Alexei, Timur and Police comes to work 4 minutes later... and gets punished with the working day being increased by forty minutes. Alexei, not realising that Bykov has not yet leaved, starts insulting him behind his back. Bykov gets so shocked with sheer idiocy of the situation, he fails to even come up with a good enough punishment, so he orders Alexei himself to find a punishment which would be both harsh enough and funny. Alexei fails to come up with anything better than seven night shifts or floor cleaning, but Bykov refuses to accept such boring options. Having no better ideas on his own, Lyosha starts asking other people, but everyone offers either something ridiculous (like Sophia, who offers to wear off-size female shoes for a full day) or something lame (like Pasha, who can't come up with anything better than seven night shifts). He then tries to ask Bykov to just kick him, which Bykov happily does — and asks about the punishment idea. Ultimately, Alexei fails to come up with any good idea, and out of desperation just asks Bykov to cut off his tongue, because what else they could do? Bykov actually likes that option; he injects Alexei's tongue with sedatives (which makes it bloat and unresponsive, rendering Alexei almost mute) and then tries to reach for scalpel. When Alexei runs away in panic, Bykov starts laughing like a maniac — Lyosha's own fear was his actual punishment. But Bykov injected his tongue not just for fun, this is also a lesson: tongue, when not controlled by the brain, can be your own worst enemy.
Phil receives a job offer from a prestigious private clinic, where he would have a better salary, no night shifts and a boss who's not an alcoholic. Now Kupitman asks Kisegach to help him to force Phil to stay here, in their hospital. She asks him to cut all bullshit about "important cadre", "great specialist we can't afford to lose", etc, since she knows that Kupitman is more concerned with losing ability to dump all the dirty work on someone else, and having easy to manipulate underling, but she agrees that they can't lose Phil, so they may at least rise his salary. Then Bykov sends Kupitman a video about Phil's potential boss — anti-haemorrhoids drug's ad which he's advertising. It seems that Phil has hired an actor to fool them into rising his salary, and there's no actually any "prestigious private clinic" at all! Kisegach wants to punish Phil immediately, but Kupitman has a better plan: they should teach him a lesson, and give him a taste of his own medicine. Kisegach invites Phil to her office to inform about rising his salary. Here also sits their long-serving janitor, crying: to raise Phil's salary, Kisegach must first cut some other expenses, so she would fire someone else whom she may sacrifice (they already have the overblown stuff), like this woman (even if it means that she would have no means to feed her three grandsons). Phil may save her... if he would agree to stay on his normal salary. To Kisegach's surprise, Phil decides to take the money, stating that he would rather not argue with her decisions. But later Phil finds the woman whom Kisegach just "fired", and offers his help: he may either help her find a place in another hospital, with better salary, or help with suing Kisegach, who fired her illegally. When she refuses both offers, he tries to insist, and she angrily tells that she's not even a janitor: she was asked to play a role of one. Phil goes to Kisegach and admits that he deceived her and Kupitman. When asked why he didn't just ask, he points that he tried, but Kupitman wasted six months and never informed Kisegach, out of laziness. Kisegach sides with Phil, and not only rises his salary, but also forces Kupitman to pay everything he underpaid to Phil from his salary. When Kupitman tries to object, Kisegach warns him that if he wouldn't shut up, she would give Phil his vacation, too.
Gleb and Sophia plans to throw their wedding very soon (and register it today), and for it, they need money. Gleb remembers that Timur was interested in his car, and agrees to sell it now. Unfortunately, Timur immediately starts searching for excuses why Gleb should sell it below its average price (full 50K roubles cheaper, no less), including bringing up that one time Timur had damaged it to maintain a cover story about a road accident. Gleb reluctantly agrees. But then Polina tells Sophia that once they would actually marry, Gleb would stop acting like "prince charming" and their fairytale would turn into a boring everyday life — just like it was with her and Timur. Even sex would happen six times less often. Sophia believes her, and suggests to postpone their wedding a bit. This gives Gleb more time to find a better offer than cheapskate Timur, about which he tells Timur in harsh terms. But then Rita warns Sophia that if she postpones the wedding for too long, Gleb may lose interest in her and dump her (Rita did the such mistake herself once), which provokes her into changing her mind again; Gleb has to ask Timur for money once again, and Timur agrees — after cutting another 50K from the price. Then Lyuba learns about the problem, and also suggests to postpone the marriage, so Sophia may decide by herself whether she wants it or not. This, naturally, means that Gleb must refuse Timur's offer again. Then Polina, Rita and Lyuba tries to force their views on Sophia simultaneously, which makes her panic and run to Gleb, who tells her to stop listening to them: it's their decision, and theirs alone; and they wold make it now. When they finally decides that they would marry after all, Gleb uses the intercom to announce this, cutting Sophia any escape routes. Timur, predictably, cuts the price by another 50K, but also promises to help them with organising the wedding (using the money he just "saved"), showing that he cares not only about the money.
