What's the deal with the stars in '3 Body Problem'?

"Has the universe ever winked at you?"

It's the cryptic question alien-worshipper and Earth-Trisolaris Organization member Tatiana (Marlo Kelly) poses to Auggie (Eiza González) in Netflix's 3 Body Problem. And it's the one in the back of the nanotechnologist's mind when she and fellow "Oxford Five" member, physicist Saul (Jovan Adepo), find themselves staring at a sky full of stars blinking across the world.

In episode 1 of David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo's sci-fi epic, based on Liu Cixin's books, the world sees the night sky flickering simultaneously, prompting widespread news coverage and watercooler chats the next day. As it's happening, Saul decodes the stars using a strange breakfast cereal toy code-cracker Tatiana gave to Auggie, finding it matches the numbers in Auggie's countdown.

But what exactly happened here, and how did the stars suddenly flicker?

It's flickering all over the world. Credit: Netflix

The blinking stars are a worldwide deepfake

In episode 2 after the phenomenon, Saul tells Dr Ye Wenjie (Rosalind Chao) his theory about the blinking stars: "It's bullshit. It never happened." When Wenjie questions this, noting that the entire world witnessed the blinking lights, Saul doubles down. "Sure, everyone on Earth. But you know who didn't see it? Webb, Hubble, CHEOPS. None of the satellites saw it. You know why? Because it never happened. It was a deepfake."

Saul's bang on the money, though he hasn't figured out who created such an illusion. So, who did? It all comes down to the sophon, the technology deployed by the impending alien race, the San-Ti, who responded to Wenjie's transmission sent in 1968. In episode 5, when Jin and Thomas Wade (Liam Cunningham) speak to the San-Ti AI warrior through the VR headsets, they tell them the aliens have created a sentient supercomputer by focusing energies on a single proton, then creating "a mind as large as a world".

In episode 5, the San-Ti demonstrate the sheer power of the sophon, reflecting the world upon itself and fashioning a giant eye in the middle of it all, informing the "bugs" of Earth they're under constant surveillance by an alien race. It's Christopher Nolan's Inception meets George Orwell's 1984 and it scares the shit out of the human race, as intended. The flickering stars seem like mere party tricks, a glimmer of the San-Ti's sinister intention to make humanity "learn how to fear again."

"In place of truth, we give you miracles," the San-Ti warrior explains. "We wrap your world in illusions. We make you see what we want you to see."

What's with the Toasty-O-Sters code-cracker?

This item, given to Auggie by Tatiana on their first meeting for the purposes of looking at the stars, is a strange one. Right out of a box of Toasty-O-Sters breakfast cereal, the code-cracker allows Saul to figure out the stars are flashing numbers that correspond with Auggie's countdown. It's not Morse code, as Saul explains, but instead he cracks an alien code using this tiny piece of plastic. Auggie mentions the cereal Toasty-O-Sters hasn't been made since 1963, which is five years before Wenjie sent her first message to the San-Ti.

So why on Earth are the San-Ti, a technologically advanced alien race, using an out-of-production 1960s cereal toy as their chief means of communication with one scientist on Earth?

But ANYWAY, now you and the world knows the blinking stars aren't just a cosmic phenomenon. They're a direct threat.

How to watch: 3 Body Problem is now streaming on Netflix.