Original subtitles

I see you have already noticed them, Investigator?

There is no hiding from you.

I'm not so sure which one of us is the detective.

Shtolman. Court Investigator, as you correctly pointed out.

Allow me to introduce myself:

Gudkov, landowner.

Glad to make your acquaintance.

I must confess,

these gentlemen have caught my attention.

Despite their age, they live life to its fullest.

One may only envy them.

Creme dela creme.

Except there is no more life in them than

in the roasted pig we feasted on.

I am not quite sure what you mean.

What if I told you that all these people are...

Dead?

Yes, yes, yes, you heard me right.

They are all walking dead.

Ghouls.

Prince Lapshin, retired Brigadier Kapustin,

lady Rodionova, Countess Yeleonskaya.

They are all ghouls of the first order.

Do you mean they all bleed the common man dry?

No.

I mean they feed on the blood of the young

and innocent.

This entire hall is full of dead people, Mr Shtolman.

And you are one yourself.

I think you've had too much champagne.

You died five years ago,

and everybody knows it.

Yakov Platonovich, have you seen Dr Miltz?

ALEKSANDRA NIKIFOROVA

DMITRIY FRID

SERGEY DRUZYAK

IRINA SIDOROVA ANDREY RYKLIN

BORIS KHVOSHNIANSKY ANDREY LUKYANOV

YULIYA TAKSHINA MAKSIM RADUGIN

NIKOLAY DENISOV YURI VNUKOV

WRITTEN BY ANNA RULEVSKAYA

CHIEF WRITER - ANNA RULEVSKAYA

DIRECTED BY ANDREY MARMONTOV

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY - ALEKSANDR ALIOSHNIKOV

MUSIC BY ANTON SILAYEV

PRODUCERS - NIKITA SHUMAKOV, VITALIY BORDACHIOV

ANNA PAVLOVSKAYA, PAVEL BABIN, VLAD RIASHIN

DETECTIVE ANNA SEASON 2

They're about to play the last waltz... Yelena Adamovna.

Yes.

The ball is over.

Andrey, ask Sonya to dance.

EPISODE 23 THE GHOUL

She has been standing in the corner all evening.

Gladly.

Allow me to ask you to dance, Sofya Kazemirovna.

Of course.

Anna Viktorovna, may I?

Anna Viktorovna, may I have the honor?

Of course.

Excuse me.

Have you lost all discretion?

Just one dance.

Liza, come now.

Stop sulking.

You know how I dreamed of going to that ball.

You know it simply was not possible for us to go.

No. I don't know.

Why not?

Because there would have been a scandal.

Well, then... Now we can't go anywhere at all together?

Oh God...

Why do you say such silly things, my angel?

Of course we can.

But some time must pass first.

It will simmer down in time.

How much?

How much time must pass?

A year.

Maybe two.

No, Viktor. I can't handle that much.

Everyone looks at us as if we're criminals.

Look,

I did tell you

it would not be easy.

Really, I am having some difficulties myself.

I have less settlors now.

People trust me less.

But your love makes it all worth it.

You have made me the happiest of men.

Why don't we live?

To Petersburg or Moscow.

You know that I can't leave my family right now.

No, I don't know. Why not?

They manage fine without you.

Please, let's leave here!

At least for a little while, for a month or maybe two.

Please, I can't bear it here,

everyone points fingers at me.

All right.

Give me some time.

Good day, Solange. How are you?

Thank you, Mr Pankratov.

They are expecting you.

Really, are you all right?

You're quite pale.

It's quite all right,

I just haven't had enough sleep.

Yelena Adamovna.

Good afternoon.

Afternoon, Andrey Yuryevich.

What precious flowers.

Well, hand them to me, then?

What is the matter, then?

Tell me.

You've come to propose, did I guess it?

You did.

You are so shy!

You're afraid of rejection?

You shouldn't be.

I...

Please accept my apologies, Yelena Adamovna.

I really have come to ask for a lady's hand...

