What Was Up With Dr. Ye’s Weird Einstein Joke In 3 Body Problem?

Spoilers are ahead for 3 Body Problem season 1.

In the final episode of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem season 1, Dr. Ye Wenjie (Rosalind Chao) tells Dr. Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo), her late daughter’s former research assistant, a weird joke about Einstein. Although it might seem random, Ye Wenjie’s joke is actually an all-important clue that hints at where 3 Body Problem season 2’s story will lead. The show opens during the Chinese Cultural Revolution: a young Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng) watches as her astrophysicist father is brutally killed during a struggle session. Later, she’s conscripted by the military and forced to work on a top-secret project at a remote base.

Dr. Ye Wenjie decides to make contact with extraterrestrials, known as the San-Ti (Trisolarans), who are searching for a new home world. By offering up Earth to them, the scientist’s choices have consequences that ripple across time and space. Possessing very little faith in humanity, she even co-leads a cult-like welcoming committee for the San-Ti, the Earth-Trisolaris movement. In the present day, the San-Ti are grappling with humanity’s ability to lie. Deciding they can no longer trust humans, they allow many 3 Body Problem significant character deaths, pushing Dr. Ye Wenjie to rethink her pro-San-Ti position.

Dr. Ye Wenjie’s Einstein Joke In 3 Body Problem Explained

The Strange Scene Has Huge Implications For 3 Body Problem Season 2

Dr. Ye Wenjie comes to the conclusion that she’s no longer of any use to the San-Ti, but she still stands up to them in 3 Body Problem‘s season 1 ending. Not only that, but the clever scientist actually threatens the would-be alien invaders, warning them that when they arrive at Earth in 400 years, there may not be any fighting at all. Before leaving London behind, she sets up a meeting with Saul at the grave site of her late daughter, Dr. Vera Ye (Vedette Lim). The joke Ye Wenjie tells involves Einstein dying and going to heaven.

When Einstein arrives at the pearly gates with his precious violin, he asks to play a duet with God. The angels try to persuade Einstein otherwise: God is an accomplished saxophone player. However, the Einstein of Ye Wenjie’s joke doesn’t back down. When he hears God on the sax, he starts playing his own instrument. God stops playing, marches over to Einstein, and breaks the violin. “We warned you,” the angels tell Einstein as he writhes in pain, “Don’t play with God.“ Although it may seem like a complete non sequitur, Ye Wenjie’s joke is packed with meaning.

Was Dr. Ye Wenjie Sending Saul A Secret Message With The Einstein Joke?

Saul Is Tasked With Defending Earth From The Alien Threat

With 3 Body Problem‘s technology, the Sophons are always listening. That is, the San-Ti are almost always aware of humans’ next moves if they — in any way — try to communicate their plans to their peers. Previously, Ye Wenjie’s co-conspirator Mike Evans (Jonathan Pryce) told a San-Ti liaison the fable of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. In that sequence, the San-Ti struggles to grasp the very concept of fiction; inventing stories is akin to inventing lies to the aliens, and lying is another concept that doesn’t compute.

As a result, the San-Ti liaison decides the very act of telling a fictitious story is a testament to humanity’s duplicitous nature, thus confirming that the two species cannot co-exist peacefully on Earth. Dr. Ye Wenjie becomes aware of the San-Ti’s inability to understand fiction and lies, so she uses this knowledge to her advantage when speaking with Saul. Since the joke is also a fictitious story drenched in metaphor, Ye Wenjie believes the San-Ti won’t be able to decode its true meaning. Using the joke, she tries to steer Saul in a certain direction.

How The Einstein Joke Could Connect To Saul’s Role As A Wallfacer

Dr. Ye Wenjie Made Sure To Visit Saul Before Leaving

Not only is Dr. Ye Wenjie’s approach to dispensing information in the form of a fictious joke/story clever, but the metaphor she’s using is also meant to push Saul in the right direction. By the season’s end, Saul becomes one of 3 Body Problem‘s Wallfacers — humans chosen to invent brilliant defensive strategies that will thwart the San-Ti’s imminent invasion of Earth. Of course, in order to safeguard his plan from the San-Ti and their Sophons, Saul can’t share his ideas with anyone else.

Through the joke’s content, Ye Wenjie covertly plants the idea of the Fermi Paradox in Saul’s head. The paradox suggests that many hostile alien civilizations exist in the universe, but stay hidden because of one another. All of that hiding means there’s no substantial evidence of these many civilizations’ existences, hence the paradoxical nature of the hypothesis. Theoretically, humanity could stop the San-Ti from invading Earth by attracting the attention of a more powerful alien force hidden in the dark forest of the galaxy, which is likely what Ye Wenjie hopes Saul will glean from her story in 3 Body Problem‘s final episode.