Kisegach awakes at Victor's house. She's not in condition to work, but Victor suggests her to take a day off, and drop everything on her new deputy, Gleb — it's his chance to prove himself. His surprise is a spa salon; when she says that she must be ready to rush to the hospital if Gleb runs into problems, he calms her down and says that if something does happen, they would arrive in ten minutes, so she can afford to just relax and dedicate some time to herself. When they receive a call from Bykov, Kisegach refuses to reply, and doesn't let Victor do it, deciding that she can call him later. Meanwhile, Bykov, smiling, goes towards Kisegach's office, ready to celebrate them finally coming along, only to see Gleb in her chair. And worse, Gleb announces that he's now Kisegach's deputy — which means, in her absence, he's in charge. When he asks what Bykov needs, Bykov just throws at him the pack of chocolate which he prepared for Anastasia, and leaves. Bykov thinks that Gleb was installed just to spite him, and that he's not gonna stay for long — only till Kisegach calms down. Until then, since actual boss isn't here, he and Kupitman may just slack off and drink cognac. Bykov insists that things are under control; while he's still angry at Kisegach for letting Victor to manipulate her into setting Gleb as her deputy, he's sure that things wouldn't escalate further. But then Kupitman asks him whether he knows where Anastasia is, and he immediately tries to call her; when she doesn't reply, and Bykov angrily throws his phone out of the window. When asked what the hell it just was, he says that it's him "resisting manipulations" — now, it's Anastasia's turn to worry and make futile attempts to call him (as for the phone, he's bored of it anyway)!
Lobanov doesn't stay to take any patients, leaving under excuse that he can't work with hangover anyway, and goes to Gleb, to drink for his new position. But Gleb decides that he can't let his mother down, and politely refuses, stating that he has a task to do, so they must call it off for now; when Semyon insists, Gleb tells him that he's asking as his friend — and ordering as his boss. Gleb then gets called by Vera about the papers (they have some mistakes in them). When Gleb asks what kind of mistakes, she replies that usually it's Kisegach who deals with them, and asks whether they should call her. Gleb, knowing that doing so would mean his failure as a deputy, insists on checking everything by himself. Gleb can't understand those papers, so he tries to ask Kupitman, but sees him drinking with Bykov. Gleb tries to blackmail them, and they pretends to submit, only to grab him, and force to sign up a document which would allow them to take three days off to go fishing. After failing to figure out what to do with the papers, Gleb just writes that he "dealt with the mistakes", and sends the papers as is. Meanwhile, Kisegach fails to contact Bykov, and starts worrying. She angrily asks Lyuba where is Bykov, and learns that "she" allegedly gave him three days off (in the middle of the week). And then she learns that Ilya fell ill... and father is nowhere in sight. Fortunately, Victor, when he hears about it, arrives to help.
Levin is in charge of the Therapy in Bykov's absence, and assigns the patients to Polina and Alexei. Alexei gets told that he's dressed inappropriately; Levin means his black skulls-decorated bracelet, but doesn't tell so directly, thinking that Lyosha would understand on his own. Alexei doesn't, and assumes that there's something with his coat. He removes it, and Rita thinks that Levin meant Lyosha's t-shirt with beer-themed print. Levin does like him changing t-shirt, but only due to the humour being immature; the real problem is still not fixed! He also attacks Polina over "errors in the diagnosis", without telling that he's referring to her spelling. Alexei tries other options, but neither of them satisfies Levin; it's not his shoes being dirty (though Levin likes him cleaning them), nor his nails being long, nor his belt "mismatching" his shoes (there's no such rule to begin with!). Rita tries to put a medical hat on Lyosha, but that doesn't work either (and Levin doesn't see it as all that important). Polina has not much success either, as even after her redoing all the work, Levin finds "errors", and rejects without explanation. Polina complains to Phil, who volunteers to double-check everything. They then goes to Levin to force him into telling directly, and he finally reveals that it's about Polina spelling her diagnosis wrong; when he disagrees with being called on weird priorities, Polina just calls him a moron, and leaves with Phil. Then Alexei comes in; Rita, after observing Levin's strict commanding over other workers, just dressed Lyosha as Levin's double, complete with glasses, arrogant gaze and unpleasant voice, expecting that he wouldn't criticise himself. Levin just gives up and lets Alexei to go working, which Alexei takes as the sign of Rita being right; and that's when he finally reveals that it was all about that bracelet.
This episode provides examples of:
- Blackmail Backfire: Gleb tries to blackmail Kupitman and Bykov into helping him with documents. They pretends to submit, only to grab him and force to sign the document which allows them to take three days off.