Sofiya Kazemirovna's.

How awkward.

Emiliya Karlovna.

What am I to make of this, Andrey Yuryevich?

You came to my house, courted my daughter,

convinced her of your feelings, and now...

You won't marry her?

Excuse me...

excuse me, countess, but you are wrong.

I have made no advances at Yelena Adamovna.

She claims the opposite.

And my daughter wouldn't lie to her own mother.

To be frank,

I enjoyed the company of Yelena and Sophie equally,

until I realized that my heart belonged to the latter.

I must have been in love with her from the beginning.

I ask for the hand of your ward,

Emiliya Karlovna.

Is that so?

Are you aware, my good man,

that Sofiya has no dowry?

She is as poor

as a church mouse.

That doesn't worry me at all.

I do not want for money.

My answer is no... sir.

But why?

What is the reason for your rejection?

Do you doubt my commitment?

I swear to you, I love Sofiya Kazemirovna with all my heart

and I will do anything to ensure her happiness.

It's absolutely out of the question.

Goodbye, Andrey Yuryevich.

And hereinafter,

spare us your visits.

You are no longer welcome here.

Did I understand correctly?

The cadaver got up and left?

That's exactly it, sir.

I got scared almost to death.

Who was he?

Nobody, really. Some pauper.

The policemen brought him in from the village yesterday,

he was lying in the street dead.

- Who examined the body? - I did.

Seems he had a fit.

Arms curled up, blood on his lips...

And he had quite a reek to him.

I put him in the dead room.

Should have known he was a vampire.

Good afternoon. Anton Andreevich, you're here too?

- Anna Viktorovna. - Has something happened?

Yes, here it is: vampires have appeared in our Zatonsk.

How curious. Them, we've never had before.

You shouldn't laugh, Anna Viktorovna.

If you saw it too, you wouldn't be laughing.

But how can one keep from laughing, my good man?

You work here long?

Well, going on two years now.

And you still don't know not to pronounce

people dead after one look at them?

- Anton Andreevich, this is all a mistake. - Right...

They dragged a stinking lout in,

no signs of life, so naturally they just threw him

in the dead room.

And if you weren't squeamish,

you could have found a pulse, right?

Hear his breath?

And I'm telling you that was a ghoul, a vampire.

Long teeth,

big ears, covered in sores and scabs,

as if he'd already spent a while in the grave.

And most importantly,

his hair was...

Kind of ginger!

So what?

Like you don't know!

All ghouls are ginger.

So this is how you repay me for my kindness?

You steal Yelena's fiance?

- Emiliya... - Quiet!

Jillflirt.

Harlot.

You were an orphan, I took pity on you, took you in, into my home!

And you...

Shameless wench.

You are unfair.

Yes, Andrey and I love each other and want to get married.

What is so foul about it?

You're not getting married.

Don't even think about it.

You're going to the monastery.

Atone for the sins of your ancestors.

What sins? What are you talking about?

Lock her up in her room.

And no letters,

- No visits. - Yes, madame.

You will not leave the house again.

I will put you in chains if I must.

You know not what you do? That is all right.

I will take care of you.

Go, to your room!

Solange!

Solange, what's the matter?

What is it now?

Somebody, we need to send for the doctor!

Solange. Solange...

Easy, my dear man, you're all right, you're all right...

What are you even wailing about?

Closed fracture, no displacement.

We'll put a cast on it, you'll be good as new in a month.

Really hurts!

- Hand me some morphine. - Yes.

- There, there, there. - God!

What is this you gave me?

I apologize.

It hurts! It's too much!

You'll get some relief now.

Step outside, Anna Viktorovna?

May I ask where your head is?

Ivan Yevgenyevich, I thought I'd apologized.

What use is that to me?

We aren't out on a walk.

Or a ballroom, where Your Ladyship had a little dance.

You're daydreaming about suitors instead of doing your job!

You have no right to use that tone with me.

Everyone has the right to a mistake.

Have you thought about the cost of your mistakes?

