Bykov seemingly refuses to take new interns at first, but then agrees — on condition that he would pick them himself. But way too many candidates comes, while he has only three places. Bykov straight away orders everyone with "R" in their name to leave — only to show disappointment when most of them do, calling them "spineless". He then says that doctors must love cleanliness, and thus they must proceed and clean up floor. When no one shows enthusiasm, he akss who doesn't want to clean up floor, with almost everyone rising their hands, seeing it as a choice between floor-cleaning and being kicked out. Bykov indeed sends them to clean up the floor... and takes four people who didn't raise their hands (for one reason or another) with him, amongst them blonde guy with surname Korneev (who previously avoided first culling via some loophole), blonde girl, a lean guy with glasses, and some big and threatening guy.
One of the people sent by Bykov to clean up floor, a curly-haired girl, goes to Kupitman, who turns out to be her uncle. She asks him for advice regarding Bykov (she's afraid of him), and Kupitman suggests her to be more self-confident, and do not show Bykov her fear; she hugs him, which Phil accidentally sees, and mistakes for them being in relationship. After that talk, the girl suggests the other floor-cleaners to just rebel and stop doing their task. Two of them agrees with her, while four others continues cleaning (one outright says that "it's the boss' orders, we must do it"). Bykov soon appears and asks why they're slacking. When told that they're here to "help people", he sends them to the morgue, so they can "help" corpses to clean up themselves; the others gets told to go home once they finish: Bykov needs doctors, not orderlies. They instead goes to Kisegach, who promises to help them, but actually tricks them into cleaning up in her office, too, after which they gets kicked out anyway; however, the same guy who previously insisted on doing as ordered (named Alexei), keeps cleaning up the floor no matter what, even after being deprived of the mop (using his T-shirt); ultimately, Bykov decides to give him a chance after all, impressed with his determination. Meanwhile, the people whom Bykov sent to the morgue, decides to reinstate their request and say that they want to help "living" people, only for Bykov to send them doing useless errands, like pushing buttons in elevators. It's when the curly girl meets Phil, introduces herself as Sophia, and invites her on a date. Phil, who still believes that she's dating Kupitman, feels disgusted with her "cheating" on him and only exploiting him for internship, goes to Kupitman, who tells him his real relation to Sophia: she's his niece from provincial town, Kirov, and he doesn't like her a one bit, but has to care for her on his cousin's request; he plans to make her fail the casting, without Bykov ever finding out about him being Sophia's uncle, which he would exploit for all its worth.
Those who refused to go cleaning floors, receives a logic puzzle from Bykov. They have a boat and Bykov as a ferryman, and must ferry everyone to the opposite shore. The boat has only two places. To add some more challenge, Bykov assigns each candidate a gimmick. Big guy (named Kirill) and blond girl (named Zhanna) are "lovers", and can't remain alone without proceeding to sex, here and now. Glass-wearing guy (Sergey) is "gay", and would harass every male he remains with by alone. And Korneev (whose first name is Maxim) is a maniac who would outright kill every male he remains with by alone. They have two hours to solve it in a way where no one would be killed or screwed. They tries several options, but utterly fails each time. When Bykov returns, turns out that the four can't even agree on a single solution, and each comes up with their own. Maxim just suggest (partially plagiarised from Sergey) sulution which involves only him surviving, while Zhanna and Kirill takes their inability to not have sex with each other (and Kirill, apparently, having no chance anyway due to having "deadly STD") with humour; both satisfies Bykov, as the true test was of their savviness and sense of humour. Sergey is the only one to fail (and be disqualified), due to call the test lame and illogical, and trying to insult Bykov (failing to even come up with something creative): Bykov doesn't like to work with boring people.
This episode provides examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: Bykov states that he wouldn't let the other characters to "gift him some morons"... so he would choose new interns by himself.
- The Bore: The reason Bykov states when he rejects Sergey: he can't work with boring people, and Sergey has neither sense of humour nor imagination when it comes to insults.
