Bykov spends too much time playing new farming simulator on his pad. Since this starts interfering with his duties, Kisegach tries to take back his pad, but Bykov warns her: this game is very addictive, and can be dangerous for someone as weak-willed as her. She ignores him. Kisegach hears the sound notifications from Bykov's game — constant loud "moo" of a cow which needs to be milked — and decides to just do what it asks in order to shut the game up... but fails to stop at it, and quickly gets addicted. Kisegach needs to go, but can't just leave "her" farm alone, and asks Vera to watch over it. But when she returns, she sees that Vera did everything "wrong". Kisegach orders her to leave, and proceeds with fixing her "mistakes". Soon, that addiction starts affecting her work; she even misses important negotiations due to paying more attention to the "farm" than her partner. She misses the clue even when he calls her out on this after recognising the noises the game makes, and mentions his little daughter being addicted to it. Kisegach's descent into gaming addiction soon reaches the point when she starts paying microtransactions for in-game goods.
Today is Lyuba's birthday, but she isn't happy about it: it's just her growing older, nothing special. She warned everyone to not congratulate her, yet Alexei does so anyway (earning her ire), stating that "it would be too awkward to not do so". Despite her insistence, everyone "forgets" about her request and still congratulates Lyuba, and gifts her tons of presents. To make matters worse, some of the gifts are old age-related, like wrinkle cream or knitting needles. Whatever mood they could haver raised was just killed by those "gifts"; it's so bad, it drives Lyuba to tears. Yet another one to make unwanted gift is Kupitman, who's the worst of them all; albeit well-intentioned, gifting Lyuba a place on graveyard (whatever "elite") is beyond tactless. Lyuba asks Bykov to sign up her resignation request. Bykov, when learns what'd caused this, confronts Kupitman and warns him that unless he fixes his mistake and prevents Lyuba from leaving, Bykov would kill him himself and bury in that same grave. Kupitman goes to comfort Lyuba (who prepares to leave right now). He almost forcedly takes off her coat and offers some vodka... Sudden cut to them lying in the bed, naked, feeling too awkward to even say anything.
Sophia is very happy in her relationship with Gleb: he just instinctively knows what she likes, and acts accordingly. Now, he had an idea to take the naked photos of each other — an idea which Sophia considers being "cool", while Rita (whom she tells this, despite her insistence that she wants to hear nothing about this relationship, period) thinks it's just silly. Meanwhile, Gleb plays poker online through his phone, while Phil watches — just in time for Sophia to come by. Gleb, not willing to reveal his new "hobby", makes up the lie about funny internet video. When she leaves, Gleb reveals that he keeps Sophia from poker on purpose, as she has neither skills nor self-inhibition, and would demand to let her play, only to lose again and again (and he's playing on money!). But Sophia thinks that Gleb just showed her photo to Phil, and wants to take revenge by showing his photo to Rita. Rita asks her to never show her anything like that again, and suggests to talk with Gleb about it instead. Sophia appears just in time for Gleb to win important poker match and start bragging about it to Phil and orderlies; missing all the crucial info, she jumps to obvious conclusions, and shows Gleb's photo to everyone presented. Angry Gleb takes her away and explains what's really going on. Sophia insists that since Gleb'd broke his promise and played poker, she may play some too. This time, she actually wins, and tries to show her prize to Rita, who refuses to listen, thinking she's about to show her Gleb's nude shots again. Gleb realised that Sophia's lied about not showing his photo to anyone besides Phil and orderlies, and is now angry at her.
Alexei's patient asks him to being allowed to leave for today, so he may attend his daughter's violin concert in her music school: she spent a whole month preparing for it, and he can't afford to miss it, especially if he isn't in all that bad condition anyway. Alexei reluctantly lets him go... and gets scolded by Bykov. Today is the Builder's Day — Alexei's patient's professional holiday, which he almost certainly would use as excuse to get drunk, stomach ulcer be damned. In fact, his spectre of interest makes it clear that he and music are not even remotely related; Bykov isn't even sure whether he has a daughter to begin with. Of course, Alexei gets punished with a night shift, so he may wait until his patient would arrive on ambulance. Another patient asks Alexei to let him leave for two hours, to meet his "momma" on the railway terminal. Alexei, fearing to repeat the previous failure, refuses. But Bykov scolds him for not being able to analyse information. While the first patient was clearly a liar who tried to fool him into being allowed to go drinking, the second one is a Jew who wants to visit his mother — for Jews, their mothers are sacred, you just can't lie about them! Comes evening, and the worker comes back — clean, sober and in elegant costume after watching his daughter's concert, thanking Lyosha for allowing him. Then comes the drunk Jewish patient; he indeed had met his "momma"... but with momma, there was his uncle, who, being an architect, decided to celebrate the Builder's Day with his nephew, and they two got wasted.
