Original subtitles

ALEKSANDRA NIKIFOROVA

DMITRIY FRID

SERGEY DRUZYAK

IRINA SIDOROVA ANDREY RYKLIN

BORIS KHVOSHNIANSKY ANDREY LUKYANOV

YULIYA TAKSHINA MAKSIM RADUGIN

NIKOLAY DENISOV YURI VNUKOV

WRITTEN BY YEKATERINA PACHIKOVA

CHIEF WRITER - ANNA RULEVSKAYA

DIRECTED BY DENIS YELEONSKIY

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY - ALEKSANDR ALIOSHNIKOV

MUSIC BY ANTON SILAYEV

PRODUCERS - NIKITA SHUMAKOV, VITALIY BORDACHIOV

ANNA PAVLOVSKAYA, PAVEL BABIN, VLAD RIASHIN

DETECTIVE ANNA SEASON 2

EPISODE 18. HEARTS OF FOUR

This is the list of medicines

Mr. Sviridov ordered from the drugstores.

I wondered why he had needed them,

and in these quantities.

Camphor, ipecacuanha, calomel, opium, cocaine.

What a strange list.

I’ve been trying to figure it out for half an hour.

Doctor, I had a strangest dream.

Professor Sviridov wearing a medieval doctor’s mask -

you know, with a beak.

Plague doctor.

This sounds crazy,

but look:

camphor makes your breath stronger,

ipecacuanha relieves cough,

calomel expels bile,

opium is for nausea

and insomnia,

and cocaine is for your heart.

I don’t understand.

Which disease requires all these medicines

to support the patient?

Pestis.

The plague.

Are you dabbing in botanic, Nikolay Vasilyevich?

Folk remedies, Yakov Platonovich.

Folklore is there for a reason.

What disease are you trying to treat?

I’m cleansing my body

from poisonous substances.

Sunday fair, the treasury of life.

Is it a conspiracy to drive me crazy?

You won’t believe all the interesting things that are there.

This is interesting. Here, read it.

What do we have here?

“Alex, the carrier of this letter -

you might remember him from alma mater.

He, like myself, had to leave Odesa

after certain events you must remember.”

What events does he mean?

The assassination of General Strelnikov in 1982.

- You probably don’t remember it. - No, I do.

He was shot point-blank

by a Narodnaya Volia member

or something.

What does Haffkine have to do with it?

I looked it up in the archives.

He was a member of Narodnaya Volia’s Odesa branch

and was probably involved in the assassination.

They couldn’t prove it,

so they just expelled him from the university.

Read on.

“I met him in Lausanne and lured him away to Paris.

He will bring you what you have requested.”

Haffkine says he had lured him away.

Maybe he lured Sviridov, too.

I suspected the English,

but I should have considered the French.

Look. Suppose the professor refused

to come with this Alex.

Or he agreed.

What?

Or he agreed.

Maybe Alex brought him the passport

or money or both,

and all this charade with the cable

and the summonS were just a cover-up.

But the professor is dead.

Anna Viktorovna saw his spirit.

He is,

but we don’t know why.

Why do you rule out an accident?

I don’t.

Dr. Milts said the professor was very patriotic.

Yes. Sometimes people change their views.

Herbs from the hills,

relieve me of all ills.

Anna Viktorovna.

Hello, Andrey Petrovich.

- Do you need a ride? - No, thank you.

I’d be happy to. It would be an honor.

All right.

How are you, Andrey Petrovich?

Trying to accept your rejection.

I hope it won’t ruin our friendship.

Shtolman will deceive you,

and you will be as unhappy as I am.

Two unhappy people can always lean on each other.

Anna Viktorovna.

Anton Andreyevich, Yakov Platonovich.

Dr. Milts has figured out why Sviridov needed all these medicines.

- What disease are they for? - Plague.

Plague? Plague is an incurable disease.

Do you think I’m so unadapt in medicine, Anna Viktorovna?

- I’m adept. - Yes, you are.

Anton Andreyevich, if Sviridov had actually made a vaccine,

he would need all these to support strength

in his test subjects.

If Sviridov made such an advance in his research,

anyone might try to kidnap him to lay hands on the formula.

Uminsky, for one.

He conspires with Larisa,

they kill the professor, take him to the forest,

steal the formula, sell it abroad

and make a fortune.

A vaccine against the black death,

if it existed, would be priceless.

