Lobanov promised Irina to help with her driver license (which she may lose because of one unlucky accident), by calling one of his contacts. Unfortunately, this "contact" does not exist, and if Lobanov fails to find another way, he is screwed. When he learns that Gleb has no useful connections, they attempts to ask Kupitman for help... only to accidentally humiliate him. They asks Bykov... but his connections are even worse than Gleb's. Then they tries Lyuba, who only wastes their time. Fortunately, in the end, Lobanov manages to do so by himself, by just directly asking a policeman for a favour.
Phil gives Varya a feet massage (which causes her a great pleasure). But then Lyuba asks for the same, and Phil is not ready to do it with her. Unfortunately, Varya tries to hide this from Lyuba by lying that Phil did this for money... and now Bykov is after him, as he's against commercialization of medicine on principle. Bykov would only leave him alone... if Phil makes feet massage for him. Unfortunately, after that Lyuba finds him anyway (and even brings those money), so now there is no going back...
Bykov has an idea for prank on Kupitman — he hired the actors to make him believe that he is going insane. This goes too far when Kupitman decides to leave the hospital to attend therapy, forcing Bykov to tell him the truth and apologise... and only then Kupitman reveals that it was his plan to provoke Bykov into doing exactly that.
This episode provides examples of:
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Subverted. At fist Lobanov, as a last ditch attempt to help Irina, takes her driver license back, calls some of his contacts to persuade policeman into cooperation... but then he asks Irina to leave, and reveals to policeman (who was not impressed by this) the truth and asks him to just play along, so Semyon can win Irina's respect. The policeman agrees.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Varya's reaction to Phil providing her with feet massage strongly resembles orgasm. Her words after that only makes the similarity stronger; Phil even lampshades this, as well as Lyuba later on when Varya tells her everything (describing it in such a way as if she's talking about them being lovers).
- Gaslighting: Bykov initially mistakes a guy in musketeer suit for his hallucination, but then Lyuba explains everything. When Kupitman notices the same guy, Bykov lies to him that this is indeed a hallucination. Why? because it would be funny. He later hires said musketeer (and other actors from his team) to prank Kupitman. This prank goes a little too far, with Kupitman now being convinced that he needs therapy.
- Gone Horribly Right:
- Bykov tries to prank Kupitman by forcing him to believe that he started hallucinating. It works, and Kupitman, afraid that he starts losing his mind and is no longer fit to work with patients, decides to start treating his alcoholism before it would drive him completely mad. And he leaves hospital outright... or so it seems.
- Instead of revealing that Phil only gave her the feet massage out of personal sympathy, and would not do this for Lyuba, Varya tells Lyuba that he did this for money... and enraged Lyuba tells everything to Bykov, who punishes him by two night shifts, and forces Phil to give him the massage. Varya tells Bykov that Phil is innocent... but Bykov still insists on the feet massage as condition to not tell Lyuba the truth. And Lyuba later brings the money anyway, leaving Phil with no way to avoid giving her massage after all.
- Happy-Ending Massage: Phil is so skilled as a masseur, he leads Varya to orgasm by just his skills alone. Unfortunately, she told to Lyuba, who now wants this too... but he only did this to Varya because he liked her, and he is uncomfortable to work with Lyuba. Bykov finds out and forces Phil to give him massage, so he would keep this secret... but then Lyuba finds him anyway and he has no way to avoid her, unless he tells her outright.
- Heel Realisation: When Kupitman reactsbadly to his last prank, and decides to leave his hospital for therapy, Bykov realises that this time he really came too far with his "joke". Especially when Kupitman (in tears) mentions that Bykov is his closest friend, and tells him the truth... which was just what Kupitman wanted him to do.
- Manipulative Bastard: Kupitman once again proves himself to be superior to Bykov as schemer, and provokes him into not only apologising for his prank, but also calling himself an idiot — by pretending that Bykov's gaslighting attempt actually worked so well, it led to breakdown. This time, it's thoroughly deserved.