You have become anxious and inattentive.

Because you constantly lecture me!

I've worked here for six months, nobody has complained about my work yet!

I quite doubt that.

Go mix the plaster.

I'm taking you off patient care.

What? You don't dare do this to me.

If you truly are committed to medicine...

you will have to prove it to me.

Fine.

I'll prove it.

Quite frankly, I am surprised by your visit,

Investigator.

Poor Solange's death?

Probably an accident, it's not worth your time.

I wouldn't be so certain.

The death of a young healthy girl

will always arouse some suspicion.

Perhaps your maid has been poisoned.

Poisoned? Here, in my house?

Why, that is utterly unthinkable.

We all...

loved Solange.

She...

was a real angel...

I don't know...

how I'm going to do without her.

Although, of course, please do whatever

you're supposed to in these cases.

This is simply my duty, ma'am.

I think I saw you at the ball last night.

Quite possibly.

What a pity...

that we must meet in such tragic circumstances.

You are very handsome...

Mr Shtolman.

I...

noticed...

the way you looked...

at me...

last night.

You were the queen of that ball...

Countess.

Excuse me.

Yakov Platonovich, good afternoon, sir.

I understand I may start working?

I eagerly expect your conclusion, Doctor.

Goodbye, ma'am.

Anton Andreevich.

May I have a minute?

Do you know anything about the lady of the mansion?

Not much.

Emiliya Karlovna Eleonskaya, widow,

quite wealthy as you might have noticed.

Integrated into our high society rather quickly,

and I have heard nothing untoward about her.

Yes, a pleasant person,

though it appears she's full of love despite her age.

You fancy?

From what I've heard, she's got a spotless reputation.

Nobody disputes that.

I see you're interested in the countess.

Curious about her, rather.

You know, I heard a most interesting story

at the ball last night.

What is it about?

Sir, don't!

That's wolfsbane, a poisonous flower!

Always drawn to poison, aren't you?

You're with the police?

We are.

Look at it all you want,

but you'd better not touch it.

Gentlemen, I had a feeling something would happen in this house.

How come?

Queer things happen here.

Haven't seen it myself, not going to lie.

But the kitchen maid and the laundry woman

always blathered about how lately,

a ghoul would appear in their window at night.

What? A ghoul?

That's right. Undead.

You see, last night at the ball...

Ghouls are precisely what that story was about.

Impossible.

This morning, I was questioning the orderly

and he swore that one of the cadavers came to life

and escaped the mortuary.

Too many undead in the last few days.

So what have you got, Doctor?

Yakov Platonovich, I'm not ruling poisoning out,

though Mademoiselle Solange may have died of natural causes.

Judging by her skin, she suffered from a light form of anemia.

Could it not happen due to blood loss?

In this case, I think it's something else.

I talked to the maid

and she said that Mademoiselle Solange hadn't had any trauma

or surgery recently.

So as always,

we shall know after the autopsy.

Officers will deliver her to you shortly.

All right.

Strange... This is all very strange.

I must leave urgently.

And you, Anton Andreevich, canvass the help.

Let them tell you about this mysterious ghoul.

Believe me, believe me, as soon as I finished reading,

tears flowed from my eyes.

How authentically you describe

the joy of young love in this chapter!

You find it so?

Yes.

And your journey back into the characters' past,

that is also very important and very appropriate.

After all, we must tell the reader how it began between

Agata and Profiliy Platonovich, mustn't we?

And show the height from which they later plunged

into the abyss of misfortune.

You sound as if you have lived something of the sort.

Oh, my treasured friend...

You alone I could ever tell the story of my broken heart.

- Tell me! - Oh, no.

I demand it.

All right, then. If you please.

I was 23 years old.

And I was giving Russian lessons

to the son of a newly-rich peddler.

Well, my lessons were of no use...

So his father had him engaged to a rich merchant's daughter

like him from a nearby town.

Whom he'd never even seen.

And then?

She wrote him letters.

And what letters they were...

