Original subtitles

It's your fault.

You can have your beliefs, but you should stick to them.

If you honestly agreed to work for me, you'd still be alive.

But you still have a small chance.

I left a detailed instruction regarding the antidote to your Vershinin.

I really hope he'll make it in time and you will live.

Then I'll definitely see you again.

If not, well, it's fate.

Fatum.

Ania. Ania!

Ania!

Ania, my dear! Ania!

Ania. Ania!

Stop shaking me.

Thank God.

-Hello. -Hello. Delivery.

Nikolay Vershinin?

No.

Dad?

-Delivery. -What delivery?

Hello. Please sign for it. Here.

Okay. Oak bath besoms, 42 pieces.

Sets for sauna, 42 pieces.

I'm sorry, what do you need 42 sauna sets for?

Well…It just happened.

By accident?

There is no such thing.

Okay. Floor mirror, one piece.

Here.

-A seven-rungs ladder. One piece. -Here.

Okay. Where is the self-wringing mop with a telescopic handle?

Hi.

Here it is. A self-wringing mop with a telescopic handle.

THE MOP 2

Hi, son. How is it?

The mop is fine. Anna Nikolayevna isn't.

-What is she doing? -The same.

Looking at the ceiling.

Has she eaten?

No. Like all these days.

Picked at her plate and pushed it away.

-Maybe you could talk to her. -Why me?

Do you think I didn't try?

You have more topics in common.

Talk to her in your bird language. Mathematics, I mean.

We have a body.

Vitia, give her some problem. It used to help before.

Come on. I need to go to work. Bye.

Give her a problem!

What kind of problem?

Weird man.

Kolia.

Kolia!

The light was red.

So I'll get a ticket.

How is she?

Better than the body we're going to see?

Actually, not much.

She lies in bed and doesn't say anything.

Lies in bed silent. Doesn't even do her math.

Maybe it's the aftereffect of the poison.

No. She has been examined.

It's just that she had never lost before.

This Fatum…

He had stolen her soul.

Anna Nikolayevna, how are you?

Can you at least say "okay"?

Okay is somewhere close to the median, and I'm in the fifth percentile.

Fifth what?

It must be really bad.

I always thought that mathematics was above everything,

that it defined everything in life,

including life itself.

Isn't it true?

Great people…

Gauss, who used to be called the king of mathematics,

formulated the fundamental law

of normal distribution.

I believed that law true not just for numbers but also for people.

It appears it isn't true.

According to the Gaussian normal distribution,

68.2% of our life is normal,

13.6% is good,

and 2.3% is great.

And on the other side, symmetrically,

13.6% is bad

and 2.3% is horrible.

Right. Life is a zebra.

A dark strip, a white strip.

It means there is no other way to go but up.

The king of mathematics will not lie, Anna Nikolayevna.

Go.

Please.

Yes, son.

She has, like, the fifth percentile.

What is it?

I haven't googled it, but I think it's real bad.

Okay. Bye. Talk to you later.

Okay. Bye.

Any news?

Some kind of fifth…

fifth percentile.

I'll look it up when we're there.

Hi.

Hi. Any grownups at home?

I am a grownup.

Okay, big boy, show mw your bathroom.

We're installing new water meters.

What for? We're okay.

It's the maintenance office's orders.

They have new meters installed in all apartments in this neighborhood.

So, where is the bathroom?

Over there.

We've only moved in recently. I didn't know.

Don't worry. First of all, it's free.

And second, these are modern contraptions.

Now you'll only pay for the water you are using.

Okay, then. You can replace them.

Thank you.

Are you coming?

Yes.

In the broad representation…

Hello.

Hi.

Sergeant Demidov.

This is Mr. Illarionov, CEO of the Vympel Ltd.

It's our warehouse.

What happened?

Suicide. Probably.

-Hi. -Hi.

Hello.

Well… The body was found by the watchman of the neighboring warehouse.

