Bykov learns that Lyuba dumped Kupitman after his ill-thought comment (which implied that he's ashamed of her), and tells Kisegach about this conflict: something must be done. She thinks that they should try and help them make peace, while Bykov thinks that the only way is to start escalating conflict further, until they would explode at their "helpers" and reunite to spite them. They fails to agree on any plan, and decides to just not touch anything and observe how it would unfold on its own. But Bykov breaks this agreement, and proceeds with his plan, by starting telling Kupitman that he did the right thing by breaking with Lyuba: he's too good for her! At the same time, Kisegach tells completely opposite things to Lyuba, trying to convince her that she must make first step and apologise before Kupitman. Unfortunately, these advices only results in Lyuba getting offended by Kupitman's haughty behaviour. Bykov and Kisegach then switches targets, but not tactics, and now Bykov works with Lyuba, and Kisegach — with Kupitman; this results in Kupitman trying to apologise — only for Lyuba to angrily reject. Then the two meets in an elevator. When Kupitman refuses to help Lyuba, who's carrying heavy bixes,note she mentions that both Bykov and Kisegach "were right". That's when Kupitman realises that they both were visited by them. After discussing the situation, the two realises that Bykov and Kisegach actually helped them — Kisegach pointed out the best qualities of each of them, while Bykov, because of his meddling, helped them to unite against "common enemy". Let's drink for our best friends! Meanwhile, Bykov's argument with Kisegach escalates into full-blown conflict, culminating in her kicking him out of her bed, to the couch.
Timur thinks that everything goes smoothly, and he has a great chance to invite Polina on a date today. Polina, meanwhile, alongside Rita, still suffers from lack of sex. Polina suddenly comes up with an idea how they can deal with ever-growing desire: spend a day under Kupitman; it would all but kill the mood, for foreseeable future. Rita rejects the plan as ridiculous, but Polina decides to try anyway, completely ignoring Timur who's trying to say something to her. The plan works perfectly. Rita, realising that she can't stop thinking about surrounding men, decides to give it a try, too. Timur notices that now Polina and Rita are acting weird, and decides to eavesdrop their conversation to find out more. But, without context, their dialogue sounds like them... becoming lesbians. Worrying that they're "losing" Polina and Rita, Timur suggests Alexei to "check", by offering himself to Rita and see how she would react. And... Rita reacts with disgust. Realising that they've nearly lost, Timur suggests to go home and drink something heavy. Meanwhile, Polina's plan starts to lose its effectiveness, meaning that she needs something else; the same happens with Rita. With no other options left, Polina goes to Timur — who, at that same time, decides to drink with Lyosha. But they have neither vodka nor snacks (courier runs late), and have to use champagne and cakes instead, even if those are "girly"note . Alexei accidentally stains Timur's pants with cake, so Timur has to take them down for now, staying in his undies. When Polina arrives, Timur mistakes her for a courier, and asks Alexei to open the door. Polina gets quite surprised at seeing Lyosha there — and even more at seeing Timur half-naked. When she jokes about them being gay, Timur in turn accuses her of being lesbian. Only then they both realises what's going on. Then Alexei gets called by Rita, who decided to take his offer after all, leaving Timur with Polina by alone. Since the booze would arrive soon, may as well stay and share it?
Sophia has bought shiny new pants, but wants to keep them secret from Gleb for awhile: preparations to their wedding made him extremely cheap, going to ridiculous length to preserve money. If he finds out about this, it wouldn't end well, so Sophia hides it with Lyuba for now. But Gleb busts Lyuba with those plants, and doesn't believe that she'd bought them "for herself", forcing her to admit the truth. Gleb reacts as well as Sophia expected, and forces her to return them back, saying that they can't afford reckless spending (he doesn't care that she managed to grab them during sale), or he would change PIN-code of his credit card. Sophia, angry at Gleb for being a cheapskate, starts mocking his money-saving habits by pretending to starving herself with extremely cheap (and just as non-nourishing) "dinner". When Gleb busts Sophia trying to fill empty bottles with (free) water from a cooler, Gleb catches up with her disrespecting his efforts — while she, in turn, calls him out on taking them to ridiculous level; being economical and being cheap is not the same! And Gleb's efforts, while well-intentioned, just makes them both suffer. Gleb tries to make up for this, but goes overboard and brings several very expensive gifts for Sophia — and gets rightfully called out on wasting 50K roubles just before the wedding. Again, not being cheapskate, and wasting all the money on one-time fun is not the same! Sadly, now, when they wasted all their money, they really must rely on Gleb's original tactic of ridiculous cheapness to cover all expenses — but this time, cutting money on the wedding itself. But maybe there's still a way to salvage the situation?..