- Brutal Honesty: Of all characters who tells Bykov that he needs new interns, only Semyon bluntly states that without them, he would make everyone's life a living hell. The others tries to remain delicate and subtle.
- Determinator: Alexei continues cleaning up floor even after he was told that no, Bykov would not accept him as intern, till the late evening. When Bykov takes away his mop, he uses his t-shirt to continue. When by the late evening he still refuses to give up, Bykov (actually impressed by this) orders him to go home, stating that he is allowed to keep competing for internship.
- Dude, Not Funny!: When observing Bykov's "casting", candidates speculate just whom Bykov would choose as his new interns; Gleb says that he (on Bykov's place) would take that curly-haired girl, and gets immediately kicked by his mother. He then jokes that she has "big eyes and kind tits, to which she reacts by showing him her fist.
- Establishing Character Moment: The episode demonstrates several key traits associated with Maxim when he deals with Bykov's tasks: his cunning (when he evades culling twice, firstly by exploiting the rulings, and secondly by recognising a trap), his tendency for cheating (when he plagiarises Sergey's idea about "orgy" as foundation for his own answer to Bykov's puzzle) and his tendency for backstabbing (his "solution" to the puzzle involves everyone dying besides him, despite the task being about merely ferrying people across river).
- Exact Words: When Sophia states that they're here to "help people", Bykov sends her and two other candidates who previously sided with her to the morgue, so they can "help" corpses to clean themselves. They tries to correct themselves by saying that they meant living people, but Bykov again finds a hole in their wording and gives them the other useless tasks (like Sophia pressing buttons in the elevator for the patients).
- Extreme Doormat: When Bykov orders everyone with letter "R" in their surnames to leave, he reacts with disappointment when several candidates actually do so, and calls them "spineless". He also rejects the candidate who tries to object to floor-cleaning task, but instantly gives up when pressed, for the same reason.
- Extreme Libido: In Bykov's riddle, Zhanna and Kirill can't remain alone without immediately having sex; naturally, them doing so is one of the failure conditions. Similarly, Sergey is stated being gay who would try to rape any male he stays with by alone, which is also a failure condition. Sergey mocks ridiculousness of the situation, by stating that they three mays as well start an orgy: Kirill would fuck Zhanna, and Sergey would fuck Kirill. Both moves away from him, just in case.
- Failure Is the Only Option: No matter what Maxim, Zhanna, Kirill and Sergey tries, they fails the puzzle (though later it turns out that it's Unwinnable by Design). First attempt results in Maxim "killing" Kirill; when they tries the other approach, they gets exactly the same result, only with the killing happening on the other shore. And on the third attempt, they also hit another failure condition, due to forgetting that Zhanna can't stay with Kirill without "having sex". Ultimately, realising that they have nothing left to lose, they builds their answers about those failure conditions.
- Fox-Chicken-Grain Puzzle: Bykov uses a variant of this puzzle (five of them must move across the river, but each one besides Bykov has some quirk) to test Maxim's and three other candidates' savviness and sense of humour (it's unsolvable by cold logic alone). In it, Zhanna and Kirill are lovers, meaning that they can't remain by alone without screwing each other, while Sergey is "gay" who would try to do the same to any other male unless there's someone else with them, and Maxim is a Serial Killer, who targets males. Maxim passes by showing savviness (he manages to got around rules by using best of his "role" and just offing everyone else), while Kirill and Zhanna fails to deal with rules, but shows the sense of humour. Sergey fails to realise just what Bykov really tested, and instead starts antagonising him, with predictable results.
- Freudian Slip: Specific word Kupitman uses to describe his normal life, "ustakanennyy", means "settled down"... but the word "stakan" means "glass" (like "a glass of cognac"). Phil doesn't miss an opportunity to mock it, to Kupitman's irritation.
- He Knows Too Much: Giving up on coming up with solutions where he doesn't kill anyone (due to being a "maniac", according to the puzzle's conditions), Maxim "kills" those he stays with... and then everyone else, Bykov included, for being witnesses. It makes him pass, as Bykov likes this "solution".