He saw at 09:05 that the door wasn't closed,

came in and saw him hanging.

The watchman called us and an ambulance but…

Was he identified?

It's Larin. Andrey.

I can't believe it.

What?

That he is dead.

Looks like he's been dead for around three hours.

Who is this Andrey Larin?

Our engineer.

He works for our company. Worked.

What do you think?

Looks legit. I don't see any signs of violence.

I'll tell you more after the postmortem.

What does your company do?

We make measuring equipment. Excellent ones.

Cameras? Alarm systems?

No. Nothing like that.

Does he have family?

I don't know. I can ask the accounting.

Please find out his phone number and address.

Well, as the Mop says, the fifth homophile.

Okay, not fifth. Fourth.

Okay. I need to question all your employees, and fast.

Okay. I'll take care of it.

What shall we do?

What? We'll open the case, what else?

I mean the Mop. I mean, Ania.

If Katia doesn't find anything, we'll close the case.

I can't say anything about Ania yet.

Okay, Mitia, you go to this Larin's house.

Katia, I'll give you a ride to the lab. And I'm going to his office.

Fata viam invenient.

What?

The Fates will find a way. It's Latin.

I read it on a pack of chips yesterday.

By the way, what about Fatum? Any news?

No news. I've alerted all informers. Nobody knows anything.

-I even asked the reporters. -Nothing?

Nothing. And Ania won't hear about him.

Okay. Let's go.

Fata viam invenient.

Are you from Apartment 45?

Why don't you ask how I know you are from 45?

It's just that I know everyone here, but I don't know you. So you are from 45.

So the plumber came to you today.

They tricked you, too.

There are enough benches here.

Right.

You see, the ZhEK used to be in charge, and now it's the maintenance office.

I used to use less water before the installed their meters.

You see?

They screwed us up, and they keep screwing us.

Ma'am, I can't do anything for you.

Yes. It used to be better.

I paid less for the water.

They have nothing to do with it.

Who does, then? Me?

You see, the water consumption differs from month to month.

It is subject to the Gaussian normal distribution.

Normal? How can it be normal if I pay more?

Who is this Gauss of yours?

A German?

The manager of this maintenance office is a German, too.

His name is Becker.

Gauss was a German, yes.

But he was a mathematician, and he definitely had nothing to do with it.

He died.

Yes. In the 19th century.

And water consumption is a random value.

Random? I have it all written down.

Here, look.

You can analyze it. Here.

Tatyana Semionovna, again, my condolences.

Tea.

What?

I have just brewed a fresh pot.

Did Andrey have enemies?

Enemies?

No. Of course not. What enemies?

Everybody has enemies.

Andrey didn't.

Maybe some girlfriends problems?

He didn't even have a girlfriend.

Just me and his work.

Was everything okay in the office?

Of course.

Everything was all right with him. Always.

Have you noticed something strange about him lately?

He didn't leave a note? Well…

You searched everything here with me.

Tatyana Semionovna, if you remember something…

Anything.

Please give me a call.

How about a cup of tea?

I've just brewed it. With thyme.

Andrey loved it so much.

Everything looks normal.

You're probably using more water now.

Don't be in a rush. Wait and you'll see.

I called everyone. They'll bring you their bills, too.

Here they are.

No, it's not that. My family left.

You see the situation?

Hush, ladies. Your bills.

When were the new meters installed?

In January. It was just before the New Year.

If you… Just a minute.

Can we have some quiet?

Okay. January. 31 days.

4.4 cubic meters.

It's 142 liters per day.

Oh, hipster.

-Hi. -Hi.

-Anna Nikolayevna, are you okay? -Yes.

The ladies and I were studying Gauss.

Okay. Normal distribution with expectancy 141

and dispersion around 7.

Let's see what year it is.

What's your name?

-Yaroslava. -Yaroslava, can I have your crayon?

What year is it?

Okay.

May I?

He…

I don't know.

A good engineer. Very good.

