Rita and Alexei must pretend that they are a happy couple — hugging, eating together, visiting theatre together (well, at least make it look like they do; Rita wouldn't allow Lyosha near her when she can avoid it), even though they both clearly dislike this "relationship"; that's just to stop the rumours. Lyuba thinks that it's the time to stop: this fake relationship had served its purpose; but Rita thinks that she must exploit it further. Alexei wants to quit, as this "relationship" starts becoming detrimental for him, but Rita refuses, unless he finds a "good" excuse which would in no way backfire on her. Lyuba starts suspecting that Rita, deep inside, simply wants this relationship to become real, which Rita reluctantly admits, and says that she must do a serious talk with Lyosha. Alexei, meanwhile, gets told by Gleb to stop acting so over-the-top nice to Rita in front of everyone: their "relationship" makes Sophia envy, as Lyosha is a "perfect boyfriend", and she can't stop comparing him to Gleb. This makes Alexei change his mind, and he tells Rita that he wants to continue their relationship... to make Sophia envy, in hope that it would make her dump Gleb.
Phil asks Kupitman whether he knows some good lawyer (he needs one for problems related to his immigration documents) — but Kupitman, who's tired of always doing something like this for Phil, refuses to help, stating that as a venereologist, he spent a long time collecting these connections, and that Phil, being a venereologist himself, should start collecting his own. But, if he has troubles establishing contacts, Kupitman can train him. Phil refuses, stating that "exploiting" his patients like this is "amoral" (comparing it to abusing his profession) — which offends Kupitman, whom Phil regularly asked for doing exactly that before: it seems that Phil is "too good" to do such things, so he may delegate them to "bad Kupitman"! Naturally, Kupitman orders him to get out. But Phil decides to follow Kupitman's advice after all, and starts "delicately" interrogating the patients about their professions (with varying reactions from them), until he finds a lawyer. Unfortunately, he can't even start a dialogue, and needs Kupitman's help. Kupitman is still angry, but just seeing Phil panicking like this improves his mood, and he agrees to give him several advices on how to befriend people. They should trust you, believe that they're talking not to their venereologist, but to their friend, whom they may entrust their secrets. Unknowingly to Phil, his patient is gay, so when Phil starts acting a little too friendly, he mistakes it for flirting, and reciprocates, giving Phil his phone number. Phil calls him — and gets invited to the patient's house; weird request, but oh well. The patient still believes that Phil is flirting with him, and only when Phil starts insisting on discussing his documents, he realises that they're talking about different things, and calls him out on sounding like he's trying to "hit" on him. In the end, Phil decides that it would be easier to just continue asking Kupitman, rather than trying (and failing miserably) to establish his own contacts.
Lobanov, due to his experience with Bykov, instantly recognises any prank Gennadiy prepares for him; and without pranks, it's just too boring. Fortunately for Gennadiy, Bykov has a brand new one specifically for him, which would surely work: Gennadiy must order Semyon to obtain the inexistent drug called "Vonabol", and see how long it would take him to realise that he was fooled. To make it even more plausible, they would ask everyone to play along. Gennadiy makes Semyon panicking over missing the "important drug", and gives him only ten minutes to find some. Obviously, he fails to find anything, as everyone whom he asks not only reuses to give him this "drug", but also makes a fun on him for missing "such basic knowledge" of what the "Vonabol" is. Even Kisegach, who isn't even on the scheme, joins the fun and sends Lobanov to storage. What no one knows is that Kisegach actually fell for "Vonabol" prank herself, and now genuinely thinks that they're missing some crucial drug, even if she never heard of it before. She then gathers all the Heads and orders them to deal with "Vonabol shortage"; what's worse, for their failures, none of them would get their money bonus! When Bykov tries to defend everyone by revealing that it was just a prank on Lobanov... she states that she knows, and that the punishment is well-deserved, as they never warned her, leading to her making herself a fool by making the calls to deal with "Vonabol shortage".
This episode provides examples of:
- Entertainingly Wrong: Defied by Rita, who would only end her Fake Relationship with Alexei when there would be absolutely no way to interpret it as something negative about her. She rejects; several Lyosha's ideas about which excuse for breakup they may use for this exact reason, including him cheating on her ("he'd found someone younger!"), him dumping her ("congratulations, you just realised that you need someone younger!"), her stopping loving him ("she became old and senile!"), and so on. She eventually gives up on this, though, realising that it's a hopeless battle.