Besides, this foursome’s family life is far from ideal.

The professor’s affair with Uminsky’s wife is a motive.

Let’s go to the Sviridovs.

Let’s go! Delays have dangerous ends.

Here.

- Thank you. Goodbye. - Goodbye.

Polina, has my order been delivered?

Yes, it arrived this morning.

Good.

Can I have it, please?

I’ll come back tonight. I’m busy right now.

Excuse me.

Gentlemen, do you have news about my husband?

Not yet, Larisa Ivanovna.

But we still have hope.

Sit down.

I need to ask you again:

what has the professor been working on lately?

I’ve told you already, Mr. Shtolman.

I stay out of my husband’s business,

and I can’t help you.

You must have known!

Was Professor Sviridov working on the plague vaccine?

That would be great, but - alas.

Mr. Haffkine tried to make it

in Paris,

but it proved useless.

I believe the reason is that it’s different

from, say, cholera in its nature.

It can’t be cured with a vaccine.

I can add that my husband would never have tried to recreate

Hoffine’s failed experiment.

I’m sure about that.

Who is Alex Feldman?

Afanasiy friend.

Has your husband seen him lately?

Yes, he was here a week ago.

But he hadn’t been here an hour. He didn’t even stay for dinner.

Did he bring something for the professor?

I don’t know. Maybe some letters.

They were in his office.

Again, I stay out of my husband’s business.

Mr. Uminsky, where is your wife?

She lives here, doesn’t she?

I want to talk to her.

I would have gladly introduce you, but unfortunately she isn’t here.

She went to Mikhaylov to visit her aunt.

When?

Sunday morning.

The morning after your husband’s disappearance?

I don’t know. Maybe she...

The address.

Give me the address.

All right.

Mrs. Sviridova and you, Mr. Uminsky.

Please don’t leave the town.

I received it today.

Have you read the Sherlock Holmes stories?

They are fascinating.

You mean the detective who sits at the fireplace,

smoking his pipe and solving crimes?

Yes, that’s him.

You have to read the new book!

Mr. Conan Doyle is a great writer,

and Mr. Soykin’s translation is amazing.

Pelageya Ivanovna, I don’t believe in such things.

A detective needs to walk on the ground,

root in it looking for clues.

He has to expose himself to danger.

Only then will he be able to reach success.

Look at me.

I’m going to Mikhaylov now on a serious

and responsible mission.

Do you promise to be careful?

Yes, don’t worry.

I know what I’m doing.

You know, I think Mr. Rebushinsky is in love.

Rebushinsky? In love?

With whom, I wonder.

I don’t know, but he has ordered a few books on the subject.

One of them is called "The Art of Love:

How to Woo a Woman."

So, Mr. Editor is studying love from books.

It’s understandable.

Any lover’s biggest fear is rejection.

Does this book say how to predict

what a woman will answer to your confession?

In love, as well as in an investigation,

one needs to take risks.

If you don’t, you’ll never find out.

Yakov Platonovich.

Finally I see you.

Didn’t we meet today?

Someone might see us.

I’m sorry.

Is there news about Professor Sviridov?

A week ago, he met with a professor Feldman

who was going to St. Petersburg from China via Paris.

He stayed in Zatonsk for the night

and gave the professor something -

probably a passport, though I don’t want to believe it.

Have you talked to his wife and assistant?

They are definitely hiding something.

Anton Andreyevich is going to Mikhaylov tomorrow

to see Mrs. Uminsky.

Maybe she’ll be able to clarify something.

Mikhaylov, you said?

Yes.

How strange.

Anna Viktorovna, can I talk to you somewhere

where no one will disturb us?

There is so much I have to tell you.

I have an idea.

My niece isn’t here, and she never will be.

Her husband assured me she went to visit you.

- She is banned from this house. - Why is that?

She married this Uminsky

without my consent.

This godless man with his heretic belief in these bacteria and microbes!

Don’t you believe in the bacteria?

I don’t trust these doctors at all.

They brew this plague in their test tubes and then infect people!

What are you talking about?

Why would they do that?

To make us pay for their medicines.

I like these woods.

They are beautiful and quiet,

and we are alone here.

I wish we didn’t have to hide.

I must say, I like our secret meetings.

You’re a romantic, Anna Viktorovna.

Shall we stop here?

Why?

You’ll see.

I love you.

