Kupitman is nearly in panic: he would adhere an elite party, with various elite people in just as elite clothes... and he would go with Lyuba, who wants to wear her new bright, silly and hopelessly out-of-fashion dress decorated with flowers. She would make him look like a fool just by being there. He can't say so to Lyuba without provoking another "are you ashamed of me?!" conflict, and he can't (as Bykov suggested) just skip this party, since it's just too good opportunity to find new VIP clients to miss. What else he may do? Unfortunately, there's no a third option this time — he may either satisfy Lyuba, or satisfy his greed, but not both. But Kupitman thinks otherwise — they may assure Lyuba that this dress is terrible, but not by Kupitman saying it to her face; instead, the other people would do this. For that, he asks Rita, Kisegach, Polina and then Bykov himself to criticise Lyuba's dress. Lyuba feels angry initially, but then starts wondering: maybe they're right? But Kupitman botches the plan by himself, when he lies that he likes the dress when she accuses him of disliking the dress, too, and assures that she should just ignore everyone else's opinions: if she likes it and Kupitman likes it, who cares what everyone else thinks? Kupitman, in a last ditch attempt, just tries to ruin the dress, but gets busted — and told that she was ready to just not wear it if asked! Now, she would only forgive him if he would give her his credit card, to buy a new, better one. Kupitman is worrying that Lyuba, due to just not having a sense of fashion whatsoever, would buy something expensive, but just as crappy as the first dress, if not worse; and then there's a beauty salon. But, to Kupitman's surprise, Lyuba actually manages to prepare decent dress and non-vulgar make-up and hairstyle. He can't help but smile. Unfortunately, she immediately spoils the impression by her (in)famous "edrid-madrid", but who's perfect? And to not leave him penny-less, she's ready to return the dress back in the shop since it's no longer needed. Kupitman can't help but admit: Lyuba is a perfect woman.
Gleb is very nervous due to having less and less time until wedding, and starts acting rather rude to Timur (who took responsibility for organising everything on himself) for "not helping". It quickly escalates into open hostility, only interrupted by Bykov's arrival. Bykov at first wants to just kick them out from the room and force to work, but then realises that they would simply continue arguing instead of work, and decides to separate them. Gleb would work with Polina, and Timur with Sophia. Gleb, who's still on the edge of explosion, starts yelling at Polina as soon as she makes a mistake (albeit indeed stupid). Polina complains to Timur, who now thinks that it was petty revenge for morning conflict, and asks why he didn't just tell this to Timur himself, like a man. Gleb points that at morning, Timur failed to hold his word, so "act like a man" doesn't apply to him, either — and states that if Polina would continue screwing up, Gleb would continue yelling at her: when interns screws up, intern gets punished. Timur retaliates by making Sophia do floor-cleaning, as a "punishment". When confronted by Gleb, Timur reminds him about his own words, and Gleb realises that this means war. Gleb rejects everything Polina does without explaining anything, and forces to redo everything. Timur starts criticising Sophia's "unrecognisable" signature, forcing her to rewrite everything. Gleb starts staying near Polina, ensuring that she wouldn't be even one minute late from lunch. And so on. Polina eventually snaps, and asks Sophia to talk with Gleb — only to learn that Timur acts the same way towards Sophia. They then asks Alexei, and learns that the two have some sort of conflict — and the girls are just collateral damage. Sophia is ready to immediately confronts the guys, but Polina decides to exploit the situation to strike back. Polina pretends that Gleb started beating her for shouting back at him, which enrages Timur to no end. Sophia says the similar things to Gleb about Timur. This results in the two beating each other... and then uniting against the girls after learning the truth, since it was "too irresponsible" — it might have ended much worse than this! Now, the guys would leave to have some beer, and girls would stay to take some rest.