- Everyone Has Standards: While Rita would jump at any excuse which would allow her to quit Fake Relationship with Alexei and make herself look good in process (it's not as easy as it sounds!), she instantly rejects Alexei's suggestion to lie that he physically abused her, and calls him nuts.
- Fake–Real Turn: Subverted While Rita eventually realises that she's perfectly fine with her Fake Relationship with Alexei becoming a real one... he's only interested in it as instrument to force Sophia to dump Gleb, by fueling her envy; otherwise, he feels nothing to Rita.
- Fake Relationship: Rita continues with her plan to fake relationship with Alexei, so people would stop spreading rumours about her "lusting" after him. Unfortunately, it soon starts being detrimental for Alexei, who is forced to spend all his free time near Rita, to whom he feels nothing — while Rita starts realising that she may secretly have some feeling for Lyosha after all.
- Gone Horribly Right: "Vonabol" prank; it works perfectly on Semyon because Bykov warned almost everyone, but at one point he went to Kisegach, who was the only one not on the scheme, and genuinely believed that "Vonabol" is a real drug which they should obtain as soon as possible. Later, Kisegach calls a meeting about "Vonabol shortage", and withdraws everyone's present money bonuses, stating their "incompetence" as a reason. When Bykov defends himself by stating that this was just a prank... she reveals that she knows, and punishment is in fact for not warning her, which caused her to make herself a fool by calling other people after Semyon warned about this "shortage"; she only stopped when Semyon finally realised how "Vonabol" was created, and warned her. Gennadiy states that in the end, it's Semyon who can laugh at them.
- Late to the Punchline: It takes Lobanov entire episode to realise that "Vonabol" is just his surname spelled backwards.
- Mistaken for Gay: Phil's patient (who, unknowingly to Phil, is gay) mistakes Phil for being gay too, because his behaviour looks too much like flirting (Phil's choice of words, which sounds like euphemisms, only reinforces this). The patient realises what's going on first, and calls Phil out on causing this awkward situation. He still later believes that Phil "misplaced" his documents at his house as excuse to re-visit him, though.
- Moment Killer: When Alexei suggests to not end their relationship now, Rita actually agrees, and romantic music starts playing... then Alexei states that he does it because it causes Sophia envying, and they should exploit it. Music abruptly stops.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Phil states that the reason for him refusing to "exploit" connections with his patients is that this is "amoral". This offends Kupitman, who interprets it as Phil considering himself being moral superior to Kupitman, and only needs him to do his "dirty work". Naturally, Kupitman orders him to leave.
- Out of Focus: Besides two brief appearances in Alexei's plot, Sophia has no role in this episode.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Had Phil just straight up asked his patient (a lawyer, whom Phil desperately needs) to help him instead of trying to "befriend him" (which looks more like blatant flirting, and gets interpreted as such), he would have prevented the whole mess which occur later.
- The only one whom Bykov never warned about "Vonabol" prank was Kisegach. When she sends Semyon to check for "Vonabol" in storage, Bykov interprets it as her realising the joke by herself and joining the fun. He's wrong; she fell for this joke herself, and actually believed that they lack some crucial drug, despite hearing about it for the first time. This causes everyone involved being punished.
- Secret-Keeper: Lyuba is aware about Rita's relationship with Alexei being fake, but keeps this to herself in order to not sabotage the plan.
- Significant Anagram: Bykov's brand new prank involves sending Lobanov after inexistent drug called "Vonabol". Bykov expects that it would take Semyon a lot of time to realise that the "important drug" is just his surname spelled backwards. It does.
- Snipe Hunt: Gennadiy, following Bykov's advice, sends Lobanov after inexistent drug called... "Vonabol". To make it seem more plausible, they would ask everyone to play along. For more fun, everyone adds something from themselves, so Semyon would look like a fool no matter what he asks about "Vonabol".
- Stepford Smiler: Rita and Alexei must pretend to be a couple to stop the negative rumours, complete with (glaringly fake) "happy smiles". In truth, neither wants anything to do with the other one: Lyosha finds it detrimental to his personal life, Rita actually despises Lyosha. Things becomes more complicated when Rita realises that she starts developing real feelings, while Alexei finds a way to exploit this "relationship" to maybe cause breakup between Sophia and Gleb.
- The Unsmile: Alexei does so poor job at putting on "happy smile", he looks like a maniac. Considering that he wants nothing to do with this Fake Relationship, it's easy to see why he barely bothers.
