Gleb and Varya's "night of love" got ruined by constant interruptions. Now Varya started wondering: maybe, the life itself just gives her the signs that she and Gleb are not supposed to be together? Gleb tries to convince he to try again, this time where no one would interrupt them, but every single time something just reinforces Varya's delusions. In the end, Gleb decides to ask Kupitman for help, and he suggests to give Varya another "sign", with opposite meaning. Unfortunately, he has a "brilliant" idea of trying to prepare romantic dinner... in his office, which predictably gets taken as even worse sign. Gleb is about to give up, but then several things happens which Varya interprets as the signs... good signs.
Bykov warns Levin that if he doesn't start making friends now, his life would be much harder later. Levin decides to follow his advice and get along with other people... but every time he tries to befriend someone, he only manages to cause them problems. Bykov later finds depressed Levin, and offers to spend some time together (which snaps Levin out of his depression)... which he instantly regrets, learning the hard way exactly why Levin has no friends: he's painfully boring.
Olga confronts Bykov about him mistreating Lobanov. Bykov offers her to just spend a day watching her husband in action, to understand why Bykov constantly punishes him. To make it fair, he would tell Olya correct diagnosis preemptively, so she can find out by herself how long it would take for Semyon to guess it. Unfortunately, Semyon wastes a whole day without achieving anything, and Olya finally snaps and tells him. Enraged, she takes Semyon home, promising to force him to learn.
This episode provides examples of:
- Better as Friends:
- Varya sees a failed attempt to have sex with Gleb as the "sign" that they are not supposed to actually be together. Gleb obviously disagrees, and now must somehow convince Varya. Unfortunately, she only sees further "signs".
- When Levin, in attempt to "make friends", asks Lyuba (his girlfriend) whether she considers him to be her friend, she interprets it as him trying to break with her, and gets angry.
- The Bore: "Friendly" Levin is painfully boring. Bykov finds this out the hard way.
- Comically Inept Healing: Olga confronts Bykov about him mistreating Semyon, and Bykov offers her a possibility to see Lobanov in action. To make things fair, Bykov tells Olya correct diagnosis right from beginning, and also tells how exactly it can be identified, if one acts according to the procedure. She, to her shock, finds out that yes, Semyon is really that incompetent. After Semyon wastes a whole day, causes his patient to suffer by inept attempts to "examine" him and still fails to come up with correct diagnosis, she at first tries to hint him, but then snaps and just tells him outright, after which she takes him home, promising to force him to learn all this, whether he likes it or not.
- Didn't Think This Through: Kupitman tries to help Gleb, by creating romantic situation for him and Varya. Unfortunately, he does that in his office, while the whole problem is that Varya believes in "signs", and them doing a date at venereologist's office certainly can't be taken as a good one.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Levin's attempts to befriend his colleagues only ends enraging them:
- Lyuba interprets his question as attempt to dump her, and gets offended.
- Semyon asks him for help with the patient, but Levin, instead of doing exactly that, suggest to go drink coffee together. Semyon agrees, but then Levin botches everything by wasting time on stupid jokes, leading to Bykov and Olga busting them, which enrages Lobanov, as he gets into troubles because of Levin.
- Gleb spends a whole day on attempts to convince Varya (who's believing in "signs") that no, they are not Better as Friends, only for Levin to reinforce Varya's delusion even further with his ill-timed question. Gleb is not amused.
- After several failed attempts, Levin simply tries to call his old friends, only to learn that they are... not his friends anymore. After this, he finally snaps and is driven to tears.
- Gone Horribly Right: Bykov tries to explain to Levin that he can't live without friends. When everyone else rejects Levin, Bykov offers to spend time together, but Levin, now thinking that they're friends, shows him exactly why he has no friends: he's painfully boring. And he ignores Bykov trying to tell that them playing chess doesn't make them friends.
- Interrupted Intimacy: At night, Gleb and Varya tried to have sex, but something was interrupting them all the time, ultimately ruining the mood. Varya now starts suspecting that the life simply gives her signs that they are not supposed to be together.
- Mean Boss: Olga accuses Bykov of abusing her husband. Bykov offers her to see how "unfair" Semyon's punishments are, by seeing his typical working day by herself.
- Overly Long Gag: Lobanov, unable to properly diagnose his patient, just blindly tells Olga one wrong diagnosis after another (at one point even saying that it's beyond hope). For quite some time, until she finally snaps.
- Pet the Dog:
- Kupitman, for once, helps somebody instead of making fun on them, and offers his office to create romantic situation for Gleb and Varya. Unfortunately, Kupitman is a venereologist, so Varya, already prone to see "signs" in everything, instantly takes this as extremely bad one.
- Bykov, when he finds depressed Levin, offers to spend some time with him. This helps Levin with his depression, but Bykov considers this to be a big, big mistake, as he realise why Levin has no friends.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Olga gets very angry at Semyon doing anything but his job, and completely sucking at it when he actually tries, as it means that Bykov was completely right about his incompetence. She firstly tells him that he wouldn't go anywhere until he comes up with diagnosis, on his own, and then, when he never succeeds, snaps and tells him, but threatens to force him to study if she has to.