Alexei wants to visit his uncle Gena in Torzhok (tickets are already prepared), but then it turns out that he did several potentially lethal mistakes in treatment, and now he certainly wouldn't be allowed to leave any time soon. Rita confronts Bykov about him being too harsh to Lyosha, to the point of him becoming neurotic (he even started seeing nightmares!), and asks to tone down his abuse. Bykov agrees. But Alexei thinks that idea was terrible, since Bykov now would watch over him, searching for the signs of deception — and would find them, sooner or later. Rita states that everything is under control, and he just has to play along with their cover story, by snapping at slightest provocations. Alexei indeed tries this, but when he leaves, Bykov asks Polina why he's acting this way, and she, unaware of the plan, reveals the truth about Lyosha's uncle, whom he wants to visit. Bykov asks why Alexei didn't just ask for a day off, but then remembers their morning "discussion", and decides to just ignore Lyosha's antics. Rita suggests to try something more extreme, like breaking a fish tank in the lobby; Bykov can't ignore this. Alexei stops at the very last moment, out of pity for innocent fish, after which Bykov reveals that he knows about the plan, and asks Alexei why he didn't try to just ask: he was — and still is — willing to just give him a day off for this, because why not? In fact, Rita can go with Lyosha together, so now she would meet Alexei's relatives! She thinks that it's great; he thinks that it's one more problem for him, but remains silent.
This episode provides examples of:
- Battle Discretion Shot: Gleb's actual fight with Timur isn't shown, only Impending Clash Shot at the very start, and its consequence straight after, when they already stopped fighting, injuring each other (Gleb has a broken nose and blood on his lips, Timur has a wound on his cheek).
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot:
- Lyuba was ready to accept that her dress isn't as pretty as she thinks, had Kupitman just admitted that he dislikes it. Instead, he firstly manipulates her through the other people, then, when their negative comments makes her sad, lies that it's pretty to comfort her, then tries to secretly ruin it and gets busted in act, making situation even worse than what Kupitman tried to prevent, since now she's angry at him for lying to her and ruining her new dress, whether she would use it or not.
- Bykov was ready to let Alexei go to Torzhok to visit his uncle, but instead Alexei, thinking that Bykov is too angry, tries to trick him into giving him free leave by playing neurotic. Plan fails, and Bykov directly asks him why he never even tried to ask normally, and still lets him go.
- Everyone Has Standards: Alexei at the last moment decides that breaking the fish tank is too much, even to force Bykov to give him several day-offs.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Invoked. Alexei, in attempt to fool Bykov into believing that he has a breakdown (so he would receive free leave), acts like he is extremely neurotic, snapping at any provocation or with none at all.
- Impending Clash Shot: Camera freezes just when Gleb and Timur jumps at each other, ready to strike.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Gleb and Timur are obviously portrayed unsympathetically in this episode for their treatment of Polina and Sophia, respectively, but they are not completely in wrong when calling girls out on provoking them into openly fighting each other: they were lucky to only "slightly" injure each other (Gleb has broken nose, Timur has wound on his cheek); in other circumstances, it could have resulted in breaking several bones, or even accidental death, making them responsible.
- Misplaced Retribution: Timur mistakes Gleb punishing Polina for him abusing Polina to punish Timur for their morning conflict (while in fact, not only it's unrelated, but Polina entirely deserved it). After Gleb refuses to apologise for it and states that "if intern screws up, intern gets punished", Timur starts using the same method on Sophia at any excuse he can find, which in turn provokes Gleb into starting abusing Polina to spite Timur, this time for real.
- Lethally Stupid: Polina gives EGD
to the guy with haemorrhoid, called Sokolov (mistaking him for the other one with "bird" surname, Soloviov, who had stomach ulcer) — in layman's terms, she used a long hose to probe his stomach, which is no better than doing it the other way around a one bit. This also means that Soloviov, who really needs it, was not properly examined. No wonder, Gleb snaps at her. - Never My Fault: Neither Gleb nor Timur takes responsibility for abusing Polina and Sophia, respectively. After girls cooperates to punish them, they actually sides with each other over the girls (since girls just provoked them into fighting each other for offences which never happened), and calls them out on irresponsible behaviour (not unreasonable), while completely missing the point that this was their response for, you know, being abused just because guys were at each other's throats.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Not to say that she was unattractive before, but when Lyuba takes some money from Kupitman to pay for decent makeup, hairstyle and simple yet fashionable dress, she proves that she may actually look gorgeous even when surrounded by "elite people". Her normal uniform and simple, practical hairstyle just hides her true beauty.
- Tempting Fate: Alexei needs to go to Torzhok, to visit his uncle Gena (for three days), with tickets being already prepared. Rita asks whether he warned "uncle Andrey", but Lyosha assures her that everything would be fine. Cue Bykov immediately appearing, and yelling at him for screwing up once again, signalling that he would likely stay on a night shift or several.
