Levin and Romanenko are racing in wheelchairs across the hospital's hall. Levin loses... and gets busted by the actual disabled. Levin lies to them that he's disabled too (and lies that he's so happy, because it's his birthday), and they accepts him as their own. This quickly spirals out of control, and results in them collectively giving him expensive gift. Ultimately, Bykov learns about this and forces Levin to tell the truth and apologise.
After seeing a depressed patient, Varya argues with Bykov about the patients and how they should be treated: she thinks that doctors must speak with them, so they wouldn't feel so lonely, while Bykov thinks that this wastes time. Varya tries to help this patient with his depression, and succeeds in improving his mood... but while she was busy working with him, Bykov already dealt with fourteen other patients. Unfortunately, now this patient would not leave Varya alone, driving her insane by his stories about his ex-wife, Nina. To get rid of too talkative patient for some time, Varya gives him sleeping pills. When Bykov finds out and forces her to accept that she just got tired of him, he tells her that if she spends too much time with one patient, she can be too late to save another. Then he promises to free her from him... after one week.
Lobanov meets his old friend, who needs to dodge army drafting. He asks Kupitman for help, who redirects Semyon to Bykov... and then calls Bykov himself, to invite him to play a little game. After Bykov scares the guy by pretending that he's gonna cut his leg, Kupitman lies to Semyon that they got reported to the police, and they are already here; they caught Bykov, and now searching for Lobanov. Kupitman locks Lobanov in a storeroom, where he, to deal with his fear, promptly drinks himself to the point of barely being able to talk coherently... just in time for Lobanov's wife, Olga, to call him.
This episode provides examples of:
- Accomplice by Inaction: Gleb gets punished alongside Levin, as he knew about Levin's lies, but was playing along, even if he wasn't an active participant.
- An Arm and a Leg: Bykov suggests Lobanov's draft-dodging friend to cut off his right leg before going to the military register office, so he certainly wouldn't be drafted; he promises to attach it back once he finishes... if he makes it within 40 minutes. This scares him into running away, just like Bykov wanted.
- Bait-and-Switch: The episode starts with Romanenko and Levin looking at the flatline, both tensed, accompanied by loud "peep" sound and dramatic music. Then turns out that it was a signal for them starting a race... on wheelchairs.
- The Bore: Varya thinks that doctors must speak with their patients to help them. When she helps one of them, he starts driving her insane with stories about his ex-wife, Nina. Those stories are not only long, but also dreadfully boring. Varya comments that it's no wonder, his Nina dumped him. And then we learn that she's his third wife; the patient readily proceeds to tell about the first two, too.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: When Varya disregards Bykov's warning and starts spending time with her patient, only to get extremely tired of his boring stories, Bykov agrees to free Varya from him... after she spends another week with him. This is a punishment for her wasting time, as while she was busy with just one patient, Bykov dealt with fourteen.
- Draft Dodging: Lobanov's friend wants to dodge draft, and wants Semyon to help him forge documents about him being unsuitable for military service. Unfortunately for him, Lobanov asks Kupitman for help, and Kupitman asks Bykov to assist in ruining Semyon's plan and pranking him.
- Noodle Incident: When lying to Lobanov's friend that he's about to cut his leg, Bykov orders Lyuba to sign the soon-to-be-cut leg, so it "wouldn't be like last time", when the hungry cats stole it.
- Not What It Looks Like: While Bykov is right to be angry on Levin for wasting time, disabled patients misunderstands this as him mistreating Levin for his "disability".
- Obfuscating Disability: When Levin gets caught in wheelchair at the beginning of the episode, he pretends that he's indeed disabled. He's forced to continue pretending even past that, but this lie quickly becomes too hard to maintain.
- Snowball Lie: When disabled patient sees him after wheelchair race, Levin is forced to pretend that he really is disabled; he also has to tell that it's his birthday, as excuse for him feeling so happy, and that Gleb is his only friend who's helping him around. Maintaining this lie becomes progressively harder as time goes on — and then Bykov comes in and sees it. Bykov punishes both him and Gleb, and forces to apologise. Levin tries to continue facade, but Gleb feds up and abandons him (right when patients shows up); the episode ends before we see how Levin deals with it.
- Stupid Good: Varya gets called out on not thinking before trying to help. The time she spent on talking with single patient to help with his depression, was enough for Bykov to treat fourteen, and Varya can't even leave the patient now, as he's dependant on her now. Bykov lectures her on why it's wrong approach: the extra time she spends on helping one patient beyond her actual duties may be the time she would lack when helping someone who's in actual danger.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Bykov plays along with Kupitman's prank on Lobanov, but still gets angry at Kupitman and tells him that it was a dick move to not warn properly what he's getting himself into, as by accepting the money, Bykov made himself co-conspirator if Semyon gets caught.
- Levin's new friends don't react kindly to Bykov "abusing" Levin, unaware that Levin is actually pretending and Bykov is right at being angry at him.
- When Bykov learns about how Levin ended up amongst disabled people and even got a photo camera from them as present (he also lied to them about his "birthday"), Bykov gets angry and tells him to immediately return the present and apologise. And to not let him to weasel his way out of it, he orders him to record it on camera Leving just got gifted.Bykov: Congratulations, Levin! Tricked the poor old people to give you an expensive present! Congrats! From those who can't walk, to someone who can't think! You must return it!
