Happiness Falls

Reflecting on why she’s certain the “Q” stands for “quotient,” Mia considers various philosophical and scientific theories of collective knowledge. She asks Eugene if their dad talked to him about happiness quotient, and is sure she sees him nod. She also recalls a conversation with her father about ranking happiness on a 1-10 scale. The conversation happened soon after the “Graveyard Incident,” when Mia, John, and Eugene terrified Adam by spending a night at their grandparents’ burial site outside Seoul. Mia asks if John remembers their dad working on difference or quotients, and he reminds her that she herself worked on a mathematical expression of those concepts in relation to the effect of dissonant chords or harmonic functions on moods. Adam was excited about the idea—it was what was missing from his own research.

Detective Janus sends a scan of the first page of Adam’s notebook, which includes a discussion of micro and macro happiness in relation to Eugene’s AS, and comparisons between John and Mia’s respective levels of joy. Detective Janus also relays two new pieces of information: Adam had transferred $20K from his IRA into a new checking account, and at around the same time he began exchanging frequent calls and texts with someone named