He has been with us since the start of this year. Had been.

Very polite. He brought me flowers on Women's Day.

He is the sort of person you don't notice when they are there,

and when they aren't…

No reprimands. He was never late for his work.

He knew a lot. I always asked him to help with my crossword puzzle.

We only ever talked about work. I don't think he ever drank.

No conflicts.

There are no conflicts in our team at all.

There are only four people on the team.

Well, three now.

Andrey mostly dealt with production. He was never at the office.

We're renting a workshop. They assemble our devices there.

I'm running the accounts. Contracts, other paperwork.

We hired Larin when the business was on the rise.

I can't believe it.

I already know that.

Yes. The probability of this outcome is around 12.5%.

I wish I knew what the normal distribution is.

You do know it.

I looked it up on the internet.

What was it you called me when you saw me first?

Well, a hipster. Also a…

Yes. Based on your rich experience,

you believe all young people are hipsters or…

But that's true.

That's what normal distribution is.

Well, in your case. Gauss has it a bit differently.

Hush. 12.5%. Keep it on mind.

Like my son's mortgage.

No, it's the probability of your water distribution. Go on.

What will she do with this probability?

Look. You toss a coin. Right?

Heads.

Tails.

Tossing a coin, you got equal amount of heads and tails.

So?

Then the coin was replaced with a new one,

you tossed it three times and got three heads.

He's talking about meters. Got it?

Yes. Sure.

If it's a genuine coin, the probability of it is 12.5%.

Like mortgage.

And if everyone gets the same result, the coin is fake.

Okay. 12.5, 10.5. 33. 8. 50. 11.

What does it mean?

It means the zero hypothesis

about the equality of two average normal distributions

is disproved by Student's t-test.

His real name was William Gosset, and he was a scientist, a statistician.

But it doesn't matter.

What matters is that you've been screwed.

All of you.

-Just as I said. -You and me, too.

-Yes. -Yes.

Not bad.

Turn it on.

Looks like it's airtight.

What does it mean?

It means it's not about the meters. Although… I wonder where the old one is.

-The plumber took it with him. -What for?

I thought that's what they always do. Put a new one and take the old one.

Well, it's too bad.

We need to find the old one.

Why don't we ask Dad?

-Dad? -Yes.

For the meters? Vitia.

Don't be ridiculous.

Let it be our own modest investigation.

Right.

Anyway, Dad knows nothing about mathematics.

Exactly.

What do we have here?

No signs of violence.

This is all very suspicious.

What is?

That this Larin had nothing.

No enemies, no problems. Not even a girlfriend.

And now there is no signs of violence, either.

What is he, an angel?

Don't be cynical. He is dead.

And he isn't an angel, because I found no signs of wings.

As I said, he doesn't have anything.

He has alcohol in his blood. Not much.

We could use some alcohol, too.

-What do you mean? -I mean me.

Not you, of course. You can't.

A propos, general called. Sosnovskiy.

He asked if we would come to dinner.

Why is it a propos?

Do you mean Mom's liqueurs?

Not just the liqueurs.

My father-in-law has great cognac.

No. I don't want to go.

Your mother-in-law will start saying how I need to be careful,

how I need to quit my job.

Listen. My mother-in-law has a point.

And what is it?

You should take care of yourself.

Et tu, Brute?

I didn't mean you. I mean me. What's for dinner?

I'll cook something as soon as we come home.

See? My mother-in-law must have a two-courses dinner,

the liqueurs, my father-in-law's brandy…

Okay.

Let's go to your father-in-law. Let's eat.

Let me clean this up,

and we'll go to the maintenance office.

Yes, it's cool.

Do you think they'll believe this Gauss guy?

This Gauss guy?

Vitia, you should read on great scientists.

Gauss was born to an illiterate family.

By the age of two, he showed himself as a prodigy.

At three, he could read and do sums.

He'd correct his father's mistakes.

Okay, okay, I understand. Fine.