This episode provides examples of:
- Birthday Hater: Lyuba, of all people, dislikes her birthday, associating it mainly with becoming older (something she already has major issues with) than with something good. She warned everyone to not congratulate her upfront, yet Alexei does this anyway, stating that it would be awkward to not do so. He's only the first one to do so; practically everyone ignores her request and starts congratulating her and gifting her various presents (most of which are exactly of the wrong kind.
- Compressed Vice: Kisegach's addiction to farming simulator and Sophia's addiction to Poker are only relevant for this episode; by the start of the next one, they would be sane and clean again.
- The Gambling Addict: Pretty much like Varya before her, Sophia knows nothing about poker and how to play it, yet tries anyway — and predictably loses, only to try again, and again, and again. What makes it worse than Varya is the fact that she actually bets money; lots of money. After one such incident, she had an agreement with Gleb to not play it again. Since then, Gleb (who introduced her to it in the first place, by accident) just plays it (through his phone) privately, because he promised to quit poker himself, so she wouldn't envy him. Unfortunately, his attempt to hide it from Sophia set in motion the other problem...
- Innocently Insensitive: Okay, so you started congratulating Lyuba on her birthday, despite her requests, and even started gifting her presents, likely in attempt to rise her mood. But gifting her things like wrinkle cream, or knitting needles? Knowing that she has issues with her age? Even Rita, who initially tried to cheer her up, admits that it was a dick move. And then Kupitman comes in and gifts her... the documents for "elite" place on the graveyard. Kupitman, ever-practical, was well-meaning, because obtaining a good place for good price in Russia is very hard and has to be done in advance, but using it as a birthday present was beyond tactless. He gets surprised when Lyuba reacts very badly.
- Irony: Bykov scolded Alexei for allowing his (builder) patient to leave (he stated wanting to attend his daughter's violin concert as a reason), because today is the Builder's Day, and, like any "professional celebration", it would end in an alcoholic binge, especially if they take into account his clearly low cultural level. In the same time, he scolds him for not allowing his Jewish patient to leave (he stated that he wants to visit his "momma"), because "for a Jew, momma is sacred; you never, ever just use her as an excuse", and that after visiting her like a good son, the patient would return. Comes evening, and the first patient returns clean, sober and well-dressed, after visiting his daughter's concert... and second patient returns pig-drunk, calling Lyosha "jerk" for "not allowing him to visit his momma"; turns out that with "momma" came his uncle, who, being the architect, wanted to "celebrate" the Builder's Day with his nephew... and alcohol.
- Next Thing They Knew: Lyuba prepares to quit her job and leave due to being too angry at everyone, Kupitman arrives to comfort her. A little of vodka later, they suddenly realises that they just slept with each other... They feels too awkward to comment it in any way.
- No Ending: Kisegach's plot about her gaming addiction ends before she actually does anything with it.
- Not What It Looks Like: Sophia busts Gleb showing something to Phil, and mistakes it for him showing her nudes; instead, Gleb is playing online poker. Given that Gleb had promised to quit poker, he has to lie that they're watching funny video. Later, Sophia busts them again, under similar circumstances, and Gleb has to tell the truth about poker.
- Skewed Priorities:
- Kisegach continues playing her farming simulator even during important negotiations, clearly paying more attention to the farm than to the negotiations themselves. Her partner actually recognises the sounds the game makes, because his daughter is addicted to it, too, and suggests to move negotiations on another date, when she would pay more attention to the world around her. Instead of realising that something is wrong, she continues playing.
- Kisegach is so consumed by her farming simulator, she completely ignores Bykov stating that Lyuba wants to quit!
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Bykov learns that Kupitman offended Lyuba to the point that she wants to quit by his very insensitive "gift" (a place on graveyard, albeit "elite" one), he reacts very badly. When Kupitman fails to understand just what he did wrong (still insisting that this was "great gift"), Bykov threatens him that if Lyuba quits, he would kill Kupitman himself and bury him in that same grave.