This episode provides examples of:
- Conflict Killer: Bykov's original plan involves escalating conflict between Kupitman and Lyuba to the point that they would explode at their "helpers" and re-unite just to spite them. Kisegach rejectes it out of risk that if it wouldn't work, they would just hate each other more, but Bykov completely ignores her and tries this plan anyway. Ultimately, Bykov's plan actually works by accident, when Kupitman and Lyuba learns about being manipulated and gets angry.
- Cutting Corners: Some of Gleb's methods to save money (like finding cheaper place to buy food) is pretty reasonable. Others, like refusing to hire loaders even for obviously too heavy boxes, or trying to do pedicure for Sophia by himself, without any skills whatsoever (causing her much discomfort and even pain), is another matter.
- Exiled to the Couch: Bykov's punishment for enraging Kisegach; she is too angry to tolerate him near her, so he would spend the night on a couch.
- Irony: Alexei comments on them drinking champagne (a stereotypically "girly" and "unmanly" alcohol) for their... heterosexuality. Timur ignores him.
- Mistaken for Gay:
- Due to eavesdropping them out of context, Timur interprets Polina's dialogue with Rita as them becoming lesbian, with each other.
- When Polina arrives to Timur's house, she sees him here with Alexei, drinking champagne (a "girly" booze), eating cakes and not wearing pants. Her conclusions are obvious.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Gleb was rather extreme in his attempts to cut expenses, but at least not harmful. But when Sophia called him out on this, in attempt to "fix" him, he wasted huge amount of money in futile attempt to apologise, making situation much worse, since now they really need to preserve every rouble.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Polina and Rita are discussing Polina's new method how to kill desire for sex — work under Kupitman, so you would be too squicked to even think about it. But since they never mentions Kupitman or exact details how Polina's plan works, what little Timur overhears sounds like them discussing their first lesbian experience.
- Preemptive "Shut Up": After Lyuba and Kupitman unites against them, just like Bykov predicted, Kisegach shuts Bykov up just when he tries to start gloating.
- Ship Tease: Normally, Polina wants nothing to do with Timur and not even tries to hide it, but she takes his offer to stay and drink together; unlike the previous time, she's completely sober. Perhaps, he is on the right way.
- Think Unsexy Thoughts: Polina's plan in nutshell; if you want to kill desire for sex (creeping desire, which makes you unable to look on men without thinking how they would perform in bed) — just work under Kupitman, and you wouldn't be able to think about sex without being squicked. This quickly stops working.
- Two Rights Make a Wrong: Despite their agreement to just not touch the situation at all, Bykov and Kisegach each secretly proceeds with their respective plans. Bykov plans to escalate conflict between Kupitman and Lyuba to the point that they would unite just to spite him, and starts "indoctrinating" Kupitman. Kisegach, instead, tries to just assure Lyuba that she must give Kupitman a second chance. This results in Lyuba trying to apologise, and Kupitman immediately enraging her, achieving nothing. Then they changes targets, receiving the same result in reverse.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Gleb insists on cutting any and all unnecessary expenses out of good intentions, but without thinking that "cutting expenses" and "living completely ascetic life for foreseeable future" are not the same. While he was probably right about those pants Sophia bought despite his protests (but again, Sophia obtained them on a sale, for really good price, remembering his request to save money), but refusing to use your phone (so, in order to learn why Sophia has called, he must run to her every single time, despite being several floors below), or refusing to hire loaders for heavy box you barely manage even with Sophia's help? And these are only the problems he induced on himself. Then he jumps to another extreme to "apologise", resulting in her calling him dumbass for wasting money.