Their professor found a way

to cure plague.

Really?

He is going to give this plague to himself.

Did she say “plague cure”?

She did.

And I said I don’t want to see her in this house ever again.

I don’t understand. Isn’t curing the plague a good thing?

But the professor had to make this plague in his vial first!

How would he give it to himself otherwise?

That’s right. How would he?

Thank you. You’ve been a great help.

Goodbye.

Tell me, my dear,

what kind of herb is this?

This? Thyme.

What is it for?

Against jinxes and dark forces.

Dark forces...

We have our department for that.

I wish there was a herb to make a criminal tell the truth

without fooling around.

Take the weeping herb, sir.

It even makes the evil spirits cry.

All right.

That’s not why I’m here. Do you have...

The sour clover?

Why would I sell it? It grows everywhere.

Where exactly?

The wastelands, the quarries.

Quarries?

Thank you.

Sir, why don’t you buy some weeping herb?

All right.

Where are the horses and the coachman?

Here you are, gentlemen.

Take the horses away.

Who are you? What’s going on?

Several horses at the stable have glanders.

- It might end up in epidemics. - Glanders?

It’s a very dangerous disease.

The horses you have rented for your ride might be infected, too.

You’ll have to stay for a few days.

I’m quarantining you.

Nonsense! You have no right.

I’m a court investigator, my name is Shtolman.

My name is Volf,

and I’m the head of the sanitary team

of the Emperor’s Experimental Medicine Institute.

I have my powers, too.

Yakov Platonovich, Mr. Volf is right.

It’s contagious for people.

And can be lethal.

I’ll place you at the stud farm’s hotel.

Come in.

I couldn’t help myself.

Who is it?

Come in.

Are you all right, ma’am?

Thank you, everything is fine.

What are you doing here, Mr. Shtolman?

Please go back to your room

and stay there until the quarantine is over.

What the hell?

If one of you is infected, they might infect the other.

We came here together.

So what?

Mr. Shtolman, please.

I sent a cable to Zatonsk, as you requested.

Thank you.

Good night, Anna Viktorovna.

Good night.

Yegor, what happened?

- The wheel fell off. - I see.

I need to fix it.

So fix it.

Goddamn Fiodor! I’ll show him.

Why Fiodor? Did he break the wheel?

There was an oddity with this carriage,

Anton Andreyevich.

Here, take this. Oddity!

It was stolen and then returned.

Stolen? When?

Saturday night. And it was returned on Sunday.

Wait.

Why didn’t you tell me before?

You didn’t mention it when I questioned you.

You didn’t ask about that.

You asked whether someone went to the Sviridovs.

No one did, not on Saturday,

not on Sunday.

Yegor, as soon as we are back in town,

find Fiodor and bring him to the precinct, got it?

What’s there not to get?

Any news about Sviridov?

Have you found something?

What happened?

I saw his spirit.

Is Afanasiy Nikitich dead?

I’m afraid so.

I sorry I didn’t tell you before, doctor.

But they didn’t find the body.

Maybe you’re mistaken.

Oh my God.

Let’s see...

what this miracle herb does.

Who should I get a confession from?

A glass of tea?

Gladly, your nobleness.

Don’t get up.

Drink some tea

and tell me how you are.

This tea tastes strange.

What’s strange?

It’s good Chinese tea.

My family sent it to me.

It’s good for your health, my friend.

- Your nobleness. - What now?

Baker Ivashkin is kicking up a row again.

Pour cold water on him to sober him up.

Next time he want attack his neighbors in the middle of the night.

Come on, I’ll set your Ivashkin straight.

What are you doing?

Give me the bucket.

Come on.

Hello, Anton Andreyevich.

Hello.

How was your trip?

Great.

Mariya Uminskaya hasn’t visited her aunt for six months.

She isn’t in Mikhaylov.

So her husband lied.

Definitely.

- Send your Fiodor to me. - Yes, sir.

Is it "the" Fiodor?

- What do you mean? - The kid from the fair.

Oh, no. It’s another surprise for you.

My heart is on fire.

I can’t breathe!

By God,

I’m not worthy of my uniform!

I should have given up my position to Panteleyev.

He wanted it so bad, so bad!

But no,

I had to get a promotion!

Oh, I’m such a sinner!

What are you saying, your nobleness?

Anyone would be happy to serve under you.

Shut up!

Don’t talk back.

