Bykov is back to work, but he is still in deep shock because of the whole situation with Kisegach's pregnancy — to the point of becoming an empty shell of his former self. Interns are deeply unsettled by this, and so is Kisegach, who asks Kupitman to watch over Bykov. Unfortunately, now Kupitman must avoid alcohol for the next six months, in order to not spill anything to interns while drunk. Meanwhile, Bykov continues acting weirdly; now he watches over babies in nursery. Kupitman tries to delicately learn what's happening, and Bykov reveals to him the real reason behind his behaviour: Bykov feels nothing about possibly becoming a father, and feels ashamed by it; his current behaviour is his attempts to provoke "fatherly feelings".
Lobanov deals with depression caused by breakup with Olga with alcohol, and Gleb accuses him of slowly, but surely becoming an alcoholic. Now Semyon must prove to him that he may live without booze. Gleb has a point, because almost immediately after telling him that he "has a strength of will" to avoid alcohol, Semyon has tried to ask Kupitman, and then Lyuba to receive it right here and now, unsuccessfully. But then his patient gifts him a bottle of cognac, and Gleb, in order to protect Semyon, secretly replaces cognac with black tea. To avoid temptations of drinking his "booze", Semyon gifts his "cognac" to Kupitman... who immediately gets busted with it by Kisegach while trying to drink it. The only thing which saves him is that it's indeed the tea. Meanwhile, Semyon finally snaps and rushes to Kupitman in attempt to steal "cognac" back; as original bottle is now empty, he takes some of Kupitman's own stock. Gleb decides to help Semyon and drink his "booze" for him, so Lobanov wouldn't become an alcoholic — and suddenly realises that it's indeed cognac. Lobanov thinks that it's funny, but Romanenko must somehow replace what was stolen from Kupitman; he quickly comes with an idea: more tea.
Bykov's strange behaviour makes interns afraid for him (except for Gleb, who likes him being calm for once). Phil and Varya tries to learn more, only for Bykov to force them to hug him (to which he immediately reacts with disgust). Bykov considers this to be an improvement: negative feelings are still feelings, while previously he felt nothing. After this, he brings a baby into Kisegach's office, in order to see how he would react to actually holding a baby. A baby which he stole from some patient. Phil and Varya asks orderlies for help to catch and sedate Bykov before he harms anyone. In attempt to calm Bykov down, Kisegach lies to him that she is not pregnant (the test results were confirmed false), but this achieves the opposite effect and enrages Bykov, since this means that everything he's done today was for nothing. At this moment, the orderlies comes in and sedates Bykov.
This episode provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Semyon's method of dealing with depression because of (seemingly final) breakup with Olga is to drink booze; lots of booze. Unfortunately, this goes for too long, and now Gleb thinks that Semyon is on the verge of becoming an alcoholic. He has a point, because almost immediately after telling him that he "has a strength of will" to avoid alcohol, Semyon tries to ask Kupitman, and then Lyuba to receive it right here and now, unsuccessfully. When Semyon's patient tries to gift him cognac, Gleb takes the bottle away, to Lobanov's anger. When Semyon insists that Gleb must give back his cognac, Gleb replaces booze with tea (he disposed of the real alcohol by pouring it into a sink), to check if Lobanov would try and drink it anyway. Instead, Lobanov decides to give his bottle to Kupitman, to remove this temptation. Later Lobanov snaps anyway, and tries to steal "cognac" back.
- Bookend: Semyon's plot gets kickstarted by him receiving a bottle of cognac, which Gleb replaces with tea, and which Semyon later gifts to Kupitman (in order to avoid temptation of drinking it), and which Kupitman tries to drink, only to find out that this is not cognac. Semyon's plot (and the whole episode with it) ends with another bottle replacement (this time, because Semyon stole Kupitman's booze to replace his own, which was already destroyed by this point), with Kupitman again being fooled into drinking tea instead of cognac.
- Cassandra Truth: Kupitman is busted with a bottle of dark substance, wineglass and prepared lemon. His attempt to claim to Kisegach (who just forced him to avoid alcohol not long ago) that this is black tea would definitely look life Blatant Lies in any other situation... but this time around, this is, actually, a black tea. Kisegach even questions wether he prepared for this just to make fun of her.