This Gauss guy! Your wording is killing me.

Anna Nikolayevna, do you smoke?

Me? No.

Why?

Oh, these. It was before.

Consider that I quit.

-Do you smoke? -No.

Good for you. It's a bad habit.

Better read. Read the great people.

I have.

In the original.

What language?

Gauss was German, but he loved Latin.

By the way, he taught himself Russian when he was 62,

to study Lobachevski's works.

Not our fish's, of course.

Anna Nikolayevna, I'm not that dumb.

Go on, tell me.

Katia and I are okay.

I meant Fatum.

Vershinin talked to all informers and crime reporters.

No one ever heard about Fatum.

-Do you believe in it? -I do.

Because I also asked everyone I could, and no one ever heard of him.

What about the Mop?

Vershinin says she's lying there watching the ceiling.

He says Fatum has stolen her soul.

Her soul! Is there anything but figures?

I'm glad you and Katia are fine.

Katia, are you going to take a maternity leave?

Actually, I am.

It's taking you too long.

Mom, how far along were you when you took the maternity leave?

-I didn't take it. -See?

I was only married to a lieutenant, then.

No, senior lieutenant.

Well, so am I.

It's temporary, I think.

You need to do one thing: find Fatum

and make Katia happy.

I'll take care of everything else.

-It's two things. -What? Right.

I need a grandson. A heir.

-But… -No buts.

Update me on Fatum at any time.

Or on my grandson.

Anyway, think about a maternity leave. Or don't think, just take it.

You're a general's daughter, after all.

Mom, tell one thing to this general's daughter, please.

Do you want me to be just a mom?

Even to general Sosnovskiy's granddaughter.

Your father and I want it to be a grandson.

Do you really want me to be a housewife?

You'll get used to it.

-Shall we go to the girls? -Yes.

-The Mop, though… -The Mop can't do it.

Why?

Because. Her captain doesn't have a chance to become a general,

and your senior lieutenant does.

Help yourselves.

Well?

-What? -What? I'll have some meat.

Yes.

Mom, please help him. I'll get Dad some cheese. Okay?

Yes, please, cheese for me.

We talked to the residents of our house.

Excuse me, I'll have to interrupt. People, to put it mildly…

Lie. You're absolutely right. People lie.

-But… -That's what we have meters for.

But meters lie, too.

At least those installed in our house.

We only use the newest meters that have undergone testing.

-They are recommend-- -But they lie!

Excuse me, are you an expert?

Vitia, easy.

-He's a mathematician. -So probably are you.

Look.

The water consumption used to be 141 liters per day,

with standard deviation of 7 liters.

And now?

Now…

Wow! Fascinating. Another diagram.

It's 125 to 167.

You have beautiful diagrams.

Thank you.

That's great news.

I think the reason is that people wash their hands more often.

No. I would agree if it was an isolated occasion,

but we have data from 20 meters,

which is enough to calculate the Gaussian normal distribution,

and the probability of this change is 0.01%.

Excuse me, this Gauss of yours, does he lie, too?

All people lie. So do meters. But mathematics doesn't.

It's an interesting discussion.

I forget which Turk or Greek said that…

-About meters? -No, about people.

-The famous Epimenides paradox. -Right.

A Cretan says, "All Cretans are liars".

But if all Cretans are liars, then Epimenides's statement is false.

See? Isn't it beautiful?

Yes. Bertrand Russel was the first to find a way out of this dead end.

Also a mathematician, by the way. So what do you say?

I say we'll find a way out of this dead end.

We'll test the meters. I promise.

Right now. We'll do it right now.

What apartment are you in?

It's 45. Number 3.

Great. We'll let you know the results.

Mr. Gauss, too.

-He's dead. -How sad.

In 1855.

Not so sad, then.

Thank you so much. Can I keep it?

-Of course. -Thank you for the call.

It's due to people like you that progress happens.

-Thank you. This way, please. Thanks. -Yes. Thank you.