I’m at fault.

I demote myself

to officer on duty.

Get out of my chair.

But who will take your place, your nobleness?

You will.

I’ve been watching you for a while.

Come on.

Try this on.

Take yours off!

Take off!

Nikolay Vasilyevich, what’s going on here?

I’m righting a wrong.

This is the man who deserves my job.

Come here for a minute.

- Were you two drinking? - No, sir.

Breathe.

- He brought this weird tea and... - What tea?

Nikolay Vasilyevich.

Your nobleness!

I’m not nobleness!

I’m a humble officer on duty.

We were close friends. He was a great man.

Russian science has suffered a great loss.

I have no doubts he would have completed

his work on the vaccine.

Yes, but Haffkine had worked on the vaccine

before him and failed.

He knew about his work.

Maybe he found the mistake and was trying to fix it.

I don’t think so, doctor.

He’d rather have told Haffkine about it.

He wasn’t the kind of man

who steals others’ work.

What was he working on, then?

Serum.

Think about it.

While Haffkine failed

at creating a vaccine,

professor Sviridov could have tried to create a serum,

an antidote for those who are already sick.

So he was conducting an experience,

but the serum didn’t work.

Yes.

He could die in mere days, even hours.

Pneumonic plague can sometimes develop very quickly.

Yes, but you need to have the agent to infect someone with plague.

Yakov Platonovich said a man called Feldman came

from Hong Kong to see the professor a week ago.

There is a plague epidemic in Hong Kong right now.

That’s what he brought him! The causative agent.

Your nobleness. Coachman Kruglov is here.

Send him in.

Go ahead.

Sit down, Fiodor.

Yakov Platonovich,

Fiodor Kruglov,

coachman with the city transport firm,

has a fascinating story for us.

- Right, Fiodor? - Yes, your nobleness.

I didn’t do anything.

No one says you did.

Just tell us everything you know. Maybe you’ll even get a small reward.

If you say so.

So last Saturday

I finished my work and wanted,

you know, to wet my whistle.

I see.

So I went to the pub and had a couple with the guys.

When I came out, the carriage wasn’t there.

- It wasn’t? - It wasn’t.

I even sobered up.

This thing is expensive.

I’d never have settled my debt to the firm.

I didn’t go home, fearing that my missis would kill me.

So I spent the rest of the night in the pub,

and when I crawled out next morning,

he was there, my darling, as if no one ever touched it.

I even thought I imagined all this.

Maybe you did. You were drinking, weren’t you?

No, sir.

The right wheel was skewed,

and I found money under the seat.

How much?

The thief wasn’t stingy. He paid me handsomely.

Who would want to go to the quarry in the middle of the night?

Why do you think they went there?

There was red clay on the wheels.

There is only one place in the city where you can find it.

There is an abandoned quarry at St. Petersburg road.

Yes.

Isn’t that where they took the professor?

That’s it.

The mysterious carriage,

the ghost carriage!

They put the professor in it,

took him out of town, killed him,

and buried him in the quarry.

Bring the carriage.

We’ll need to show it to witnesses. Here’s your reward.

We’re going to the quarry, Yakov Platonovich.

Hello, Larisa Ivanovna.

What do I owe the honor?

Please tell me the truth.

Was Afanasiy Nikitich working

on the plague serum?

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

You know jolly well what I’m talking about.

Lara, do we have company?

I’m glad to see you, doctor.

Arkadiy Konstantinovich,

what did you do with Afanasiy Nikitich’s body?

Is it buried safely?

It’s red, Yakov Platonovich.

Your nobleness, this way.

I think we found it.

Get started.

This is ridiculous, doctor.

What are you doing here?

We are worried sick because of Afanasiy Nikitich’s disappearance,

and we hope he will be found.

He died several days ago,

and you both know it very well.

How do you know it?

I talked to him.

I think I know who you are.

Anna Mironova, the medium.

The Zatonsk celebrity.

Strange. You look like an educated young woman.

She is.

Doctor, do you expect me to believe in this nonsense?

Listen, your husband’s spirit is here,

and he wants me to tell you that you’re wasting the precious time.

Larisa Ivanovna, if your husband actually died of plague,

and if the police finds his grave and digs him out,

there will be an epidemic.

Is that what you want?

Eureka!

Gentlemen, sour clover!

Sour clover, gentlemen!

Gentlemen!

