Bykov and Kupitman plans to represent their hospital in a poker tournament, where they would compete against the other hospitals... and of course, Kisegach is against the idea, for which she gets called "fun-hater". But they're gonna do that anyway. Meanwhile, Maxim comes up with a "genius" scheme how to win respect of the other doctors: they must throw a banquet for them. But this would require 10K roubles per intern, which Alexei and Sophi neither have nor want to share. Maxim still goes ahead and announces the banquet, which makes everyone ask them about it. When asked why he did that, he says that his plan "B" is promise the banquet, then tell Lyuba about it and wait till she spreads the rumours: once Bykov finds out, he would cancel everything, and people would be angry at him, not interns; it would still win them some points, even if not as much as original plan. The plan quickly backfires, as Lyuba is aware that Bykov can cancel the banquet if he finds out, so she suppresses the rumours, and then turns out that Bykov isn't even in the hospital. Max tries to tell Kisegach, hoping that she would veto the entire thing, but she suddenly supports the idea, thinking that it's her chance to prove to Bykov that she can do fun, too. Maxim, who barely gathers 2K (out of 30K), rushes to Bykov, hoping to earn some money through poker tournament. He does earn it... but not because he'd won (quite the opposite); instead, Bykov loaned him some money, as he likes that Kisegach is in the plan.
Kupitman, to be able to adhere the tournament, forces Phil to stay in the office, despite previously agreeing to let him go early, as he has a side job as English tutor. Fortunately, his client agrees to do their lesson right in the hospital. But soon the student's jealous husband shows up, who predictably thinks that she's cheating on him; them being in venereologist office only reinforces this belief. Yet, Phil still manages to explain that he's American, and he's here as a tutor, not a doctor. After discussing said husband with his student, Phil learns that they're unable to conceive a child, and offers to examine her — only for husband to appear again and attack Phil. Phil somehow manages to calm him down and explain (but not before having his nose broken), and offers to examine him, too, to find what prevents them from conceiving, "accidentally" causing him some pain.
Lyuba is busy, and leaves Rita as her temporal replacement. During her shift, a patient named Malyutin shows up... who, unknowingly to Rita, is deeply in love with her... despite not knowing her name. When he tries to find out more, he asks Lyosha about the "Head Nurse", and predictably receives Lyuba's name. Malyutin then orders flowers for "Head Nurse", which Rita actually receives, but gives them to Lyuba. Alexei then tells Lyuba that she has a secret admirer, who's too shy to tell her directly. Malyutin asks Lyuba... about "Lyuba". Lyuba fails to realise that something is wrong, and instead thinks that it's him being shy, so she plays along, and even invites him on a party that would happen this evening. During the party, both ends up drunk and have sex in the nursing room, where Malyutin realises that he's more interested in actual Lyuba than "Lyuba".
This episode provides examples of:
- Batman Gambit: Maxim's "plan B": announce the party; make sure that Lyuba would learn about it; wait until Bykov would learn about it from Lyuba and ruin everything preemptively (redirecting everyone's ire at himself in process). This way, interns would still win some sympathy — but without need to actually organise the party. It doesn't work, because Lyuba decides that she wants that party strong enough to suppress the rumours. And then turns out that Bykov isn't even here; Maxim tries to use Kisegach instead, but she actually supports his idea about the party, for her own reasons.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Malytin tries to propose to Rita (who temporarily replaced Lyuba), but fails due to his shyness, and gets forced to ask Alexei for help, with only information available being that his interest is a "Head Nurse" (who is normally Lyuba, not Rita). Things only goes downhill from here.
- Chekhov's Gun: In beginning of the episode, when Bykov discusses with Kisegach his plans to adhere a poker tournament, when she prohibits him (which he later ignores anyway), he accuses her of being unable to "make fun". Later, when Maxim tries to use her to ruin his own party, she remembers this discussion and allows Maxim to throw the party -- which he has no way to actually organise.
- The Dog Bites Back: When Phil's student suddenly turns his patient, said student's violently jealous husband shows up and hits him in the face. Phil offers him medical examination... which turns out to be very painful. Phil's voice's tone implies that he cause that pain on purpose.
- Failure Gambit: Realising that he's not gonna find the money to throw the party, Maxim tries another plan which involves him promising the party, then making Bykov find out and cancel it, so people would at least respect that they've tried. He fails to make the party being cancelled.
- Gossipy Hens: Lyuba tries to share new gossips with Rita... only to find out that Rita is already aware (with Rita even finishing sentences for her), to Lyuba's irritation. It's hard to share new gossips when you work on the same shift and receive the same information.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Bykov sponsors Maxim's party to help Kisegach (who agreed with it) "cultivate" right traits (so she stops being a boring bureaucrat); she actually likes it so much, she plans another event with her new friends... which means, Bykov would be forced to stay with Ilya instead of going into billiard club with his friends.Bykov: Did my little bore really bothered me that much?
- Insane Troll Logic: Kisegach is against Bykov and Kupitman playing poker, stating it being "childish"... but Bykov insists that since they would represent their hospital in a tournament (competing with the other hospital's teams), she should be "proud", since they would defend their hospital's "honour". It doesn't work, so Bykov just outright states that he would attend that tournament, so she may only stop him by firing him.