Intelligence shone through them,

education, a colorful personality...

Well, the fiance, naturally, realized none of it.

He could barely even read.

In short, he talked me into replying to her on his behalf.

And that is how this amazing epistolary novel began.

My God, how romantic.

I wrote to her from the heart,

and with her every reply,

I realized I was falling deeper and deeper in love.

But what did I have to offer her?

The thought of that barbarian getting

this delicate creature tore at my heart.

It must have been quite hard.

Words could not express it.

Well, wedding day finally came,

and the peddler invited me to come to the other town

with the whole family.

That was when I saw her.

A beauty, a heavenly angel.

Well, naturally, I did nothing to betray myself,

and she only looked at the groom.

My God...

So, that night, I got drunk at the festive table...

And late that night, when everybody else had gone,

one of the guests sat up to me.

Same age as me.

Well, he was as drunk and miserable as I was.

And he told me that he taught the bride Russian,

that she was dumb as a brick...

But her groom was, judging from his letters,

quite a remarkable man.

My God, My God...

The one I loved never existed.

I exchanged letters with her teacher.

Mariya Timofeevna, we had better leave here now.

I'm begging you, don't look back.

Don't be silly, Aleksey Yegorovich?

We are staying here, of course.

So...

Dr Skryabin banned you from treating patients

and sent you to me.

Yes, as he said, I can't harm anybody here.

Strange.

I was sure you would get along with him.

Well, let's get back to our Solange.

- Obvious damage to the cardiac muscle. - And asphyxia.

And then either the cardiac arrest led to asphyxiation,

or the other way around.

Take a closer look, Doctor. There are traces of gastroenteritis.

You are absolutely right.

Whereas Dr Skryabin... is wrong about you.

Also, it appears that she had been drinking coffee,

so poisoning is possible.

Hand me the dilator, please.

Doctor, look, there are marks of some kind on her back.

What is that?

Mr Gudkov?

Shtolman, Court Investigator.

Open the door, we met at the ball last night.

Mr Gudkov?

These are wet cupping marks.

There you go, the reason for the anemia.

But why was her blood let?

And it seems that it was done regularly, too.

These marks are very fresh, and these have healed already.

- Aleksandr Frantsevich, you called? - Yes, yes.

I wanted to consult with you.

Before you is a girl, 20 years old.

She falls down,

has a fit of convulsions, and dies 15 minutes later.

During the autopsy we've discovered traces of asphyxia

and cardiac muscle damage,

and, yes, these spots.

I would like to know your opinion.

The reason itself could be anything,

for example, an infection.

Infection?

Over here, look closely.

The hook of her underwear rubbed against this spot.

Check it, I will bet it was rusty.

The skin became inflamed, and through here,

the Staphylococcus got in her system.

You said Staphylococcus?

Well, yes, in some cases the illness is asymptomatic

until the moment when it reaches a vital organ -

in our case, the heart.

Yes, quite a reasonable explanation.

But what about the gastroenteritis?

You suppose that was the reason for the cardiac arrest?

Very curious theory.

Aleksand Frantsovich, if I'm not needed anymore...

Yes, of course, you may go.

Wait, Doctor.

Why would you say they let her blood?

I haven't a clue. And who cares?

Please excuse me, Yakov Platonovich,

I must... I must question you.

Certainly, I will answer all your questions.

What was your purpose coming to see Mr Gudkov?

Believe it or not, but it was him

who told me about vampires at the ball.

And what did he tell you, exactly?

Well, mystical things aside...

He talked about some secret society,

and he called these cultists "Walking dead".

And now, he is murdered the next day.

Yes.

What about the countess' servants?

Oh, they keep talking about some ghoul.

Sir, permission to report?

Canvassed the neighbors and night watchman,

nobody has come in since yesterday night.

I don't understand.

He didn't drive a stake through his own chest, did he?

I suppose that is possible. We need to wait for Dr Miltz's findings.

- Right... - Send him away.

Also, have you made note of the victim's library?

No.

