“The Stars Our Destination” is a pleasant departure from plot-driven episodes. The aftermath episode slows down to analyze everyone's mental health and set up the season's final two episodes.
I want more time to settle and understand. Despite numerous compressions, the Oxford Four (RIP Jack) decompress in Will's beach villa. Will is dying of pancreatic cancer, thus his imaginary countdown is more real than Auggie's. He loves Jin, which hurts too. Even though Will normally solves those concerns in his own realm, spending time with him is nice.
I still find the love-triangle component of this story artificial, but Jess Hong and Alex Sharp are superb actors who can portray a buried undercurrent of yearning beneath their interactions, such in the beach scene when she throws two paper boats in the water representing them. In this romantic comedy, best pal Saul says, “Go get her, man!” Frankly, Will has more at stake due to his limited time. Saul and Auggie take him to London via train to meet Jin after her work trip.
Jin loves Raj, but abandoning him for him would be cruel and difficult in their final weeks of friendship. Will should be suspicious of this strategy. I still rolled my eyes as he retreated after watching Jin and Raj hug across the street. Raj didn't tell her about Judgment Day, but they're together. If you take this opportunity, anticipate them together.
Will spends his millions from Jack on a more inconspicuous gift: buying Jin a star through Stars Our Destination, a foundation that protects planets. I concur with Auggie. That money may help people today instead of fueling a hypothetical intergalactic conflict 400 years from now.
Still, I like Will telling Auggie Jin needs her, not a man. Despite Eiza González's weakness, Auggie excels in this episode. The sole character facing her ethical problem, she binge-drinks to forget the family she killed with nanofibers. She collaborates with Jin and utilizes nanofibers again for questionable goals because she loves and trusts her friend, not because she supports the mission.
And the goal? Meet the San-Ti fleet halfway by sending a reconnaissance probe into space at 1% light speed. Jin uses her finest physics skills to design a strategy and present it at Wychwood Manor, the off-grid new center of operations, when Wade begs her to do the impossible.
Detonating 1,000 nuclear bombs along the probe's path accelerates it. Wade doesn't mind its high price and untested status. He wants to send a human aboard the probe to be picked up by the San-Ti during their brief meeting.
Some stakes are abstract, therefore characters' conversations must make sense. We think the mythological Sophons are limitless. “The Stars Our Destination” uses Wade's clever concept to launch particle accelerators and distract the Sophons to lessen uncertainty. It's unclear how these options alter the story. How is half-omniscience defined? What won't the San-Ti see if both Sophons are full?
But I like this episode's human aspect, including Wenjie, whose faith is shaken by the summit raid and Judgment Day massacre. The visit is especially unpleasant since Jin calls her old auntie a traitor for letting her daughter die. Wenjie prides herself on choosing the Lord's plan over human life, yet the charge still resonates. She informs Clarence that Vera killed herself after finding Wenjie and Mike Evans' letters. She never informed or messaged her mother.
Wenjie shows Jin a poster that stated, "Destroy the old world." Start a new one. She only agreed with Red Guards once, and it broke her to realize that intellectual resemblance and become her deadliest enemy. The Red Guards killed her father, but her actions may have killed someone who will make the Cultural Revolution seem meaningless.
Wenjie says she has a few ideas after going home and telling the San-Ti about their change of heart, but she's unsure what she wants. Could Wenjie move on from her actions even if the San-Ti “forgive” her? Sometimes people hold to their beliefs because recognizing their mistakes is too hard.
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