- Blatant Lies: It's not Bykov snapping and throwing his phone into a window in an anger outburst; it's him "resisting Kisegach's attempts at manipulation". Also, he's bored of this phone anyway!
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Levin (Bykov's deputy) gets confronted by Phil (Kupitman's deputy), who starts sarcastically calling him out on his past screwups — only for Levin to rather arrogantly dismiss him, saying that he's busy working, commanding the Therapy. When Phil points that he's working too, commanding Venereology, Levin insults his specialisation as "not true science", which leads the two into open fight, forcing Gleb (Kisegach's deputy) to stop them. Just to nail it, Lobanov remembers the similar situation which he witnessed, involving Bykov and Kupitman going into conflict, before being stopped by Kisegach. Ultimately, he gets fed up and stops them, flat-out lampshading the similarities, saying that the roles are the same, only the actors have changed.
- If Only You Knew: Kisegach asks Gleb just how he dealt with all those papers in one day without knowing anything: just wrote on them with a red marker "everything was done"? Unknowingly to her, it's exactly what he did. Fortunately, turns out that no one bothered to check, and just blindly accepted it.
- Imagine Spot: Gleb sees the visions about Kisegach angrily entering the office to calling him out on letting her down, at several occasions:
- Gleb prepares to drink with Lobanov in his mother's office, only for Kisegach to rush in and kick him out, as he just proved himself to be unworthy of that trust. Then it turns out that it was just Gleb imagining what's gonna happen, after which he decides not to do that.
- Gleb gets informed about the mistakes in the documents, and Vera asks whether to call Kisegach, who normally deals with them. Gleb imagines how she's gonna call him out on giving up at the first sign of problems, and insists on checking everything by himself.
- It gets Subverted on the third scene. While it's set up like the first two ones, when Gleb just writes with red marker over papers that he fixed all mistakes and sent the papers as is, it's expected that Kisegach would enter to kick him out, like the first two times, only for it to be revealed as Gleb's imagination. But it isn't; Gleb actually did that for real. Funnily, later Kisegach does angrily enter the office, though Gleb gets saved by his decision actually working.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Bykov states that "everything is under control". Kupitman asks him whether he knows where Kisegach currently is, and Bykov immediately calls her; when she doesn't reply, he angrily throws his phone into the window.
- Is This Thing Still On?: When Lobanov goes to Kisegach's (now Gleb's) office and mockingly formally addresses him as Gleb Victorovich (Gleb replies in kind), Vera (who can still hear them over telephone) can be heard calling their childish behaviour "kindergarten". Gleb just hangs up.
- Meet the New Boss: Levin exploits his new position as Bykov's deputy to go around screaming at people and calling them out on being "unprofessional", now being able to get away with it. And then there's his treatment of Alexei and Polina.
- Poor Communication Kills: Levin, towards both Alexei and Polina; his inability to explain just what he means, expecting them to figure out on their own, causes them to waste entire day without any meaningful progress. In Polina's case, she has an actual patient, with heart problems.
- Levin doesn't bother with telling Alexei that the problem is in his bracelet (it has skulls on it — not the best thing to bring into hospital); instead, he just tells him that the problem is with "his clothes, and that "he knows what it is"; he refuses to give even hints, even after being asked directly. As result, Lyosha suspects anything but the bracelet. In the end, Levin tells about it himself, just because he gets tired.
- Levin just tells Polina that she has an error in diagnosis. He never tells her that the error was in spelling until confronted, and even then refuses to accept that he's at fault.
- Refuge in Audacity: Lobanov outright tells Levin that since he was drinking yesterday (celebrating his father-in-law's jubilee), he's not gonna work until he deals with hangover, and leaves without receiving any patient from him.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Lobanov (half-jokingly) says that with Gleb as new boss, he may stop pretending that he's working here altogether, only coming to receive salary. However, when he tries to actually exploit his connections, Gleb refuses to bend the rules for him, as he can't let his mother down, not on the very first day.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Victor thinks that the best way to test whether Gleb fits for his new position is to just dump it on him and see what happens. He actually brings in the "sink or swim" comparison, stating that it's how people should be taught things: they wouldn't grow up without challenges.
- Skewed Priorities: Levin is more concerned with Polina's spelling than, you know, using her time for things like treating patients. Both Polina and Phil calls him out on this.
- The Slacker:
- Both Bykov and Kupitman decides to do nothing, as the one in charge — Gleb — has no authority to punish them. When he tries to blackmail them, they outright forces him to sign up a document which allows them to take three days off and run away.
- Semyon ignores Levin's attempts to assign him any patients, and leaves under flimsy "excuse" to something more interesting.
