In 3 Body Problem, Ye Wenjie is the person responsible for inviting the San-Ti to Earth. Rosalind Chao plays Ye Wenjie, while Zine Tseng plays the younger version of the character.
Ye Wenjie is the mother of Vera Ye. In the 1960s, during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Ye Wenjie saw her father get killed by Red Guards in front of everyone at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Her mother had a hand in the death of her father. The experience left a deep impact on Ye Wenjie for life.
Ye Wenjie is later arrested for possessing an influential book called Silent Spring, which is about how people are poisoning the world.
The book was given to her by a soldier with whom she had an affair. The arrest becomes a blessing in disguise as the Red Coast Base recruits her, believing that her talents will be best used with them.
Ye Wenjie was brought to Red Coast Base’s attention because of an article she wrote called “The Possible Existence of Phase Boundaries within the Solar Radiation Zone and Their Reflective Characteristics.”
Contacting aliens
When Ye Wenjie is given a chance to rehabilitate at the Red Coast Base and use the best of her talents, she accepts the offer from the officials at the base, ready to stay there for the rest of her life.
During her time at the Red Coast Base, Ye Wenjie learns the true purpose that this place serves.
Red Coast is not an experimental weapons program. The truth is, they are trying to communicate with anyone who is out there in space.
Using the best of her talents and by bending a few rules, Ye Wenjie finds a way to answer the signals they have been receiving.
However, her commissar is against using the sun as an antenna, considering the political symbolism of such an experiment. Despite that, Ye Wenjie experiments with her idea.
After meeting Mike Evans and the person who killed her father, Ye Wenjie realizes that humans are hopeless.
Hence, when she receives a reply from space, she intends to follow up. A pacifist from an unstable three-star system warns her about answering their signal again.
The pacifist claims that their people will conquer Ye Wenjie’s world, so she should stop her attempts at communicating with them.
Ye Wenjie still replies, saying that the humans can’t save themselves. She invites the aliens, who later are named San-Ti, to their planet and even offers help to them in conquering her world.
Ye Wenjie’s dedication and death
After becoming a professor at Tsinghua University, Ye Wenjie teams up with Mike Evans to welcome the San-Ti to their planet. They form a cult of followers who worship San-Ti.
At one point, Ye Wenjie and Mike Evans gave birth to Vera Ye. In the present, Ye Wenjie is the founder of the cult that worships San-Ti.
She is arrested by Thomas Wade’s soldiers during a conference of all of San-Ti’s followers. Ye Wenjie is stunned when she learns that their Lord, San-Ti, has stopped communicating with them because humans lie.
However, she agrees that they can’t coexist with their Lord, as they are liars and deceivers. Jin criticizes Ye Wenjie for making a decision for their world and claims that she will be remembered as a traitor.
Ye Wenjie is later let go by Clarence since she is not charged with any crime. Back home, she apologizes to San-Ti, taking the blame for the eradication of the human race.
Ye Wenjie goes back to where the Red Coast Base was, the place where she first made contact with San-Ti, to kill herself by jumping off a cliff.
Tatiana, who is working for San-Ti now, comes there. She kills Officer Collins, the officer Clarence has assigned to keep a watch over Ye Wenjie, and after meeting Ye Wenjie, she offers her a more gentle and beautiful death than the one Ye Wenjie has chosen.
Tatiana and Ye Wenjie watch a sunset at the latter’s request. Tatiana says that Ye Wenjie has fulfilled her purpose.
The show doesn’t reveal how Ye Wenjie meets her end, but her and Officer Collins’ deaths are reported in the finale.
Also Read: 3 Body Problem review: Ambitious series with uneven execution