Lyuba overhears Bykov's conversation with Kupitman and, without context, misinterprets it as them being gay. Meanwhile, Kupitman sees a beautiful girl, and now he is dead set to "win" her. To do so, he pretends to be one of Bykov's subordinates... only to learn that she would not accept a male doctor. Kupitman pretends to be gay, so she would not be ashamed to strip in front of him. He also tells her that Bykov is his boyfriend... without warning Bykov beforehand. Bykov is not amused when told, but reluctantly agrees. Kupitman proceeds with his plan: the patient would feel pity for him, and try to "cure" him, to which he would play along. Unfortunately, Lyuba learns the truth about Bykov and Kupitman not being gay, and tells this to Kupitman's patient, leading to his plan's failure.
Levin assigns lots of useless tests, wasting time and resources, while Lobanov doesn't bother with anything besides general blood tests. Enraged by this, Bykov forces them to work together on a patient Nazarov. They can't stand each other, so they decides to work separately: firstly comes Lobanov, then Levin. Lobanov remembers that Levin previously called him stupid, and decides to prank him, by telling Nazarov that Levin is an organ thief. Scared, Nazarov cooperates with Lobanov to trick "the organ thief" into giving up on him (up to and including by replacing his excrements with dog's); Levin only makes it easier by acting creepily. This only ends when Bykov shows up. Now, they both are punished by floor cleaning: Semyon for his prank... and Levin because only an idiot wouldn't double-check after finding fur, cellophane and mobile phone's button in "human" excrements.
Gleb invites Varya to his uncle's dacha, where they can skiing together, and she agrees, but then Lyuba tells her that this is most likely just another attempt to bed her. Gleb almost convinces her that the invitation was sincere (and still holds), but Kisegach's intervention (she wants Gleb to deliver the medicine to his grandmother; his plans be damned) makes Varya think that Lyuba was right.
This episode provides examples of:
- All for Nothing:
- Lyuba's "timely" appearance ruins Kupitman's scheme, and the patient refuses him, insisting on getting another (female) doctor.
- Gleb (sincerely) invites Varya to spend time together, but Varya almost refuses when Lyuba tells her that it's just excuse to bed her. When Gleb still shows interest to invite her even after being told that Varya is in the middle of "these days", all seemingly works, but Kisegach sends Gleb on errand to his grandma in Zvenigorod, which Varya takes as excuse to cancel the date and save face. Then she hears Kisegach yelling at Gleb, and while it confirms the story about grandma, it also confirms that Gleb does use the dacha to bed girls, which repulses her, and she leaves without even listening to him.
- Becoming the Mask: Bykov jokingly warns Kupitman that if he wouldn't be careful in his schemes, he may accidentally "swim to the other shore" and become gay for real.Bykov: Just be careful, or you wouldn't notice how you would swim to the other shore.
- Brick Joke: Levin gets called out on assigning tons of needless tests to a patient with generic condition, without having any good reason for it (which wastes time and resources of the hospital's laboratory); meanwhile, Lobanov doesn't bother with anything besides general blood test. Later, both remembers that talk when working on a new patient, Nazarov... and neither makes right conclusions:
- Lobanov was called out on not bothering with anything more complex than general blood test. When he assigns another such test to the patient, he remembers what was said by Bykov, and also assigns... general urine test.
- Levin was called out on assigning tons of unneeded specialised tests, where one-two would be enough. When Nazarov, "warned" by Lobanov that Levin is an organ thief, lies that he has basically every single organ malfunctioning, Levin almost assigns full-scale body examination; then he remembers what was said by Bykov, and only makes general test of urine and feces.
- Bullying a Dragon: Lobanov just made it clear that he hates when people call him "stupid", and that if Levin keeps insulting him, he may as well strangle him. When he insists that he would check the patient first, and Levin second, Levin says that he's fine with it, as Lobanov would take 5 minutes at most (referring to him only doing general blood tests), not enough to drink coffee. Lobanov angrily asks him whether he's immortal.
- Camp Gay: When Kupitman pretends to be gay, he acts in rather stereotypical and flamboyant manner.
- Cassandra Truth: Varya doesn't believe Gleb when he says that he needs to deliver medicine to his grandmother; she thinks that it was his reaction to her telling him about her periods. Unknowingly to her, he's telling the truth: it was an order from his mother.
- Closet Key: Kupitman considered lying that Bykov was the one who seduced him, but decided against it: it doesn't fit into his cover story about his fake gayness.
- Complexity Addiction: Levin gets called on doing useless tests (15 for single patient!) that he's doing "just to make sure", where one-two would be sufficient; the patient with ulcer clearly doesn't need tomography, and if there's suspicion that he can have stenocardia, simple ECG would be enough to clarify. He almost repeats that mistake with another patient (though, to be fair, Nazarov does lie that he has issues with every organ he can name), but remembers the conversation and starts with general tests of urine and feces.
- Cure Your Gays: Invoked by Kupitman, as his scheme to trick his patient into trying to "cure" him: Kupitman believes that women are instinctively likely to try and seduce gay men, feeling that they should "help" them, and he has to exploit it in his interest. Bykov doesn't even try to hide that this plan disgusts him — not in the last turn because according to it, he's supposed to play Kupitman's partner.
- The Cynic: Lyuba thinks that the only reason for Gleb to invite Varya to his uncle's dacha is to attempt to bed her. Varya lies to Gleb about her periods, to which he replies that they can just find the other activities there. But later, when Gleb tells her about his ride to Zvenigorod (he needs to deliver medicine to his grandmother), she interprets this as confirmation that Lyuba was right.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Lobanov gets called out on making general blood test to a patient with fracture while forgetting to do X-Ray. His response? "It's clear already: fracture is where it hurts".