- Kick the Dog: Phil works as an English tutor, and he would need an early leave today to not miss their (fifth, actually) session — of which Kupitman was aware, because Phil warned him preemptively. But Kupitman, due to planning to adhere a poker tournament with Bykov (which was forbidden by Kisegach, by the way), needs to leave, too. So he forces Phil to cancel everything and stay in the office anyway — but not before "agreeing" to let him go, only to state that this was a bluff he tried to "train" before tournament, and adding that he doesn't consider Phil's problems serious enough argument.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Lyuba asks just how Maxim managed to organise this party, despite their boring jerkass of a Chief Doctor... only to clumsily change it to praise when Kisegach appears; Kisegach either doesn't notice or doesn't care.
- Missing Steps Plan: Maxim's plan how to gain sympathy in the hospital: collect 30K roubles, throw a banquet, profit. How he expects three interns to get that much money is unknown (when he actually tries later, he only finds 2K). His replacement plan isn't much better, relying entirely on specific people acting in specific way. Ultimately, it's the first plan that works, and does that essentially by accident.Maxim: How do you feel about a genius plans?
Sophia: Yours? Negatively. - Not What It Looks Like: Phil has a side-job as English tutor for a (married) woman. Due to Kupitman's indifference to Phil's problems, they gets forced to work in Kupitman's office, because Phil can't leave the hospital. The problem is, she has a violently jealous husband, which causes several unpleasant moments for all of them.
- During their lesson, the husband rushes in, and accuses his wife of being a prostitute, who, due to cheating on him, now needs a venereologist. Now they must somehow explain to him that Phil really is her tutor, not her doctor — which is not that easy when he stands in a venereologist's office and wears a medical coat. Her stating that Phil is American only deduces credibility her story has in husband's eyes, because he finds it implausible that any sane man would move to Russia from the USA just to become a doctor here. He does believe and apologise for his aggressive behaviour when Phil actually speaks in perfect English.
- When Phil discusses with his student her jealous husband, she mentions her inability to get pregnant. Phil suggests to examine her... only for said husband to appear again right in the middle of the procedure. Phil doesn't even try to explain what's happening, and instead tries to pretend that they're studying; it doesn't work. Fortunately, they manages to convince him by stating the real reason... after jealous husband already broke Phil's nose. Even after this, Phil suggests to examine a husband, too, to see whether he can be the reason for their problem.
- Poor Communication Kills: Rita's secret admirer, the patient named Malyutin, has something going wrong at every step, due to either his shyness or his consistently poor choice of words:
- When he notices Rita for a first time, he doesn't try to just introduce himself or ask her name, and instead (when asked directly what he wants) says "nothing" and leaves, missing his best chance.
- He asks Alexei about the "Head Nurse's" name (he thought that it was Rita), not bothering to describe her, predictably receiving Lyuba's name (and making Alexei think that Malyutin is in love with Lyuba). He uses it to order flowers for Lyuba, and while Rita receives them due to being on the post (which is the only thing Malyutin sees), she takes them away and later gives to Lyuba.
- He tries to ask Lyuba (whom Alexei already warned about Malyutin)... about "Lyuba", and she, instead of realising that something is wrong, starts playing along, thinking that he flirts with her, and invites him to Maxim's party. On party, due to continuing talking in this third-person manner, they misses the last opportunity to salvage the situation, and Malyutin (who is now drunk enough to propose... and too drunk to think straight) goes with Lyuba in a nursing room, and realises that something is wrong too late to prevent (just as drunk) Lyuba from trying to have sex with him. He actually likes it enough to lose interest to Rita, though.
- "Rashomon"-Style: When asked just how he managed to obtain money to throw a party, Maxim at first states that it was "too boring to talk about", but explains anyway (cue flashback to tournament where he managed to defeat everyone else, and then use bluff to provoke Bykov into missing sure victory). Later we learn from Bykov just how things actually went; main course of events was mostly the same (including the part about eliminating Kupitman; he'd lost due to long streak of bad luck which started long before Maxim even joined), but his bluff completely failed to work on Bykov. Max indeed got money from Bykov, but because Bykov loaned to him, not because he'd won (he'd lost, actually).
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After all Max's plans fails, he takes what little money interns collectively collected (slightly above 2K roubles, which is... not much), and rushes somewhere without saying a word, Alexei remembers that one-way ticket to Saint-Petersburg costs around that sum. However, it turns out that he had a yet another plan in his sleeve.
- Springtime for Hitler: After his initial plan (to throw a party for the doctors to win their respect) failed due to total lack of money, Max tries a "plan B" — announce the party, then make sure that Bykov would learn about it (through Lyuba) and sabotage everything, making everyone angry at him, while Max and friends would look like victims, winning everyone's sympathy anyway. When it turns out that not only Lyuba actually tried to suppress the rumours so Bykov wouldn't know (she wants this party, too), but Bykov is out of the hospital, Maxim replaces Bykov with Kisegach... who just happened to have a reason to allow this party, to prove to Bykov that she's not the "fun hater".
- Status Quo Is God: Drunk sex Lyuba has with Malyutin remains just one night stand; it wouldn't develop into any relationship, and wouldn't appear in subsequent episodes, leaving Lyuba just as lonely.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Max never prepares properly, but he's good at improvising. His first plan involved throwing a party to earn sympathy, which's gonna cost 30K. He gathers only 2K, so he announces the party, hoping that Bykov would learn about it through Lyuba's gossips and cancel it, making it look like Maxim has tried, but was stopped by a jerk, so he would get some sympathy anyway. Since Lyuba tries to prevent Bykov from learning (she wants the party, too), and Bykov is away from the hospital anyway, Max tries to replace him with Kisegach. Kisegach allows the party, for her own reasons, so Maxim rushes to find Bykov and participate in poker tournament and win the money that way. He fails to win, but gets support from Bykov who likes that he managed to make Kisegach do something fun for once (such behaviour should be encouraged).