Something like that.

Okay.

-Two. -Two?

-This way? -Yes.

Is that all? All done? Okay.

I see.

-Yes, son. -Hi, Dad.

The Mop is okay. She is making meatballs.

What do you mean, meatballs? You're scaring me.

No, don't worry. I told her how it's done.

She didn't know you needed to add bread.

-Or an egg. -What does an egg have to do with it?

Don't you know it, either?

If you don't add it, the meatballs will fall apart.

Of course I know that. Only idiots don't.

-Vitia. -Well, Anna Nikolayevna didn't.

Can you explain why Anna Nikolayevna is making some meatballs?

Not some meatballs, your favorite kind.

Beef and pork. She wants to please you.

Wow. This is really something.

Very unexpected.

Can you imagine? She even quit smoking.

She never smoked.

Well, now she quit.

Listen, here's why I'm calling.

Can you buy champagne?

We'll celebrate.

Okay.

-Vitia. -Okay. Bye.

Do we have more?

That's what I was going to ask. Do we?

Yes.

Well, everything is ready.

Yes.

Go on without me.

Thanks.

-Well? Is it working? -Of course.

It's elementary.

The standard non-homogenous heat conductivity equation

with second type boundary conditions. It's just very hot.

Dad is coming.

Good timing.

Dad!

Call an ambulance.

How is he?

We don't know. They won't let us see him.

What happened?

Three men with baseball bats attacked him. We saw it through the window.

So it was in front of your house?

-Yes. -Where is he?

It's okay. Don't worry.

Just a light concussion. Multiple bruises, too. Nothing serious.

-Can we see him? -All of you?

Well, all right.

Just don't stay long. He needs rest.

Thank you.

How are you?

How am I? My back and ribs hurt. Otherwise, I'm fine.

-How are the meatballs? -What meatballs?

You were making meatballs.

-Me? -Yes.

Oh, right.

Beef and pork, right?

I guess.

So, what happened to them?

I don't know.

They burned.

My favorite meatballs,

pork and beef, burned.

The champagne was broken.

Kolia, do you remember them?

Remember them? Well…

Hey, pal!

Is that crazy mathematician your girlfriend?

She isn't crazy.

Tell her to stay out of what doesn't concern her.

-Or? -Or we'll kill her and you both.

No, we'll fuck her first and then kill you.

You've been warned.

What did they want?

They were laconic but persuasive.

They wanted you to stay out of something, Ania.

Me?

-Fatum? -No. I don't think it's Fatum.

What did they mean? What should I stay out of?

What about the ZhEK?

Vitia.

Okay. What ZhEK?

What do you mean?

Not ZhEK, the maintenance company.

They installed a new meter.

Anna Nikolayevna and I exposed them.

The old ladies brought us their bills,

and according to Gaussian normal distribution…

Vitia, can you translate it?

Let me translate it for you.

New meters have been installed in the neighborhood.

These meters give incorrect readings. I went to their office.

We went. Their manager is this Becker guy.

We went to that office.

I asked Vitia not to say anything because I thought we could handle it.

We showed our calculation to this Becker,

and he promised to look into it.

So he has.

It's a bit weird, attacking a police captain because of some meters.

Mitia, first of all, how would he know I was a police captain?

Second, there are 10,000 residents in the neighborhood.

With 150 extra liters every month,

it means they steal millions every month.

In the six months since they have installed the new meters, it's…

I found it on their website.

"We service ten neighborhoods with the total population of over 100,000,

and we are planning to expand, adding more and more customers…"

It's tens of millions.

And they are planning to expand.

Nikolay, what are you doing? Lie down.

I will. Later. At home.

Why don't you ever tell me anything?

You see, Vitia and I wanted it to be our private investigation.

-We didn't want you to… -Personal investigation.

Please give me my pants.

There are two things one can watch forever:

water falling and meter running.

If it's true, it's a brilliant scheme.

They must be rolling in money.

