Since Lobanov has nowhere to go, Bykov invites him to live with him for a time being. But Semyon can't stop screwing up even while not on duty, so Bykov decides to punish him, and not by just another night shift; Lobanov would become his personal slave. Lobanov quickly grows tired of his abuse, but Varya offers a solution: Lobanov must earn Bykov's respect by saving a patient... from Varya, who would play dumb and suggest intentionally wrong diagnosis. The seemingly great plan completely backfires, however, when Semyon "corrects" Varya's (actually right) diagnosis with completely wrong one, earning him a night shift.
Levin wants to to check wether he possibly has any venereological illnesses. Why? Just to be sure. Kupitman registers him as "Lenin" to ensure that Lyuba wouldn't find out, but laboratory assistants mistakes this for another of Kupitman's jokes, and "jokes" back by faking syphilis. This leads to major quarrel between Lyuba and Levin when she finds out anyway, even after Kupitman explained everything.
Kisegach thinks that she and Bykov can't keep their relationship hidden, and must tell Gleb the truth. Bykov disagrees. Kisegach decided to tell anyway, and arrange for their meeting at the restaurant ... only for Bykov to repeatably sabotage Gleb's attempts to adhere the meeting. In the end, Gleb learns about this when he accidentally busts them together when he returns home.
This episode provides examples of:
- Butt-Monkey: While Lobanov is always the butt of Bykov's jokes, this time Bykov goes especially harsh on him, due to Semyon temporarily becoming his "slave" as a form of punishment. And every attempt to fix this ends in humiliating failure.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Varya's attempt to "save" Lobanov from Bykov fails and makes the situation worse. Why? Because the plan involved Lobanov "correcting" Varya's "wrong" diagnosis and being rewarded... but the "wrong" diagnosis turns out to be right, and now Bykov thinks that Lobanov is not only utterly unable to do his job, but, in his idiocy, nearly sabotaged Varya's. He predictably receives a night shift.
- I Banged Your Mom: Bykov doesn't even bother with hiding the truth from Gleb when he and Kisegach gets busted:Bykov: So, now you can call me "Papa".
- Internal Reveal: Gleb now knows about his mother's relationship with Bykov. He doesn't take it well — not because it is his mother (he was perfectly okay with her trying new relationships before), but because this relationship is with Bykov.
- Manipulative Bastard: Kisegach tries manipulate Bykov and Romanenko into meeting at neutral territory and tell Gleb about her and Bykov's relationship, but the plan fails when Bykov learns that she invited both of them, and forces Gleb to stay on a night shift (while Gleb did screw up, Bykov initially ignored it, and only decided to punish him after learning about the restaurant). But Bykov makes a mistake of telling about this to Kisegach, so she just (secretly from Bykov) calls Gleb and orders him to abandon the night shift and go straight to them. This fails, because Lobanov decides to rat Gleb out to Bykov to earn forgiveness, and Bykov lies to him about Gleb's patient having a heart attack. And then Gleb just busts them together when he returns home instead of staying in the hospital.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Kupitman, when attempting to defuse Levin and Lyuba's conflict, tells them the truth why Levin received syphilis-positive analyses... but now they both thinks that it was his fault all along (especially since he has a long story of "pranks" like this).
- Out of Focus: Other then briefly appearing in Semyon's plot, Varya lacks her own storyline in this episode.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Levin's attempt to hide from Kupitman would not fool anyone, let alone someone as cunning as Kupitman.
- Poor Communication Kills: Laboratory assistants mistakes the patient named "Lenin" (actually "disguised" Levin) for Kupitman's drunk joke, and decides that it would be fun to write in syphilis into "Lenin's" results for extra authenticity. Except, it was not a joke, and Kupitman doesn't bother to double-check the results. This leads to Lyuba finding those results; when Lyuba reads them aloud, Levin immediately faints. When Levin awakes, he decides that it was Lyuba who infected him.
- Tragic Keepsake: We finally learn why Bykov cares so much about his ficus, and why he named it "Igor". This ficus, gifted by the pathologist, is named after the first patient whom Bykov failed to save. Igor somehow acts like a Good Luck Charm: ever since Bykov obtained it, there were no deaths in the Therapy.