- Double Meaning: Bykov and Kupitman are discussing Bykov staying at Kupitman's house, as he wanted to sleep (using soccer match as excuse). But the way how they discuss it makes it sound like they actually spent that night with each other. Naturally, Lyuba overhears it, and interprets exactly that way. The similar situation repeats with many other conversations, until Bykov forces Kupitman to just tell Lyuba directly.
- Everyone Has Standards: While Bykov has zero pity for Levin, and actually punishes him for being dumb enough to fall for that prank, Lobanov gets punished as well — specifically because Bykov doesn't tolerate pranks that can interfere with other people's work and cause them to get into troubles.
- Failed a Spot Check: Even though Levin was a victim of Lobanov's prank (and Semyon was explicitly punished for that prank specifically), he still gets punished — because only an idiot wouldn't suspect anything if they find tons of parasitic worms, fur, cellophane and mobile phone's button in "human" excrement. Levin still doesn't get it and tries to insist that test results were genuinely bad, so Lobanov has to tell him directly that feces were taken from dog, not Nazarov.
- Faux Yay: Kupitman's patient refuses to undress in front of him, and insists on getting female doctor. Kupitman lies that he's actually gay, so he definitely doesn't lust for her! It calms her down a bit. He doesn't stop at this, coming with a plan how to actually seduce her by continuing with that facade: he believes that women are instinctively likely to want to "help" gay people.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": Bykov asks Lobanov what's the different between his and Levin's clinical histories. Lobanov says that "Levin's bigger", to which Bykov replies by telling him to keep intimate details to himself.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Levin asks to get "smarter partner" right in front of Lobanov. When Bykov refuses, angry Semyon drags Levin outside.
- Lazy Bum: Lobanov gets called on not bothering to do anything more complex than general blood tests. Even when he remembers Bykov's orders to get smarter, he only bothers with general urine test.
- Mistaken for Gay: Because Lyuba overhears Bykov and Kupitman's conversations without context, she now thinks that they are in gay relationship. She later learns the truth... just in time to sabotage Kupitman's plan which actually involves him pretending to be gay, as she tells the truth to the patient Kupitman was after. Kupitman tries to salvage the situation, but when patient insists on him kissing Bykov to prove his "gayness", Bykov, already sick of this, threatens to stab his eye with syringe if he even tries.
- Organ Theft: Lobanov, to strike down against Levin who previously insulted his intellect, tells his patient that Levin is here to steal his organs, so better to avoid him, or at least be as un-cooperative as possible. Levin's creepy behaviour only supports this lie.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Lyuba frequently overhears Bykov and Kupitman's conversations, and interprets this as them being gay.
- Playing Hard to Get: Kupitman's plan involves his patient falling in love with "gay" Kupitman and attempt to "help" him... by seducing him, to which Kupitman would play along. While Kupitman thinks that it's a genius scheme, Bykov thinks that the plan is stupid; he's also not amused by Kupitman planning to pass him as his partner.Bykov: So, you want to sleep with girl... and tell her that you're gay? The plan is a bit weird, Kupitman.
Kupitman: Understand, Andryusha, any woman instinctively wants to save a gay man, let's call it, recruit him into ranks of straight people. It's instinct, the law of nature. Understand? - Playing Sick: Played With with Nazarov; he has genuine health issue, but fakes tons of other sicknesses to get rid of Levin, as Lobanov previously lied to him that Levin is an organ thief, and only wants his organs.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
- Levin and Lobanov can't stand each other (especially since Levin previously called Lobanov stupid), and decides to work separately: Lobanov would come first, and when he would finish his part, Levin would come in.Levin: Can I get a smarter partner?
Bykov: No, you can't. Who else would remind you about the general blood test then? - Kupitman's plan involves him pretending to be gay to win a girl, but this plan involves Bykov pretending to be his boyfriend. Bykov makes it clear right from the start that he doesn't want to be a part of this, and Kupitman barely manages to convince him. Even then, he only makes bare minimum of efforts, and when they gets busted, and patient demands them kissing as a proof, Bykov angrily refuses.Bykov: Your plan is crap. I don't want to participate in it. It disgusts me.
- Levin and Lobanov can't stand each other (especially since Levin previously called Lobanov stupid), and decides to work separately: Lobanov would come first, and when he would finish his part, Levin would come in.
- Tempting Fate: When Levin gets chewed out for assigning tons of unnecessary tests, Lobanov mockingly suggests to make general blood test as well. Bykov proceeds to list many cases where Lobanov didn't bother to assign anything but general blood tests... including to the patient with fracture.Lobanov: Don't forget to make general blood test.
Bykov: Oh, and about you. [checks clinical histories one by one] General blood test... general blood test... general blood test... general blood test... Do you even know about the other kinds of tests? - That Came Out Wrong:
- Kupitman sees attractive woman, and instantly fall for her. He asks Bykov (whose patient she is) to send that girl to him, but Bykov points how weird it would look if he tells the girl out of the blue that she would be treated by venereologist. Kupitman agrees, and changes plan into pretending being Bykov's subordinate instead.
- Lyuba confronts Bykov and Kupitman about them allegedly being gay. Kupitman says that they just decided to get "a little naughty", but Bykov, with loud coughing, points that it's not the best way to put it. Kupitman corrects himself and says that it's a prank.