- Double Take: Kisegach tells Kupitman that he must avoid alcohol for... around six months. He reacts calmly at first, then he realises that she meant this seriously, and looks back at her with "wait, what?!" expression on his face.
- Dumbass Has a Point: While they made this decision purely because they don't know context for Bykov's behaviour, he may be easily mistaken for real lunatic due to his actions, which, had he really went insane, would be dangerous to people around him. Bykov acted weird for whole day, then he out of a blue abducted some patient's baby boy for some weird purpose, and, when returned him, asked for a girl, "for a time", without explaining why (not that his "explanation" would be much more adequate with context), and then he suddenly becomes very aggressive during discussion with Kisegach. At this point, Phil and Varya asks orderlies to just sedate him.
- Empty Shell: Bykov is weirdly, creepily emotionless in this episode, scaring his friends and subordinates. He is not dead, but is so shocked by Kisegach's sudden pregnancy, he may as well be; he moves "on autopilot" and reacts on anything with cold emotionless of a robot. When asked by Kupitman what he feels about babies (when Bykov stares into a nursery's window), Bykov asks him in turn what Kupitman feels when he looks on them. Kupitman tells that he feels "joy"; then Bykov asks him to tell sincerely, to which Kupitman replies with "fear, loneliness, squick". Then Bykov tells him that Kupitman is a lucky one, because Bykov feels nothing at all. Immediately after this Bykov explains just why he acts this way, showing that he only looks like this, while in reality, his emotionless behaviour is his (futile) attempt to imagine how the father is supposed to feel about his future children. Past this point, he ceases to act emotionless, and starts acting like outright lunatic.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Gleb tries to help Semyon with his growing alcoholism by replacing his cognac with tea. Later, in order to teach Semyon a lesson that he is indeed his friend, who tries to help him, he tries to drink all the "tea" in one go... only to realise that this is, indeed, cognac (Semyon tried to return his bottle back, which he gave to Kupitman, and since it was already empty by this point, stole one of Kupitman's). Semyon definitely considers this to be amusing, Gleb no so much (especially since returning Kupitman his booze is now on him, Semyon is low on money).
- Implausible Deniability: When directly asked, Bykov tells Kisegach that he is "perfectly fine" with her pregnancy. While walking and talking like a zombie, with similarly dead-like face, and holding a clinical history upside down, which he only corrects when pointed out by Kisegach.
- Improbably Quick Coma Recovery: Bykov recovered from his coma surprisingly quickly and already returned to work. Whatever problems he has are unrelated to coma, and are actually due to shock over Kisegach's pregnancy.
- In Vino Veritas: Kisegach forbids Kupitman from drinking, since when he's drunk, he would be "worse than Lyuba". For... at least six months.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Bykov completely ignores both Semyon insulting him (unaware that Bykov can hear him) and Gleb being late to work without any adequate excuse, and acts like a soulless shell of his formers self in general, interns realises that something must be wrong with him (though Gleb considers this to be an "improvement", since now Bykov at least is not as volatile). Kisegach knows what caused this condition (her pregnancy), but thinks that there must be something else beside him being against having children (or he would've told her already), so there must be something else which shocked him so much. His behaviour only becomes more weird as the time goes on, though by this point the viewer would already know why he acts the way he acts.
- Sanity Slippage: Bykov's behaviour looks crazy even if one knows what he's trying to achieve (he tries to provoke "fatherly" thoughts and feelings), but his friends and interns, who don't, believes that it's a sign of his condition worsening. At first, he just goes towards nursery and stares, for unknown reason. Then he tries to imagine Gleb as his son, and feels disgust. He tries to ask Phil and Varya to hug him, to which he reacts with disgust. And then he outright steals a baby and goes to Kisegach's office, where he sits, carrying it (he wanted to try how it feels, to carry a baby). When he also starts yelling on Kisegach, he gets just sedated.
- Secret-Keeper: Kisegach insists that Kupitman must quit drinking for at least six months, to not spill out the truth about her pregnancy while drunk; she does not care what Kupitman thinks about it.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Interns are afraid for Bykov, and would rather have him loud and angry, but sane. Gleb is the only one who considers his current (calm and non-aggressive) state to be an "improvement".
