Kisegach starts suffering from side effects of pregnancy, and is now too sick to work. Unfortunately, she can’t just say so: she prefers to keep it secret. Having no other options, she decides to go to work anyway, even in her current condition. This results in her vomiting right in front of one of her subordinates. When the guy asks Bykov whether Anastasia is pregnant, Bykov "helps" by lying that she is an alcoholic — and when she decides to go with it if it means keeping pregnancy hidden, expands the lie by telling that it's her way to fight addiction to hard drugs. When this still fails to press her into admitting the truth, Bykov goes for the "nuclear option" and hires Kupitman to play a drunkard on Kisegach's meeting, where Bykov directly tells her that if she can act so irresponsibly, so would they. No one supports him, and one of the doctors offers to help Kisegach with her addiction (with the others supporting him), after which Anastasia finally admits the truth.
Varya and David have an argument about the movie David just watched, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. David considers the main heroine being cool, while Varya considers her being ugly, then accuses him of just lusting after Lisbeth. Varya then asks Galya what she thinks about the movie and its heroine; Galya presumes that David simply likes Lisbeth's style, and suggests Varya to try to copy it and see how David would react. But David busts her looking on herself in the mirror and tells that he likes her as is (and that by trying to make herself look "cool", she actually makes herself look silly).
Rita starts her first working day in the hospital. Gleb suggests to "recruit" her on their side now, when she's new here and (unlike Lyuba) has no established friendship with Bykov. Meanwhile, Rita learns from Varya everything she could possibly want to know about everyone, and now knows what to expect. Gleb volunteers to come first, in attempt to flirt with her — and fails miserably. Phil goes next, trying to enforce subordination, since he technically outranks her, but completely botches it and shows that she's way more competent than him. And the last one goes Semyon, whose plan is to just drink with her (as he suggested both before and after Gleb's failure); she agrees — and suggests to invite other two interns to celebrate together... but then proceeds to call Bykov, who busts interns with alcohol.
This episode provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Invoked by Bykov, as part of his plan to force Kisegach to admit her pregnancy:
- Since he was told to not reveal that Kisegach is pregnant, when asked about it directly, Bykov lies that she is an alcoholic, in attempt to press her into revealing the truth. She decides that playing along is lesser evil, so he expands the story by lying that alcoholism is the result of Kisegach's attempt to fight addiction to hard drugs... which still fails to convince her.
- When original plan fails, Bykov decides to use the "nuclear option" and asks Kupitman for help. During important meeting in Kisegach's office, Kupitman pretends to be totally wasted, and when Kisegach predictably reacts negatively and threatens to fire him, Bykov reminds her about her own "alcoholism", and tells everyone present to start drinking with them. One of the doctors (the same one who previously noticed Kisegach's condition and asked Bykov about it) tells him and Kupitman to stop this "performance" and offers to help Kisegach with her "addiction". Only after this she reluctantly admits the truth, to which Bykov reacts by giving Kupitman a high five. After this, no one has any objection to drinking — to celebrate their friends' future parenthood.
- Be Yourself: When Varya, following Galya's advice, tries to imitate Lisbeth, David busts her looking on herself in the mirror, and can't help but smile, and asks her whether she did this because of their previous discussion. When she tells him that she did this because he likes Lisbeth, David asks her what she would do if the next time he would tell that he likes Vin Diesel: start exercising heavily, or shave her head?
- Casanova Wannabe: Gleb's attempt to hit on Rita fails utterly because she was already informed by Varya about all his flaws, of which she immediately reminds him: she considers him to be poor (due to his parents cutting support), homeless (he shares a small apartment with Phil and Semyon), and that the only property he has is an old car which he can't use because he can't afford the fuel; when Gleb tries to imply that money is not the most important thing, she tells him that she considers him to be a fool (for falling for Varya's Fake Pregnancy) and then finishes him off by telling that she is sceptical that he may impress her in bed (because he's too young to be experienced).
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Varya is jealous of David... because he likes the heroine of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, whom he calls "cool", and accuses him of lusting towards her. David insists that he just likes the character, nothing more. She then asks Galya's opinion about the movie and its heroine, and Galya suggests to test whether David actually implies that Varya should change her style to imitate Lisbeth.
