Gleb overhears his mother wanting to birth a second child. The problem is, if counting Gleb, she already has two sons, so this must mean that she no longer counts Gleb as her son anymore. He isn't happy with it, to say the least. When called out by Sophia, who thinks that he overreacted and that this was just the honest mistake (she probably meant "second one from Bykov", not overall), he states that this is not the first time she makes "mistakes" like this. When he mentions multiple examples, he convinces even Sophia. His answer to this betrayal? Demonstratively pretend that she is not his mother. Gleb starts insisting on being called "Gleb Victorovich" (and calls her "Anastasia Konstantinovna" in turn), and refuses to help her, stating that she can't bother him with "personal requests" during working hours. Kisegach asks Sophia about Gleb's weird behaviour, and learns that he believes that she no longer counts him as her son; Sophia suggests to talk with him about it. When Gleb continues ignoring her, Kisegach apologises and invites him to a family dinner. But she's too busy with Ilya to pay attention to what Gleb's saying, seemingly confirming that he was right. Gleb is about to leave, but Kisegach realises what's about to happen, and forces just arrived Bykov to babysit Ilya, so she may finally spend time with her first son. After them finally talking like mother and son, the bond between them gets restored.
Timur and Alexei must work together, with Lyosha as Timur's subordinate. Timur is sure that he can easily exploit him. For that, he uses the cleverly-chosen compliments, which makes Alexei do all the work while thinking that Timur is awesome and clearly smarter than the other doctors over there — while Timur may slack off. Soon, he also starts sending Alexei for personal errands, and when Polina sees this, she tells Lyosha that Timur is manipulating him, and his compliments are his main weapon; he can't be trusted. Alexei confronts Timur about it... and Timur changes tactics, now starting scolding him, making Alexei feel guilty for letting him down. Timur offers him a "second chance"; what Alexei doesn't know is that Timur cooperates with his patient against him. Polina tells Alexei that this is a manipulation, too: Timur's favourite scheme is to alternate between carrot and stick. And now, he takes all the credit for Alexei's hard work, so Lyosha would be punished, and Timur rewarded. Angry, Alexei goes to confront Timur... and Timur protects him before Bykov. Alexei angrily tells Polina to stop badmouthing Timur. Meanwhile, Timur tells Bykov that he indeed lied about Alexei... to not provoke him into self-harm, and that's why he complimented him before Bykov. Bykov warns him that if his lies goes too far, Timur himself may get punished.
After one of the patients leaves flowers on Lyuba's post, Lyuba interprets it as a gift from Kupitman. She sends him message — which Bykov (who was in Kupitman's office at the time) almost reads, before Kupitman takes the phone away. Bykov still tries to ask him for more details, but Kupitman angrily refuses. When pressed, he lies that he gave Lyuba a loan, so Bykov wouldn't be interested in finding out more. But Bykov doesn't actually believe Kupitman, and tries to learn more from Lyuba herself, who has a different version, mismatching Kupitman's explanation. But Lyuba manages to save the situation by stating that Kupitman lied to Bykov about it, so people would think that he's too greedy to give anyone money, and wouldn't try the same. When called out on allowing Bykov to look into his phone, Kupitman calls Lyuba out on sending that message in the first place. This escalates quickly, and results in Lyuba learning that the flowers were not from Kupitman — and Kupitman accidentally offending her by rudely asking why should he do something like this "without good cause". When Kupitman later tries to message her, Lyuba sends him just two words: "screw you!"... which Bykov intercepts before Kupitman can stop him. Kupitman comes up with even less plausible cover than the last time, and Lyuba again contradicts it. Lyuba, tired of Bykov reading what doesn't belong to him, confronts Kupitman about him not preventing Bykov from using his phone... and that's when Bykov appears, insisting on being told the truth. Kupitman, with Lyuba soon joining, improvises a new lie by mixing the previous ones, with Lyuba soon joining: Kupitman pleased Lyuba by exiting from the elevator, but enraged her by telling the others about this story. She took the loan to pay for liposuction, but Kupitman backed out and demanded money back (offending Lyuba)... because he thinks that Lyuba is perfect as is! This seemingly convinces Bykov, who instantly loses interest. But Lyuba still resents Kupitman: he never gifts her flowers just to make her happy... Kupitman takes it personally, and later nearly gets busted gifting flowers to Lyuba for real. Fortunately, Bykov jumps to wrong conclusions, and Kupitman doesn't correct him. Lyuba leaves before Kupitman manages to actually give her flowers, but then Kupitman receives a message containing just two words: "thank you".