Where is the old meter?

They took it away.

Yes, if we had two, we could compare them and understand how this trick works.

That's probably why they took them away.

-The box. -What box?

From the new meter. I throw it in the trash.

I'll bring it back.

Kolia, why don't you go lie down?

I'm fine.

The box from the new meter.

Strange.

That warehouse was filled with these boxes.

What warehouse?

The one where the engineer hang himself. The engineer from this company.

Look.

The beam he hanged himself on.

What was the engineer like?

-A good guy. -I mean his build.

Sturdy, lean?

About Mitia's size. Around 70 kilos.

Then it isn't a suicide.

Why?

Any good engineer knows the basics of the resistance of materials.

The red beam can't care 70 kilos.

The other one can, though. It has reinforcement ribs.

It can bear 70 kilos or even 120.

It's a murder.

The police break into my house,

handcuffed me in front of my wife and children,

kept me in the lock-up all night without letting me call home.

Have it in mind, I'll file a complaint against you.

I won't answer any questions until I get a lawyer.

I can't believe it.

What am I accused of?

For starters, involvement in the attack against police captain Vershinin.

Fraud.

Installing inaccurate meters, specially produced by your company.

Also, a premeditated murder…

…of Andrey Larin, an engineer at your firm.

Maybe you weren't planning to kill him. It's most probable.

You're a thief. An arrogant, smart thief.

A white collar criminal, but not a killer.

But he found you out.

Maybe by accident,

though there is no such thing, I assure you.

You were trying to appease him, probably offered him money.

When he refused…

You probably acted spontaneously.

Larin was teetotaler.

Somehow you made him drink alcohol.

When he was unable to put up a fight…

You staged his suicide.

When Miss Shvabrina came with mathematical proof of your scheme,

you became nervous and started making mistakes.

By the way, the three thugs you hired to intimidate Vershinin

have been arrested and are giving their statements as we speak.

They are questioning Becker right now, and the question is…

…which one of you beats the other to giving a confession.

It isn't my fault.

It was all Becker.

We were just making the meters.

Becker… It was his idea.

Illarionov suggested and worked out the scheme.

I didn't kill anyone.

As I said, I'm a white collar.

He made Larin drink.

He assured me no one will know.

He said it was impossible for anyone to suspect or even less prove it.

I can't believe it turned out like this.

Something like that.

I had their meter in my apartment, too.

If not for you, Anna Nikolayevna…

How did these bastards do it?

Look. The new meter and the old one.

These cog wheels, they work in pair.

You can't tell it just by looking at it, but if we compare then we'll see:

here we have 37 and 116 cogs,

and here – 38 and 115.

It allowed them to alter the readings by 3.5%.

And steal millions.

Incredible.

Well, Anna Nikolayevna, you can't trust anyone, can you?

There was a Cretan philosopher Epimenides

who said all Cretans were liars.

If all Cretans are liars…

…it means Epimenides's statement is also false.

Whom can we trust, Anna Nikolayevna?

Mathematics.

Numbers don't lie.

Yes.

Not bad.

Hello.

Hi, hipster.

Have they replaced your meter?

Yes, this morning.

That's better.

I'll keep an eye on it counting my water for me now.

The new meter.

Yes.

Vitia, where were you? We're waiting for you.

I was buying coriander. I need it for the sauce.

I see.

The meatballs are burnt again, aren't they?

-No. -No.

-Great meatballs. -They are amazing.

Yes. Well done.

They are perfect.

Well, if you say so. Thanks.

You know what I call this sauce? The fifth percentile.

Help yourselves.

The subtle flavor of mathematics.

Cosines and cotangents.

Do you know what the fifth percentile really means?

Ania, please.

This is the perfect sauce for your perfectly burned meatballs.

-So they are burned? -No.

Katia?

Vitia? You haven't even tasted them.

Great meatballs.

The potatoes, too.

The Fifth Percentile is a bit too hot to my taste.

It's fine.