Ye Wenjie suggests to Luo Ji that he study 'cosmic sociology' while visiting Yang Dong's graveside.

The UN announces the Wallfacer Program, assigning four individuals to secretly plan humanity's defense against the Trisolaran invasion.

Luo Ji rejects the Wallfacer role and is shot by an ETO assassin just outside the UN.

Luo Ji asks the Planetary Defense Council to build him a luxury home far from society.

Shi Qiang locates Zhuang Yan, a woman matching Luo Ji's described fantasy girl, and brings her to him.

Wallfacer Tyler's secret plan is publicly exposed by his Wallbreaker, and Tyler ends his own life.

Zhuang Yan and their daughter Xia Xia enter hibernation to force Luo Ji to pursue his Wallfacer responsibilities.

Luo Ji broadcasts the coordinates of star 187J3X1 to the universe as a deliberate 'cosmic spell.'

Luo Ji wakes from hibernation to find a technologically advanced underground civilization has grown on Earth.

Keiko Yamasuki reveals she is Hines's Wallbreaker and exposes a secret network of mentally imprinted soldiers.

Zhang Beihai seizes command of the warship Natural Selection and flees toward deep space, abandoning the fleet.

The Trisolar probe activates and destroys nearly the entire Space Fleet in a matter of minutes.

Star 187J3X1 is confirmed destroyed by an unknown force, proving Luo Ji's dark forest theory correct.

Luo Ji threatens the Trisolarans with mutually assured destruction, pressing a gun to his own heart.

The Trisolarans accept Luo Ji's demands and call off their invasion, opening a new era of cooperation.

The Dark Forest follows Luo Ji, an unremarkable astronomer who is thrust into the Wallfacer Program after being targeted for assassination by the Trisolarans for reasons he cannot explain. He spends years resisting his role before a personal loss forces him to engage with the theory of cosmic sociology, leading him to broadcast a mysterious signal into the universe before entering hibernation. Two centuries later, he wakes to a confident but doomed humanity, watching the Trisolar probe annihilate the entire Space Fleet in minutes. With his dark forest theory confirmed by the destruction of a distant star, Luo Ji stages a final, desperate confrontation with the Trisolarans. His threat of mutually assured destruction succeeds, and an uneasy but genuine era of cooperation between humanity and Trisolaris begins.

Humanity's last hope: the rise and triumph of the Wallfacer Program.

Mike Evans communicates with a Trisolaran via sophons and discovers that human thoughts are invisible to them.

Zhang Beihai and Wu Yue are reassigned from the Chinese Navy to the newly formed Space Force.

Zhang Yuanchao invests money in the Escape Fund after arguing with neighbors about who deserves to survive.

Luo Ji's casual lover is killed by a speeding car in what turns out to be a Trisolaran assassination attempt.

ETO members meet in virtual reality and assign Wallbreakers to each of the three major Wallfacers.

Luo Ji takes Zhuang Yan to the Louvre, where she describes how human eyes communicate secrets Trisolarans cannot read.

Despite his astronomers' resistance, Fitzroy orders the Hubble II to scan the Trisolaran fleet and confirms it is 1,000 ships strong.

Luo Ji is infected with a bioweapon flu strain targeting only him and rushed into emergency hibernation.

Zhang Beihai assassinates three scientists aboard the Yellow River Station using bullets designed to mimic a meteor shower.

Wallfacer Rey Diaz's Wallbreaker exposes his plan to propel Mercury into the sun and destroy the entire solar system.

Rey Diaz bluffs the PDC with a fake kill switch, escapes to Venezuela, and is stoned to death by his own people.

Multiple technology-based assassination attempts are made on Luo Ji across future underground Beijing in rapid succession.

Zhang Beihai contacts the fleet commander and admits he has always been an Escapist and confesses to killing the scientists.

The Spaceship Earth fleet ships attack each other in the Battle of Darkness, and only Blue Space survives.

The village council votes to expel Luo Ji, and he wanders to old Beijing carrying only a bag and a shovel.

Behind the headline events of the Wallfacer Program, the Trisolar Crisis reshapes ordinary life and military strategy across Earth. ETO agents organize Wallbreakers to dismantle each Wallfacer, while Zhang Beihai secretly positions himself for a long-planned escape, and ordinary citizens argue over who deserves to survive. The Wallfacers Tyler and Rey Diaz are each exposed and destroyed by their enemies, while Luo Ji is quietly removed from the board by a bioweapon before he can act. When the Trisolar probe obliterates the Space Fleet and Zhang Beihai's fleeing ships turn on each other in the Battle of Darkness, Luo Ji's isolation and expulsion mark the depths of humanity's despair before his theory finally offers a way out.

The crisis unfolds: spies, Wallbreakers, and cascading catastrophe.

Escapism is declared illegal, and Zhang Yuanchao loses his entire 400,000-yen investment in the Escape Fund.

Luo Ji wakes in a basement with detective Shi Qiang and is flown to the UN on a plane surrounded by fighter jets.

Zhang Beihai visits his gravely ill father, who urges him to think carefully about what he must do in his new role.

Zhang Beihai formally recommends his close colleague Wu Yue be dismissed for defeatism, and Wu Yue agrees and steps down.

Zhang Beihai volunteers as the sole person for the Space Force's High-Tech Strategy division.

Luo Ji asks Shi Qiang to find a real-life version of his fantasy girl, insisting it is central to his Wallfacer plan.

Luo Ji falls through the ice on a frozen lake and simultaneously experiences an epiphany about cosmic sociology.

Wallfacer Hines tests the mental seal on himself as a demonstration and unexpectedly develops a phobia of water.

Hines secretly distributes modified mental-seal machines that imprint soldiers with Escapism before entering hibernation.

Captain Dongfang Yanxu hands Zhang Beihai a loaded pistol at their first meeting, telling him to shoot her if she is guilty.

Ding Yi examines the Trisolar probe under a microscope and realizes too late it is an indestructible weapon, not a peace offering.

Luo Ji hears of the Battle of Darkness among the fleeing ships and celebrates, knowing his theory of the dark forest is confirmed.

The Trisolar probe locks down the sun's message-amplifying ability, blocking Luo Ji from executing his plan.

Luo Ji digs his own grave beside Yang Dong's tombstone and issues a final ultimatum directly to the Trisolaran sophons.

Luo Ji is reunited with his awakened family and a Trisolaran confesses to him that it too has known love.

Beneath the major events of the Trisolar Crisis lie a series of quiet revelations and decisive personal choices that determined its outcome. Zhang Beihai conceals his true Escapist beliefs behind fierce triumphalism, making calculated and deadly moves across decades to ensure humanity has a path of flight. Luo Ji stumbles toward his cosmic breakthrough through personal obsession and a sudden freezing epiphany, while Bill Hines covertly plants a time bomb of defeatism within the Space Fleet's own ranks. The Trisolar probe's arrival forces every character to confront the universe's brutal logic firsthand, and Luo Ji's public disgrace deepens before his final act of courage. In the end, a graveside ultimatum and an unexpected Trisolaran admission of love offer a fragile but genuine hope for both civilizations.