Now, Sophia thinks that Gleb is really in love with her, and even invites him on a date — while Gleb wants to keep as far away from her as possible. Gleb wants to end his "relationship" with Sophia here and now, since he feels nothing to her — but Kupitman can't allow him to dump Sophia, fearing that Sophia may drop into depression again. But Kupitman has a workaround: what if Sophia would dump Gleb? In order for the plan to work, Gleb must become as insufferable as possible. Gleb arrives on a date very late (40 minutes late, precisely). Gleb accidentally takes the right tickets (instead of to something Sophia dislikes), but explains it as them being the cheapest (and movie being the shortest), then proceeds to ruin the movie as much as possibly by rude and loud comments, and even spoils the plot twist. Then he proceeds to act as disgusting as he possibly can, and even refuses to pay for Sophia in cafe, to also show himself as a cheapskate. But when Sophia discusses that "date" with Lyuba, she reveals that she actually liked his disgusting and un-gentleman behaviour: etiquette is overrated, gentlemen are outdated. Lyuba instantly realises that Gleb acted like a jerk on purpose — and that whatever his plan was, it didn't work. She offers him a better one: he and Sophia should have sex, with Gleb failing to perform in bed: no girl would like an impotent; Kupitman has a special medicine just for that case. But even that fails to achieve results, as Sophia sees it as sign of him failing due to being too nervous about their first time... out of love for her. By this point, Gleb decides that he's no longer willing to participating in any such schemes again, as they only makes him look like a fool.
Maxim's patient, Prokhorov, is a submariner, who had no women for a long time. And he is willing to pay if Max somehow organises a "date" for him. Easy money is easy money, so Maxim agrees. In order to smuggle a prostitute for his patient, Max lies to Bykov that she is Prokhorov's wife. Unfortunately, Bykov takes this very seriously and starts dumping her with information about Prokhorov's condition and what to do with him. This wastes the one hour Max has paid her for, and she leaves. Meanwhile, Prokhorov starts feeling very bad, and Max has to ask Bykov for help. Prokhorov needs an immediate operation; Bykov insists on calling Prokhorov's "wife", who must help with certain preparations. Alexei advises Max to simply reveal the truth and accept the punishment, but Maxim says that at this point, it would be downright suicidal; he must either succeed, or die trying. Maxim re-hires the same prostitute to continue pretending to be Prokhorov's wife, but now she demands two times more money, as "roleplaying" costs extra. After listening to Bykov until he leaved, the prostitute decides to "reward" Maxim for wasting so much money — with sex. Bykov busts them during the act, and Maxim gets severely punished. But at least it's better than just admitting that he smuggled a prostitute and forced Bykov to lecture her. Or is it? But since Prokhorov is still in bad shape, he needs to be visited regularly, and not disturbed with bad news, so Maxim and prostitute would need to visit him regularly; more visits means more "dates"?..
Alexei's patient is from Torzhok himself. Lyosha immediately tries to befriend him... only for the patient to ask Bykov for a replacement, stating that the reason he moved to Moscow was to find better medics than in his home town. Considering that Alexei is from Torzhok himself, the patient can't trust his competence. Unfortunately for him, Bykov refuses to replace Alexei, stating that merely being a Torzhoker is not a sufficient reason by itself. If Alexei would screw up somewhere, that's another matter... Alexei, unaware that his patient rejected him behind his back, tries to create the best conditions for him, to Bykov's irritation. Alexei refuses to listen to Bykov, and continues giving the patient free stuff, even giving him a VIP ward for which he pays by himself — all this out of belief that people from small towns should stick together and help each other. Bykov then just reveals the ugly truth to him. When confronted, the patient tries to assure Lyosha that Bykov lied out of envy to their "special bond" which only people from Torzhok have (and not people from Moscow), as he doesn't want to lose all those privileges. Alexei falls for it. He then starts exploiting Lyosha's generosity more and more, making increasingly more bold demands. Bykov, fed up with this, intervenes again, and orders Lyosha to follow him. Bykov lies to the patient that Alexei has nearly killed him by his incompetence, which provokes him into exclaiming that "he was right about all Torzhok doctors being butchers" — realising too late that Alexei is here and can hear him. Alexei apologises before Bykov, who points that doctors can't allow themselves to separate the patients to "fellow countrymen" and "the rest": all patients are the patients, first and foremost, and thus equal.
This episode provides examples of:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Sophia actually likes jerkass Gleb even more than normal Gleb. Unfortunately for Gleb, he planned to achieve the opposite effect.
- Association Fallacy: Alexei's patient considers Torzhok's medicine to be inferior to Moscow's, and for this reason decided to consult with Moscow doctors instead of Torzhok ones. Since Alexei is Torzhoker himself, the patient considers that he must be just as (in)competent as the other Torzhok's doctors by default — just because he is Torzhoker. Even Bykov refuses to acknowledge this as an "argument".
