The 3-Body Problem: who is the man who gets lynched in the introduction and why?

The Three-Body Problem starts violently, presenting a distressing scene in which a man is murdered in public: who is he and why has he suffered such treatment?

The 3-Body Problem wastes no time introducing viewers to its world by propelling them into one of the darkest moments in Ye Wenjie’s life. Indeed, the young woman witnesses a bloody act against a person she seems to know well.

The Netflix series is based on the multi-award-winning novel by author Liu Cixin. And the adaptation chooses to depict a difficult period in China: it is in the 1960s that the public discovers the execution of a man on a stage of a people’s court. But who is he, and why is he lynched like this?

Warning: this article contains slight spoilers from the first episode of the series The Three-Body Problem

Who is the murdered man in the introduction to the Netflix series The Three-Body Problem?

The man who is judged, attacked and then killed in the introduction to The Three-Body Problem series is Ye Zhetai, Ye Wenjie’s father. A physics professor in Beijing, his teachings put him in a more than delicate situation while China was plunged into the midst of a cultural revolution.

yang weining and ye wenjie in the 3 body problem — Ed Miller/Netflix

Indeed, in 1966, China experienced a movement initiated by Mao Zedong, generally called the “great cultural revolution” . This tour de force is created above all with the aim of consolidating its power, and it is on the youth of the country that it relies.

Which explains why it is students who attack Zhetai in the opening scene of the 3-Body Problem: even if he does not necessarily support them, the theories of relativity and other fundamentals of physics are worth to him to be considered a traitor by the Red Guards. The man serves as an example, his accusation being made on stage to support the commandments of the cultural revolution.

Unfortunately, the attack turns into a nightmare. Carried away by the passion of their speech and irrational hatred, the participants in the scene attack Ye Zhetai, beating him to death.

Ye Wenjie watches helplessly as her father is violently executed, and this is likely what will convince her to then act as she does. Indeed, her loss of faith in humanity’s ability to save itself will push her to make a choice with disastrous consequences.

The series The 3-Body Problem has been available on Netflix since March 21, 2024.