This episode provides examples of:
- Berserk Button: Lampshaded; when Kupitman lies that Lyuba is angry at him for joking that she's "heavier than elevator", Bykov points that had he said that, he wouldn't be alive to tell the story afterwards, given how Lyuba usually reacts to bringing up her weight.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Invoked by Kupitman when he and Lyuba lies to Bykov, to cover for calling Lyuba fat previously; since Lyuba's part of the cover involved liposuction, Kupitman tells that he considers her being perfect without it. While he's "explaining" it to Bykov, it's clear that he really tells this to Lyuba, who has major issues with her weight, as his way to apologise.
- I Have No Son!: Gleb starts suspecting that Kisegach no longer considers him to be her son: she gradually forgets that they are related and never mentions him, even in appropriate situation (in fact, specific wording makes it sound like she has only one son, which is not true, obviously). He wouldn't be surprised if she already deleted all family photos with him, if she even had them to begin with. His arguments are strong enough to convince Sophia, who was sceptical initially. He decides to fight fire with fire, and start demonstratively pretend that Kisegach isn't his mother. It works and makes Kisegach realise that she indeed has to dedicate some time to first son, too.
- Heel Realisation:
- When Gleb calls Kisegach out on being a bad mother to him (it goes beyond her just being too concerned with Ilya; she actually starts forgetting that he is her son), she invites him on a family dinner. When it goes badly due to her being too busy with Ilya, she drops Ilya on just arrived Bykov (who tried to mock Gleb right before that), so she may finally talk with him like mother and son. Gleb forgives her afterwards.
- After Lyuba calls him out on his jerkass attitude (like his "why should I gift you flowers with no good cause?" rant), Kupitman gifts her flowers for real, in attempt to apologise. Lyuba forgives him.
- Manipulative Bastard: Timur uses cleverly-chosen compliments to not simply trick Alexei into doing all the work instead of Timur, who is still new here, but do it with a smile on his face: he is great, he is awesome! Then, when Polina warns Alexei about this... Timur changes tactic, starting scolding him for his screwups, so when he leaves to do all work, it's Lyosha who looks bad. Then he cooperates with his patient to exploit Alexei further. And when Polina goes to Bykov... Timur pretends to protect Alexei, in such a way that it's Polina who looks bad now. Bykov sees right through it, and warns that if he goes too far, it may backfire on him.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Even if take into account that Kupitman was surprised by being told that "he" sent flowers to Lyuba, had he simply agreed with her version of events, he could've prevented the full conflict from unfolding. Instead, he starts arguing with her and then offends her, since his words implies that she is not important enough for him to send her flowers outside of holidays at all.
- Out of Focus: Sophia plays only minor role in this episode, being the one with whom Gleb discusses his issues with mother at the start of the episode, and otherwise lacks her own plot.
- Sarcastic Confession: When Alexei starts catching up with Timur's bullshit on the second patient, and asks what he would do while Alexei does all the work, Timur (in sarcastic voice) answers that he would lie here, playing in his phone. When Alexei leaves, he does exactly that.
- Secret Relationship: Kupitman and Lyuba prefers that their relationship remains a secret, known only to them. Unfortunately, Bykov has zero respect for privacy, and openly reads Kupitman's messages, which almost results in him finding out.
- Seamless Spontaneous Lie: When Bykov confronts Kupitman and Lyuba on mismatching cover stories (one involving elevator, and one involving loan, respectively), Kupitman (with Lyuba soon joining) manages to improvise a new one right on the spot, combining parts of both lies. It works.
- The Slacker: Timur does everything in his power to force all work on Alexei, while he may sit in on-call room, doing nothing.
- Spotting the Thread: When Kupitman states lame reason for Lyuba messaging him that she's grateful to him (him exiting overloaded elevator for her), Bykov asks Lyuba, who says that it was about a loan (she kept it secret, so people wouldn't exploit Kupitman's generosity). When Kupitman receives another message, they both sticks to their original versions, again mismatching each other's stories (and making them sound even less plausible). An then Bykov waits for them to gather together to talk about the situation to confront them. Fortunately, they manages to improvise, albeit still silly, but plausible story combined from both lies, which kills Bykov's interest.