- Band of Brothers: Alexie's views on the world; he thinks that people from small communities (like his home town, Torzhok) must stick together and help each other, and that if you would help someone today, they would repay you tomorrow. So, when he encounters a fellow Torzhoker as his new patient, he tries to create the best conditions for him, even at his own expense if Bykov is against providing it for free... unaware that the patient rejected him on the spot because Lyosha is Torzhoker (he thinks that anyone from Torzhok would be incompetent by default), but decided to exploit free goods anyway. When Bykov reveals the truth to Alexei, the pain of betrayal can be clearly seen on Lyosha's face.
- Break Her Heart to Save Her: Gleb makes another attempt to break up with Sophia for her own good; this time, instead of outright dumping Sophia, Gleb must act like utter jerk so she would dump him. It fails, as she actually likes his toxic behaviour.
- Crazy-Prepared: Kupitman has the pills specifically for the case when you need to "kill" your erection. He almost spills out one example when he used them, only to quickly shut up.
- Gone Horribly Right: Max tries to smuggle a prostitute for Prokhorov by passing her as Prokhorov's wife. Bykov believes in that, and dumps on her the long list of instructions about Prokhorov's condition, wasting one hour Max has paid for. When time runs out, the prostitute leaves. Then Max re-hires her to listen to even more of Bykov's speeches, only for Bykov to then catch them having sex and jumping to obvious conclusions. This costs Maxim one month of night shifts and most unpleasant work Bykov could think of. Still better than just admitting to Bykov that Maxim has smuggled a prostitute into the hospital and forced Bykov to give her two long lectures, right? Right?..
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Kupitman and Lyuba both provides their plans to cause Sophia to dump Gleb. Both times they achieves the opposite effects:
- Kupitman's plan involves Gleb acting as disgusting and insufferable as he can in order to cause Sophia to dump him... only for Sophia to actually like it.
- Lyuba's plan involves Gleb failing to perform in bed in order to cause Sophia to dump him... only for Sophia to actually like it: she thinks that this happened to him due to him being very nervous because he for once feels something genuine to his new girl. So, by failing to perform in Bed, Gleb showed that he loves Sophia!
- Hard Truth Aesop: Alexei learns that doctors must treat everyone equally, not giving any privileges to the people from their city/town/village/whatever; doing otherwise only creates corruption, as people would exploit it.
- Hypocrite: Alexei's patient rejects Lyosha on the basis that he distrusts doctors from Torzhok — without warning Alexei about it. When Alexei starts providing him with VIP conditions at his expense, only to learn about this and threaten to revoke his privileges, he lies to Alexei's face that he never rejected him, and instead tries to shift the blame on Bykov ("he lies to you out of envy; he is a Moscowner, after all — they have no such brotherhood bond like us, Torzhokers").
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: When Kupitman's plan fails, because Sophia likes jerkass Gleb even more, Lyuba suggests another one; Gleb and Sophia must have sex... or, rather, try, but fail. No girl would like an impotent, right? It just so happened that Kupitman has special pills right for that case. It still fails, because Sophia somehow interprets it as a sign that Gleb loves her.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Maxim previously hired a prostitute to pretend to be Prokhorov's wife. When Bykov busts said prostitute having sex with Max himself, he jumps to obvious conclusions.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently, one of Kupitman's pickup schemes involved him faking impotency.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: To punish Alexei's patient for his behaviour, Bykov prescribes him a lavement — universal punishment for smug assholes.
- Please Dump Me: Gleb intentionally acts like utter jerk to Sophia for full episode in attempt to force her to dump him. It fails. He then tries another method, by faking impotency, but she manages to interpret even that as a sign of him "loving" her.
- Right Behind Me: Bykov asks Alexei's patient whether he changed his mind about Alexei's skills (the patient previously claimed that no good doctor can came out of Torzhok, ever and even asked Bykov to replace Lyosha just because he's from there, but when started receiving free stuff from Lyosha, started lying to him about "special bond" all Torzhokers share). When patient confirms this, Bykov lies to him that Alexei did a terrible job with him and nearly killed him, after which the guys starts mumbling that "he was right, all Torzhok doctors are butchers". Then he realises that Alexei is here and can hear everything, and understands that it was a trap.
- Springtime for Hitler: Gleb tries to be as terrible boyfriend for Sophia as possible, all in hope that it would make her dump him. Somehow, both his attempts to botch everything on purpose (firstly on a date, then in bed) makes her like him more. After that, he decides to not follow Kupitman's and Lyuba's advices ever again.Gleb: Gleb, you must act like a moron! No, Gleb, you must act like an impotent! Now what? I'm an impotent moron, and still failed to get rid of Sophia!
- Taking Advantage of Generosity: Alexei's patient initially rejects Alexei on the basis that he distrusts doctors from Torzhok. When Alexei (who was unaware of this) starts providing him with VIP conditions at his expense, the patient starts acting like he is Alexei's friend — all in order to receive even more free stuff.