- Identical Twin Mistake: The first time Phil speaks with Igor about Kupitman's new "girlfriend". Later, he tries to continue this discussion (because he received a new information), but it turns out that he speaks with Igor's twin, Valera.
- Moving the Goalposts:
- Because when they stated that they want to help people, it ended with them being assigned to the morgue, "helping" corpses to clean themselves, candidates decides to correct it to them wanting to help live people. Second attempt goes no better, for the same exact reason, since Bykov assigns them to stand near restrooms, vending machine and in the elevator, and "help" people (by opening door in the first case, and pressing buttons in the latter two).
- To explain to Zhanna why she "fails" Bykov's Fox-Chicken-Grain Puzzle if she "sleeps" with Kirill, Bykov adds that Kirill has "some deadly STD". However, Kirill passes the test by admitting that with him having "deadly STD", he's doomed anyway, which Bykov counts as a pass, since sense of humour is one of the winning conditions.
- Nom de Mom: When Bykov asks who has "R" in their surnames, several characters raises their hands... and gets swiftly kicked out. Maxim, despite his surname being Korneev, remains silent; when asked why by Sophia, he states that his mother's maiden name was "Milyavskaya"; whether it counts or not becomes a moot point because Bykov used this only to cut off all Extreme Doormats, and forgot about it afterwards.
- No Name Given: Of the five candidates left by the end of episode, one (curly-haired man from Sophia’s group) never gets named over the course of episode.
- Nonindicative Name: As stated by Igor, contrary to their names, "crab sticks" have no crab meat in them (the fact which Russians keeps mocking since 80s).
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Phil notices that Kupitman almost stopped drinking, this (in combination with him being strangely quiet and thoughtful) makes Phil presume that Kupitman may have started a new relationship. Since Kupitman refused to explain anything, Phil later mistakes Sophia for his new girlfriend.
- Relative Error: Phil just had a discussion with Kupitman who, as Phil thinks, has a new girlfriend (Kupitman refused to discuss it). When he notices him hugging with Sophia, he immediately jumps to conclusions that she's Kupitman's new girlfriend; in reality, she's his niece (whom he just instructed how to interact with Bykov). Them not sharing surnames does not help. Phil later tries to "delicately" learn more (right in the elevator full of people, yep), promising to keep quiet about it, and Sophia's specific choice of words does nothing to disprove his assumption... and also makes her suggestion to go on a date look like her cheating on Kupitman (whom she just exploits for her own gains).
- Sabotutor: Kupitman's plan how to get rid of Sophia involves him "helping" her with Bykov by giving her the wrong advices, in hope that Bykov would kick her out for failing his tasks.
- Schmuck Bait: Used by Bykov several times during the casting. Maxim each time correctly identifies Bykov's questions as a trap; several other characters don't, and Bykov swiftly kicks them out.
- Bykov asks his intern candidates who of them has "R" in their surnames; several people raises their hands (but Maxim, who immediately realised that this was a trap, remains silent, despite his surname being "Korneev"), and Bykov immediately kicks them out. As Bykov states, had they payed attention, they would have realised that he can't pronounce the letter "R", and so he would have unpleasant experience working with them (or at least, like Maxim, would keep it a secret until it would be too late to kick them out for this). However, Bykov also calls those who leaves "spineless", which indicates that had they tried to argue, they might've been spared (and another guy later gets kicked out explicitly for arguing against Bykov, but not fighting to the end).
- Bykov states that doctor must love cleanliness, and orders everyone to go and clean up the floor. When he notices the lack of enthusiasm, he asks who isn't interested in cleaning the floor. Maxim is amongst the few characters who didn't raise their hands; when asked just why, he outright states that it's trap, with Zhanna agreeing with him. Kirill, who also didn't raise a hand, justifies it with considering that they would do what Bykov orders, not what they want; and Sergey just "intuitively" didn't raise his hand. They all gets proven right, when Bykov orders them to go with him... and everyone else to go cleaning up floor (of those, the ones who fails to raise their objections, later gets kicked out, with Alexei being sole exception).