This episode provides examples of:
- Brick Joke: Alexei's first idea of the "great punishment" is seven night shifts. When Bykov rejects this idea as lame, Alexei starts asking people around. Amongst the people he asks is Pasha, whose idea is... seven night shifts.
- Burning the Ships: To ensure that Sophia would stop doubting necessity of their marriage (and change her mind back and forth), Gleb uses the intercom to inform everyone about it, meaning that it would be too awkward to back out now.
- Call-Back: Timur brings up the fact that Gleb's car is damaged as a reason why Gleb should sell it cheaper. Gleb then points out that it was Timur who damaged it.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Subverted; Kisegach asks Phil why he never tried to just ask for salary raise instead of just deceiving them, but he answers that he tried, but Kupitman simply ignored him for six months, and only reacted under the threat of losing his "personal slave". Kisegach actually sides with Phil after that.
- Crossing the Burnt Bridge: Gleb tries to sell his car to Timur (he needs money for wedding, and he needs them now), but Timur tries to cut very large part of the price. When Sophia decides that they should postpone their marriage for a time being, Gleb happily tells Timur where he can go with his cheapskate attitude... only for Sophia to then change her mind again, and insist on the wedding herself, meaning that Gleb must now ask Timur for forgiveness and hope that he would not cut the price even more (which he naturally does). And then Sophia asks for postponing the marriage again. Ultimately, Gleb snaps and just makes a public announcement, leaving Sophia with no way to postpone the wedding and save face, but by that point, Timur already gets 150K roubles cut in price.
- Disproportionate Retribution: You are four minutes late for work? Bykov would force you stay on work for forty minutes longer, then.
- Heel Realisation: Invoked by Kisegach, who tries to force Phil into realising that fooling people into rising your salary (by pretending that you have a better offer) is bad, by pretending to fire their janitor (old woman who raises three grandsons by herself since their parents are alcoholics). Phil initially accepts the salary raise, not being willing to argue with Kisegach, but then (while trying to help the woman another way) learns that this woman is actually an actress when he talks to her. After this, he admits that he deceived them, but refuses to admit that he was wrong at doing this, since it was the last option he had: legally, he's supposed to do that through Kupitman, but Kupitman was too lazy and never informed Kisegach about Phil's request, wasting six months; he only reacted when Phil pretended to find a better offer, which would leave Kupitman without his "personal slave"
- I'm Standing Right Here: After Bykov punishes Alexei, Timur and Polina for "being late" for four minutes with forty minutes longer working day, Alexei, not realising that Bykov not yet leaved, starts insulting him behind his back. Bykov gets so shocked with sheer idiocy of the situation, he fails to even come up with good enough punishment, so he forces Alexei to suggest something by himself — but something which would be both punishing (for Alexei) and funny (for Bykov).
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Timur repeatedly cuts the price for Gleb's car, knowing that Gleb needs money right now and has no time to search for better offer (ultimately cutting 150K roubles)... but in the end offers to help with organising Gleb's wedding with Sophia, heavily implying that this would cost him all the money he'd saved by decreasing the price in the first place. He then jokes about buying everyone booze, because he "just bought a great car extremely cheaply".
- Laser-Guided Karma: Since it was Kupitman's fault that Phil has tried this plan in the first place (he was too lazy to even talk with Kisegach about salary raise, despite it not costing him anything), he would now pay Phil everything he was underpaid because of Kupitman, from his own salary.
- Lazy Bum: Kupitman was asked to deliver Phil's request to rise his salary to Kisegach; he didn't do that in six months, being too lazy for that. Kisegach is not amused when she finds out.
- Preemptive "Shut Up": When Kupitman tries to object to [[Laser-Guided Karma large part of his salary going to Phil], Kisegach warns him that if he wouldn't shut up now, she would also give Kupitman's vacation to Phil.
- Shout-Out: When Polina tells Sophia about the potential dangers of a marriage, she subtly references Cinderella.Polina: And then your fairytale would become a boring everyday life, with rats and pumpkin.
- Troll: When Alexei, out of desperation, asks Bykov whether he may just cut off his tongue (since they already tried every other ideas for punishment, only to reject them)... Bykov actually goes ahead with this idea and injects Alexei's tongue with sedatives (making him almost mute due to tongue's bloating). When Bykov takes a scalpel, Lyosha runs away in panic, and Bykov starts laughing like a maniac, clearly showing that he just messed with him. Later, during a banquet in honour of Gleb and Sophia, Bykov forces Alexei (still not completely recovered after the sedatives) to say his pledge, which causes everyone else to laugh.