He clearly believed in vampires.

Could he have believed it so much

that he thought he was one?

Why is nobody coming to us?

Waiter.

Waiter!

Waiter!

What is your pleasure?

I've been waving to you for ages.

Please forgive me. What is your pleasure?

Vienna coffee and petits fours.

Viktor?

What will you order?

I'll have what the lady is having.

See, honey?

I told you it would be just fine.

You're right...

my angel.

So I keep thinking,

why did she let her own blood all the time?

Beauty has a price.

I knew ladies in St Petersburg who used that method

to achieve an intriguing pallor.

God, how positively stupid.

That is dangerous!

Have you heard about the Vienna Institute of Beauty?

The doctors over there give ladies

their youth back with the help of surgery.

I've heard that Empress Mariya Fyodorovna herself has used their services.

You don't say!

That is shocking.

After all, that is a risk.

Anna?

Anna, what's the matter?

Consulamentum.

Consulamentum.

Consulamentum.

What's happened?

Something is happening to me.

I... keep seeing something...

like another country, and another age...

And a woman is burned at the stake.

Who is that women?

It's me.

Well, look lively, won't you?

Pull the stick out.

Oh no, I'll pass, Ivan Yevgeynevich.

He has to be buried with the stake in,

to be sure that he doesn't get up.

And face down.

Fine, you can go if you're so scared.

- I'll handle it. - Thank you.

What is wrong with our people?

So full of ignorance...

...and paganism.

Anna Viktorovna.

Yakov Platonovich...

I am so glad you've been able to come.

I wanted to see you too.

Wait.

Let me tell you a bit about Solange the poor French girl.

What, you've managed to determine the cause of death?

Yes.

She got cut with a rusty hook on her underwear.

The doctor thinks that might have caused a cardiac arrest and asphyxia.

So it wasn't a poisoning.

No, but there's a curious detail.

She had wet cupping marks on her back.

Imagine, she regularly had her blood let.

Strange, but it all fits.

What do you mean?

Yesterday at the ball one of the guests

told me that Countess Eleonskaya and her secret society

drink the blood of the young and innocent.

And today, I found him dead.

There was a wooden stake in his chest.

And Solange worked for Eleonskaya...

This cannot be a simple coincidence.

I'm begging you, be careful.

Krutin is still at large.

You think this might be his handiwork?

I feel he could be involved in this.

Tomorrow, I will visit with the Countess and talk to her again.

Solange lived with her and never went away.

There is no way she doesn't know about those strange bloodlettings.

You too, Yakov Platonovich: be careful.

I promise.

Go, it's late already.

Just a little more.

If you don't leave right now,

I will never let you go.

Goodnight.

Sonya!

Andrey!

I heard Solange is dead.

Yes.

Almost immediately after you left.

My God, what a tragedy.

Emiliya Karlovna is upset.

She forgot to lock me up.

She's gone?

She always leaves on Fridays.

Sonya...

You can't stay in this house anymore.

I will take you away.

You are of age, you are free to be your own person.

We will get married tomorrow, right away.

You don't understand.

I can't be your wife.

We would never be happy.

Just let me look at you one last time so I remember you.

What are you saying?

We will be together forever.

I am cursed.

Cursed with what?

Who told you that, was it her?

That's just nonsense.

Solange?

And who are you?

Oh, you must be the gentleman talking about ghouls.

What do you want from me, then?

Do you want me to go someplace?

- Sonya, are you asleep? - Not yet.

You know, I've come to tell you...

that I'm not angry with you about Andrey.

Really?

I liked Andrey.

But what can I do if he chose you?

You are like a sister to me,

and I wish you only the best.

And I am flooded with admirers, anyway.

I should think I can find myself a husband.

You know that your mother will never let our marriage happen.

Just wait,

maybe she'll change her mind yet.

I'll try to talk to her.

Thank you.

But I hardly imagine it would help.

Tell me...

Has she ever told you what it is,

the family curse is?

No.

Never.

THE GHOUL