- Sour clover - Stop.

- Stop right there! - Sour clover, gentlemen!

Step back!

Stop, stop, stop!

Mr. court investigator,

I want to confess killing professor Sviridov.

I’ll explain, just tell your men to stay away from the grave.

- It can be dangerous. - Stop!

Stop! It’s the plague!

We had been preparing for a while.

The experiment was to start on Saturday.

Colleague, are you ready to record this?

I hope this day will make the history of medicine, professor.

The ingredients from Lurie have been delivered.

Great.

Masha, put them on the table

and don’t forget to tell Lara to pay Solomon Yakovlevich tomorrow.

You will be outside the door the entire time,

asking about my state every hour

and, most importantly, noting it down.

Haffkine had to repeat the experiment three times

before they believed him.

Unlike us, he was using volunteers.

Masha, what are you doing?

Two volunteers is better than one.

Afanasiy,

I want to be the subject of this experiment with you.

You drunk it, after all.

It tastes like water.

Finish it.

What other woman would dare do this?

“Rose-maidens’ scents we drink in boldly,

Scents, it may be - full of the Plague!”

Afanasiy.

- Are you still with us? - Lara, don’t come in.

We all prayed that the agent brought from Hong Kong

proved dead,

but it worked.

And it worked much faster than we expected.

It would take at least another month to prepare a new does of the serum.

This is pneumonic plague.

It develops rapidly.

Professor, are you sure?

Don’t ask idiotic questions.

Arkadiy, I’ve been studying this disease my entire life.

We’ll soon infect the whole town.

Prepare Larisa Ivanovna.

We had a revolver at home.

We couldn’t take our carriage.

Natasha was the only one among the servants

whom we could trust.

Professor saved her son’s life once.

So you borrowed the carriage left at the pub?

Wait! I’m coming with you.

Larisa, are you crazy?

Do you want to go into grave with us?

We are contagious.

It’s as risky for Arkadiy as it would be for me.

Stay. I’ll come back for you, I promise. Hup!

Afanasiy.

That’s why the servants quoted different time

of the carriage’s departure.

Yes.

Then I came back for Larisa, as I promised.

Goodbye, Lara.

Goodbye, Arkadiy.

I hope you’ll continue my research

and make sure it doesn’t fall into strange hands.

Lara,

you have always been too impressionable.

Please don’t let me down, colleague.

I don’t want to die in pain.

I’m sorry. Please excuse me.

We buried the bodies,

I put some rocks over the grave,

drove Larisa back home

and returned the carriage.

You mean when I met you and you said you had been hunting?

Yes. I’m sorry.

That night we burned everything

professor and Masha could have touched at the lab.

You should have burned the bodies, too.

You’re absolutely right, but we didn’t have time for it.

Besides, the bodies soon stop to be contagious.

You just can’t touch the grave for the first few weeks.

Yakov Platonovich, Anton Andreyevich.

I’ve known Dr. Uminsky for years.

He’s a good doctor and a decent person.

He didn’t do anything illegal.

What are you going to do, gentlemen?

I don’t understand, gentlemen.

Believe me, it’s the best solution.

Do you suggest to cover up the professor’s disappearance?

- Yes. - No.

Let me remind you, Nikolay Vasilyevich,

that the kidnapping is only one theory.

An accident might have happened.

Personally I believe that he left Zatonsk on his own will.

Really? Why would he do it?

The servants say that the professor

was having an affair with his assistant’s wife.

Well...

By the way,

we still haven’t found out where she is.

- Yes. - No?

I think they left together.

Great.

So they left their spouses and eloped.

Well, this sounds probable.

I think so, too.

How do you feel, Nikolay Vasilyevich?

I slept like a log.

No more folk remedies, gentlemen.

No tisanes or potions.

Only medical science, gentlemen!

I was going to ask you.

When you were talking to my husband,

did it feel as if he was angry with me?

Are you worried about something?

Yes. It suddenly occurred to me that he might have thought

I was lying when I told him I wasn’t jealous of Masha,

that I actually hated them both

and lived with Arkadiy only to get back at him.

And it’s not true, is it?

Of course not.

Our feelings for each other had long cooled off.

We lived together like friends.

When the Uminskys came into our life...

But that’s what Afanasiy might have believed.

I was glad to see you, Larisa Ivanovna.

So was I.

HEARTS OF FOUR