Kupitman suspects that no one trusts him to be a competent specialist; as the proof of opposite, he wants his own interns. Both Bykov and Kisegach knows that it is bad, bad idea, but can't back off on their promise; as a temporal solution, they assigns two Bykov's interns — Romanenko and Lobanov — to him. If he comes to realisation that he can't handle interns by himself, he wouldn't feel insulted. Gleb and Semyon thinks that this is an excuse to slack off, as Kupitman never provides them with the real work whenever they gets assigned to him... but they soon realises that not this time: Kupitman is dead set to "prove" that he may be a serious specialist. He does this by imitating Bykov's "working method" and loading them with work; lots of work. Bykov, who wants to prove to Kupitman how bad his idea with interns actually is, suggests them to just get him drunk; drunk Kupitman is nice Kupitman, while sober Kupitman is insufferable Kupitman. This almost works... but Kupitman, who barely manages to hold himself, only becomes even angrier when he manages to take control of himself. Unfortunately, just when it seems that he'd won... he finally snaps and gets wasted, to Kisegach's disappointment.
Varya goes on a date with David, wanting to know him better... only to learn that he'd heard a lot about her work under Bykov, to her anger. She wants Bykov to stop publicly humiliating her — or at least discuss not only negative aspects. He promises to do so, if he manages to find any. Varya has a "brilliant" idea how to force him to do so: her patient has a cat allergy, and Varya has a cat (which means, the traces of his fur on her clothes). She would "solve" that "case" and would be rewarded. Plan utterly fails... because she forgets to remove the fur-covered scarf from the patient's bed.
Phil gets asked by some Tajik worker (very likely illegal) to examine him, unofficially (i.e outside of the hospital and without any documentation). Of course, he gets busted by Bykov on his way back, and punished. And then this guy asks him to help one of his friends. And then all other workers. Phil can't just reject them, and tries to smuggle them into the hospital, by disguising them as foreign students on "excursion". This fools Lyuba and even Kisegach, but not Bykov, who quickly proves that those "students" knows about medicine less than nothing. He still agrees to cover for Phil, because he likes his dedication... only for Phil to recognise that this seemingly unending stream of patients is, actually his punishment. But then Bykov agrees to help him with dealing with remaining ones (security guards wouldn't let any news ones inside), because Phil finally learned his lesson: he can't help everyone, and mustn't; just doing his job is enough.
This episode provides examples of:
- Accentuate the Negative: The reason for conflict which starts Varya's story is Bykov always telling everyone about her screwups, but never telling good moments, too; Bykov, however, believes that there's simply none to talk about.
- All for Nothing: Kupitman fails to either prove that he's more than just drunkard or that he can be entrusted with his own interns.
- Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: Phil helps one illegal worker (unofficially). The guy bring another one, and then his whole team. Of course, all of this interferes with Phil's actual job (he still has official patients to treat) and causes him to be punished by Bykov for "slacking". When Phil tries to reject request to treat yet another large group (he can't provide adequate treatment without his gear anyway), the guy who started all this tries to guilt-trip him into doing it anyway, forcing Phil to smuggle them into the hospital by disguising them as foreign students on "excursion". This works right until they runs into Bykov, who later tells Phil why it was a bad idea: he helped one, that guy recommended Phil to his friends, they — to their friends, and so on, and so on; in the end, Phil has neither time no energy to treat the patients he's supposed to treat officially.
- Engineered Heroics: Varya's "plan" is to provoke her patient's cat allergy (Varya has a cat, which means, she has the traces of its fur on her clothes, specifically scarf), "solve" this "case" and then remind Bykov about his promise to publicly announce her being a competent doctor. It utterly fails... because Varya forgets to remove that fur-covered scarf from the patient's bed.
- Epic Fail: Varya puts her scarf (with her cat's fur on it) in the bed of her patient with cat allergy, so she can then "solve" the case and get praised... but forgets to remove the scarf, which leads to her getting busted and punished.
- Gave Up Too Soon: Kupitman was two steps away from actually gaining his interns, but he snaps and gets wasted, just before Kisegach comes to congratulate him.
- Imagine Spot: Varya imagines being rewarded by Bykov for her "work". She only gets shaken out of it by her patient who busts her during it.
- The Load: Kupitman starts thinking that no one takes him seriously as specialist, because every major event occurs without him; no one trusts him with anything even remotely important, treating him just as some clown. When Bykov replies to the last example he mentions with "but you were drunk!", Kupitman shouts on him "Had you even bothered to warn me beforehand, I wouldn't have drunk at all!". Kisegach tries to calm him down by assuring that he is trusted, while Bykov only mocks him further. When Kupitman leaves, Kisegach confirms that yes, she blatantly lied to him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Gleb and Semyon instantly recognises that something is wrong with Kupitman when he starts treating their assignment seriously, loads them with work and shouts insults at them for slacking. There is something "wrong" with him: he wants to prove, at last, that he may be a competent specialist, and not just old alcoholic (this was the reason why interns were even assigned to him in the first place).
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Big group of Tajiks who looks suspiciously like illegal immigrants who stole the medical coats somewhere? Nope, just foreign students from Tajikistan on excursion. Lyuba barely believes in this cover story, and then Kisegach (who was supposed to know about something like this) hears about this from her, and Phil barely manages to fool her that he just found out himself, and lies that examination of one of those guys is "part of excursion". Then she demands that Bykov must take those "students" from Phil and teach them himself (she thinks that Bykov, as always, dumped his work on interns). Bykov quickly proves that those "students" are completely fake, but agrees to cover for Phil... on condition that Phil would finish treating them.
- Pet the Dog: Bykov covers for Phil rather than revealing his lies to Kisegach (who wouldn't take well such revelation). He still forces Phil to finish treating those "students", but, after explaining why Phil did a mistake by agreeing to help those people "unofficially", he actually helps him with the ones who're already here.
- Status Quo Is God: Kupitman finally snaps in the end and gets drunk, just when Kisegach gets convinced that he can be entrusted with his own interns.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Varya is very angry at Bykov, because mistreating his interns privately is one thing (no one is surprised anymore), but totally ruining their reputation in front of everyone, including David, is entirely another, and she wants him to stop. When Bykov replies with "I always tell everyone only the truth", she asks him to at least mention the positive moments too, not only negative ones, to which he answers with "if I find any, medicine-related, I would announce it publicly".
