Until Kisegach returns, Bykov would (ab)use Gleb to let steam out. Specifically, by leaving him on night shifts, every. Single. Day. Meanwhile, Kupitman decides to abuse his new power for material gain. Bykov agrees to cover for him before Kisegach, if he would play table tennis with him, but Kupitman considers this game to be below him. Bykov tries several other people, including Semyon, Lyuba, Phil, Varya... each time being disappointed by their inability to play. It seems that Bykov can only rely on Gleb.
Phil is too naive and falls for every single of Lobanov's jokes. Varya tries to teach him to be more careful, especially when dealing with Semyon. Except, this time, what Lobanov has said to him was not a prank. After that, Lyuba tells Phil that Lobanov is a terrible prankster, because he totally lacks either intellect or creativity. Semyon now must prove otherwise. And he already has an idea how... Lobanov starts a rumour about some "depapers" – elite, but expensive... things; even Lyuba and Kupitman falls for it.
Gleb would agree to play with Bykov only if Bykov agrees to cancel his night shifts once Gleb wins. Bykov accepts this conditions, but warns him that in case he lose, he would receive even more night shifts. But Bykov just doesn't know when to quit, so when Gleb proves himself to be a better player, game just goes on and on... Bykov's game with Gleb results in Gleb "winning" a possibility to leave Bykov himself on a night shift (which he decides to keep until a perfect opportunity arises). But then Kisegach returns and stops the game from escalating any further. This also means that Kupitman's reign is over, and now Anastasia is very angry at him.
This episode provides examples of:
- Advice Backfire: Varya advises Phil to ignore Lobanov, since he is a known prankster. This backfires on Phil, since Lobanov wasn't lying about Phil's patient's condition. After that, they asks Lyuba for more effective advice.
- Blatant Lies: Kupitman tries to lie Kisegach that he just made a typo, and ordered a "table tennis" instead of "table penis". She then asks him to explain "two penis rackets" and "eight penis balls".
- Crying Wolf:
- Lobanov constantly pranked Phil before, so this time Phil doesn't believe when Semyon tells him that Phil's patient suffers from heavy vomiting. This backfires on Phil, since Lobanov sincerely warned him, and the patient gets saved by Bykov, who notices him half an hour later.
- Semyon tells everyone that Gleb and Bykov are playing table tennis with night shifts on stake, but no one believes him (especially since he just fooled them by his another prank not long ago). Though then Varya and Phil decides that this show may worth the risk of being fooled, and runs with him. Lyuba soon follows them.
- Epic Fail: Gleb only agrees to play with Bykov if they would put the night shifts on stake (and each Gleb's victory means canceling one night shift, while defeat means adding two). Bykov fails with a score 21:7 in Gleb's favour. And this was just Bykov deciding to "test" Gleb before serious play; when they starts playing for real, Gleb wins enough time to go into balance of positive five.
- Greedy Jew: Kupitman decides to abuse his position to make some money. How? By raising the price for shoe covers by 700%.
- Hypocrite: In the previous episode, Kupitman refused to help Bykov bend the rules, stating that he doesn't want to let Anastasia down. In this episode, he abuses his power for personal profit (not even to increase the ever-empty budget).
- Naïve Newcomer: After Phil falls for yet another stupid Lobanov's prank, Varya tells Phil that he is too naive, even in a comparison to her. He must learn to be more careful when deciding what and whom to trust.
- Out of Focus: Outside of kickstarting Semyon's plot, Phil and Varya plays only very minor roles in this episode.
- Short-Lived Leadership: Kupitman's abuse of power ends when Kisegach suddenly returns prematurely and immediately gets hit by his new money-sucking "innovations". He barely manages to run away before she kills him right here and now.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Phil and Varya asking Lyuba for help is what kickstarts Lobanov's plot, but otherwise they have small role in it beyond that (or in episode at all, for that matter).
- Snipe Hunt: In attempt to prove that he can, in fact, create a good and creative prank, Lobanov invents... something called "depapers", which are extremely valuable, but rare and hard to find. Even Lyuba (who previously claimed that he can't fool anyone with at least two brain cells) and Kupitman (known Manipulative Bastard himself) falls for it.
- Sore Loser: Bykov just can't accept defeat from Gleb, which results in him losing with a score 21:7... before he even started playing "for real", just in "test matches". This continues even after they started a "real game". By the time Kisegach prematurely returns and forces them to stop, Bykov's shirt is entirely wet with sweat, and he still tries to "win", with Gleb having positive balance of five shifts. Even then he insists that Gleb has won "by cheating", since "Kisegach has helped him".
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: Bykov wants a partner for table tennis, but everyone he tries proves to be terrible players (and we can see just how bad they are). The list includes Semyon, Phil, Varya and Lyuba. After they all fails, Bykov can only work with Gleb — who easily beats him.
- The Prankster: Lobanov's plot gets kickstarted by his prank on Phil. The main point is that he is not that good at pranking, because he can't create any creative or interesting prank, and that anyone sufficiently familiar with him wouldn't fall for his tricks, so he must prove otherwise. Ironically, his new prank fools everyone but Phil and Varya, the intended targets and supposedly the most naive people in the hospital.