- Secret Test of Character:
- When Bykov orders everyone with "R" in their surnames to leave (and several characters do so), he's clearly disappointed with them not even objecting, and states that "all spineless ones just leaved us". As we know from his experience with Varya, he is not particular fan of Extreme Doormats, considering them to be unfit for being doctors.
- One guy voices objection to being ordered to go cleaning floor, despite telling that he doesn't want to, gets pressed by Bykov... and gets immediately kicked out when he fails to stand his ground. If you have something to object about, then state it; if you can't, then remain silent. If you break up on easiest pressure, this hospital has no place for you.
- When Sophia and two guys from her group refuses to continue cleaning floor, Bykov actually gives them new task... and orders Alexei and three other guys to finish cleaning, and then leave, since he's interested in doctors, not orderlies. Alexei refuses to accept defeat, and wins his place due to sheer determination. His companions, meanwhile, proceeds to object to Kisegach instead, who, after promising them to "deal with Bykov", asks them to clean up floor for her, too. Bykov actually states that whoever refuses, would receive a second chance... but no one does, to his disappointment.
- Bykov's Fox-Chicken-Grain Puzzle was Unwinnable by Design; what he really wanted to test is their savviness and sense of humour. Maxim doesn't bother with humour, but provides a savvy (even if self-serving) solution, Zhanna and Kirill fails the "savviness" part, but at least compensates for it with humour, while Sergey starts analysing test's rules, and calls Bykov out on it being illogical. This kills his last chances of being accepted, because Bykov can't work with boring people.
- Speech Impediment: During casting, literally the first thing Bykov does after explaining that he has only three places is to kick out everyone with "R" in their surnames, so he wouldn't be forced to pronounce this letter as often.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Phil suggests that, since Kupitman can't stand Sophia, he can just ask Bykov to not accept her. Unfortunately, this is not an option: if Bykov by any means learns about her being Kupitman's niece, it would ensure her being accepted, just so Bykov may screw with Kupitman further.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: When Maxim, Sergey, Kirill and Zhanna enters on-call room, the scene is clearly meant to resemble the first episode, with them acting like analogues for original four interns. Maxim is "new Gleb": cunning and prone to cheating his way out of problems, sometimes at other people's expense. Sergey is "new Levin" — smart, but boring and prone to argue with boss; just like Levin, he quickly goes into conflict with Bykov, calling his tests "stupid", but, unlike Levin, doesn't get away with it. Kirill is "new Lobanov" and Zhanna is "new Varya", but with them, the similarities don't go beyond visual ones.
- The Teetotaler: Kupitman's relatives for whatever reason thinks that he never drinks alcohol, and in order to not disappoint them, he must stay away from cognac, so Sophia would never learn that he's really an alcoholic.
- Troll: Several people don't object to Bykov sending them to clean up floor... and gets disqualified, as he needs interns, not janitors. They complains to Kisegach, who promises them to speak with Bykov... and just before leaving, asks them to clean up floor for her. Cut to her telling this to Bykov, with them both laughing on them being so naive: what they have expected, her taking him in just because they're good at floor cleaning? They agrees to give another chance to anyone who refuses to do Anastasia's request, but no one does.
- Unwinnable by Design: Fox-Chicken-Grain Puzzle Bykov gives to Maxim, Sergey, Kirill and Zhanna, is unsolvable due to ill-thought rules. However, it's not supposed to be solved; it tests their savviness and sense of humour. Zhanna and Kirill gives up, but shows the sense of humour, Maxim shows the savviness, and Sergey just proceeds to argue about the rules, becoming the sole loser.
- You Are Already Dead: Kirill passes when he uses Bykov stating that he has "deadly STD" to point that, having "deadly STD", he has no reason to care whether he makes it to the other shore or not: he's a deadman anyway. Bykov likes this response, and makes him (and Zhanna) pass.