- Didn't Think This Through: Kisegach, in her attempts to hide her pregnancy, didn't think about neither how she would explain all the associated symptoms, nor her absence for labour and origin of her her future baby (about whom the people would learn). Bykov "covers" the former by Kisegach's "alcoholism" (to fight off addiction to hard drugs), and the latter by fake cover story about her being in narcological clinic and adopting a baby while high. This still fails to convince her, forcing Bykov to try a "nuclear option".
- Dream Sequence: Shortly after telling Varya to not imitate Lisbeth, David has a nightmare where Varya, dressed as Lisbeth, rather aggressively tries to have sex with him; he reacts to it like it's a nightmare, and gets delighted when he awakes and sees a real Varya, cute and innocent.
- Dude, Not Funny!: One of the doctors presented during Bykov's attempt to press Kisegach into admitting her pregnancy (by what amounts to "if she can afford herself to be an alcoholic, so do we") reacts very negatively to this performance, and tells Bykov and Kupitman (who pretended to be totally wasted to create an excuse for all of this) to stop; he is really concerned with Kisegach's condition (Bykov previously claimed that Kisegach became an alcoholic while trying to fight addiction to hard drugs with booze), and thinks that there's nothing to laugh about, and offers his help. Everyone else agrees.
- Epic Fail: Phil tries to use his "authority" to suppress Rita (he technically outranks her) by ordering her around. She then tells him that firstly, the patient in question was discharged yesterday, secondly, she knows about the procedure he requested more than him, including that it doesn't work the way he demanded it, and thirdly, no matter what he says, she can't make the laboratory working faster. He tries to brag about his education, but it also falls on deaf ears. He tries to preserve at least some grace, but she suggests him to stop messing with her job and instead go and do his.
- "Fawlty Towers" Plot: Since Kisegach stubbornly refuses to reveal her pregnancy, Bykov is forced to come with an alternate explanation for her Morning Sickness: her being an alcoholic. He then expands it with her "alcoholism" being her way to fight addiction to hard drugs. This is done intentionally, since Bykov's idea is to force Kisegach to finally admit her pregnancy, since she can't hide it forever, which Bykov unsuccessfully tried to explain to her previously. When this fails too (she stubbornly sticks to this made up version as "lesser evil"), he goes for the "nuclear option", by accusing her of her addictions publicly, leaving her only two options: lose what little authority she has left, or admit the truth. She goes for the second one.
- Gossipy Hens: Rita starts her day as Lyuba's replacement by asking Varya for details about relationships in the Therapy: who have love, who have sex, who have sexless love and, most importantly, who have loveless sex. Varya calls her out on being a gossiper, just like Lyuba was, and refuses to tell. Then Rita asks her about Gleb... and Varya proceeds to badmouth him, switching to other interns in process. Rita listens her and makes notes about things she's interested with, like Kupitman reselling alcohol past 11 p.m. Rita actually tells her to stop at one point, while Varya is enthusiastic to continue.
- Internal Reveal:
- Kisegach finally reveals her pregnancy to her colleagues... with Bykov's help.
- Only in the end of the episode, Kupitman reveals to interns why their plan was doomed to fail right from the beginning: because Rita and Bykov knows each other for ten years already (in fact, she is his ex).
- Jerkass Has a Point: Kisegach tries to keep her pregnancy secret, while Bykov, in his usual trolling manner, points why it's not gonna work. When she decides to try anyway, he shows just how bad it can be. While his methods are mean, he's not wrong: it's better to reveal everything now, than let it cause even more harm later.
- Morning Sickness: Kisegach's pregnancy finally started causing her problems, including feeling nauseous. This is more serious than usually, since she tries somehow to hide her pregnancy from her colleagues, only to vomit under table right in front of one of her subordinates, who then immediately tells to his friends. They then asks Bykov directly whether she is pregnant, but he "helps" Kisegach by telling them that she became an alcoholic.
- Your Answer to Everything: Semyon's idea how to establish contact with Rita? Get wasted with her. Other interns calls him out on it, telling him that this is his solution for any problem and he's just looking for excuse to drink. He mentions it again when Gleb's plan fails, but gets ignored. When Phil fails, too, Semyon just ignores Phil's attempts to tell that she may simply disliking alcohol ("in the hospital, everyone drinks; for some, it's why they even chose to get the medical education"), and goes to try his "plan". It seemingly works and she suggests to invite other two interns, too... and then she calls Bykov, who busts three interns with alcohol.
