing in birds and insects, firmly believing that saving any species was no different from saving a human being.
This conviction formed the basis of his self-founded doctrine: "species egalitarianism," which posits that all living species on Earth are born equal. While Ye Wenjie admired Evans’s purity and self-awareness, she recognized him as a "paranoid idealist," especially as he stated that humanity’s selfishness and hypocrisy would forever prevent the realization of species egalitarianism. Although she did not fully agree, she envied his unyielding dedication.
Ye Wenjie clarified that she did not share information about the Trisolaran Civilization with him at that time. Her observatory project was not approved, and she returned to Beijing. Three years later, she received an urgent postcard from Evans, imploring her to "Come here, and tell me how to live," prompting her return to the remote Northwest village. Evans, visibly driven, told her he couldn't stop planting trees or he would collapse.
He revealed his father had died two months prior, leaving him an unexpected inheritance of $4. 5 billion, excluding real estate, while his siblings received only $5 million each. He interpreted this as a sign that his father, deep down, valued him and his ideals.
Evans shared his profound disillusionment, explaining that his extensive global efforts to plant trees in areas with high deforestation rates had been largely destroyed, with over 70% of his trees cut down in the past two years. He could use his vast capital to stop the deforestation or even compel reforestation, but he deemed such actions meaningless, as human nature—whether driven by poverty or the wealthy nations’ practice of outsourcing pollution—remained inherently destructive.
He lamented that all non-human species, including his beloved Northwest Brown Swallow, would inevitably face extinction if civilization continued on its current path. He had come to China believing the idea of species egalitarianism might have originated in the ancient East, specifically referencing Buddhism's principle of saving all lives, in contrast to Christianity's human-centric focus. However, he now found the problem was universal, and even Buddhism couldn't resolve his crisis.
Despite his immense wealth, he felt his life’s pillars had crumbled, concluding that human efforts and massive investments to save endangered species or the environment were futile against humanity’s inherent madness. He speculated that humans might be beyond self-correction and questioned if there were "other forces outside of humans." In a moment charged with destiny, Ye Wenjie, recalling her own past encounter, interjected, "Do not answer. Do not answer. Do not answer. Yes, there are other forces."
She then fully recounted the story of the Red Coast Base and the Trisolaran world, vividly recalling every detail, even the temperature of the sun on her face on that pivotal day. Evans, though initially finding her story "amazing" and hard to believe, recognized that he possessed the resources to verify her claims. With this realization, he declared, "If what you said is true, then we are comrades."
Following their alliance, Mike Evans vanished for three years, leaving Ye Wenjie uncertain of his activities or how he was confirming her claims. Then, in the winter three years later, Ye Wenjie received an invitation to be a visiting scholar at an unknown university in Western Europe. Upon her arrival at the airport, a young man greeted her and led her to the tarmac, where they boarded a helicopter. He informed her their destination was the Second Red Coast Base.
Inside, Evans confirmed that, using the coordinates and frequencies Ye Wenjie had provided, they had successfully received messages from Trisolaris, validating all her assertions. He announced that the great Trisolaran Interstellar Fleet had already set sail, targeting the solar system, with an expected arrival in 450 years.
Evans introduced Ye Wenjie to the first members of the newly formed Earth-Trisolaris Movement (ETO), explaining their ideal: to invite the Trisolaran Civilization to transform human civilization, curbing its madness and evil, and thereby making Earth a harmonious, prosperous, and sinless world once more. He revealed their organization was rapidly expanding with members worldwide.
When Ye Wenjie inquired about her role, Evans declared her the Supreme Commander of the Earth-Trisolaris Movement, a designation unanimously recognized by all the ETO warriors, who chanted, "Eliminate human tyranny! World belongs to Trisolaris!" Ye Wenjie clarified that this was the full extent of her knowledge regarding the ETO's establishment.
She admitted to a premonition that the ETO would eventually "deteriorate," but at the time, she was unable to make definitive judgments, and despite her misgivings, she voluntarily joined with the hope of steering their course. However, she ultimately found her power to be minimal, unable to make any significant changes. She had once held great expectations for the Trisolarans, but now felt disappointed.
She recounted that a quote from Mike Evans, stating that while they knew humanity, they did not know what extraterrestrial intelligence looked like, had become the motto of the Adventists, one of the ETO's internal factions. Ye Wenjie confirmed that the Adventists had indeed intercepted messages from Trisolaris, but due to their highly organized structure, she never learned the content of those messages.
She revealed that she later attempted to establish a Third Red Coast Base to re-establish contact after the Adventists monopolized communications, but this effort only completed the receiving portion before construction ceased and the base was dismantled, as no more messages were coming from the direction of Alpha Centauri. She speculated that the Trisolarans might have changed their communication methods, a possibility Evans never denied.
When asked if Evans had deceived her, Ye Wenjie clarified that he had never confided his true innermost thoughts, only expressing his profound sense of mission toward other Earth species. She had not foreseen that this sense of mission would morph into such extreme hatred for humanity, to the point where he considered the destruction of human civilization his ultimate ideal. She agreed that Evans had exploited the Trisolaran Civilization.
She explained the ETO's internal factions: the Adventists, led by Evans, who sought to annihilate humanity with alien power; the Redemptionists, who worshipped the aliens as divine beings; and the Survivors, who sought to betray their fellow humans for self-preservation. Ye Wenjie lamented that this reality was completely inconsistent with her initial ideal of using an advanced alien civilization to transform humanity.
She had "lit the fire, but I couldn't control it," believing that a high civilization would embody a high morality capable of saving Earth. When questioned about her desire to eliminate the Adventists and why she didn't directly attack their vessel, the Judgment Day, despite the Redemptionists' loyalty to her, Ye Wenjie revealed a critical obstacle: the Trisolaran messages, which she referred to as the "Lord's messages," were stored on one of the Judgment Day’s computers.
If attacked, the Adventists would destroy these vital messages, which she considered as crucial as sacred religious texts. Therefore, she concluded, the Adventists were holding the Lord's messages hostage, rendering them powerless to act against the Judgment Day. She declined to offer any suggestions, and dismissed the question of whether her use of "Lord" for Trisolaris indicated religious conversion, stating it was "just a habit" she did not wish to discuss further. She also deemed it unlikely that the Trisolarans had provided the Adventists with advanced technology, fearing it would fall into human hands.
