This time Bykov decides to add some competition between interns. Those who would fail most miserably, would stay on a night shift. So, who it would be?
Lobanov and Romanenko must work together, but Gleb tricks Semyon into doing all work alone. Lobanov's patient somehow gets his head stuck in the pot. Semyon frees him, but later Romanenko tricks him into putting that pot on his own head, with the same results. Later, when Bykov finds out, Semyon panics and attempts to run, only to hit a wall and get a concussion. Deciding that Semyon is already punished enough, Bykov forces Gleb to stay on a night shift instead.
Varya's patient, tired of her excessive tests and general overprotection (since he just wants to sleep), asks Bykov to give him just three hours without Varya interrupting him. But when he unplugs himself from cardiograph, she thinks that he is dying and tries to "save" him. Bykov actually sides with Varya, and instead of punishing her, instructs her what she did wrong during the rescue attempt.
Bykov once again — for eighth time, no less — must deal with insufferable patient Samoylova, who stubbornly insists on made-up "diagnosis" and refuses to accept the truth. Instead of dealing with her by himself, he drops her on Levin, who just wants to receive the "real" case for once, instead of humiliating menial work. Levin, being Levin, instead of correctly guessing his patient's actual diagnosis, thinks that she has some new, unique condition. He decides to cut her brain for analyse; she disagrees, and asks Bykov for help, she even accepts his terms and his original diagnosis. Levin, thinking that Bykov just stole his "medical breakthrough", decides to destroy Bykov's favourite ficus as retaliation... only for Bykov to enter just before Levin has a chance to escape. Bykov punishes Levin by gathering all interns and playing Levin's audiologs in front of everyone, for them to laugh.
This episode provide examples of:
- Annoying Patient: That patient with Münchausen Syndrome? It's eighth time she disturbs Bykov with her nonsense; while she has real health problems, she refuses to acknowledge Bykov's diagnosis (which was long provided to her), insisting on some bullshit she read in the Internet, and being rather aggressive at that. Fortunately for Bykov, this time he may send Levin to deal with her.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Levin attempts to stand out from his "ordinary" friends and receive a real task for once. Bykov appoints him to his most stubborn and insufferable patient. However, she gives up first, as he ends up too much even for her.
- A Boy and His X: This is the first appearance of Bykov's favourite ficus, "Igor". Levin learns the hard way that Bykov does not react well to it being touched, let alone hurt.
- Cassette Craze: Levin has an audio recorder, which he uses to record his thoughts about "new disease" he allegedly discovered in his patient. Bykov later uses those recordings to mock him as a punishment for Levin attacking his ficus.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Bykov's ficus from the beginning of the episode (about which Bykov has told to never, ever touch it) gets destroyed by Levin out of anger at the end... just in time for Bykov to go inside before he can leave.
- As a punishment for hurting "Igor", Bykov uses Levin's recordings about his "new disease" which he was doing over the course of the episode to humiliate him before other interns.
- Comically Inept Healing:
- When examining her patient, Varya makes tons of meaningless excessive tests, only making the guy more and more irritated while all he wants is to sleep. Then Varya attaches him to cardiograph "just in case" (which is bleeping, loudly). No wonder, he wants to get rid of her.
- Varya's "first aid" attempt has nothing to do with the actual technique, on which Bykov later calls her out, even after supporting her before the patient; out of context, it looks more like them having sex while clothed than her giving him first aid.
- Delayed Reaction: Lobanov tells an anecdote about his former colleague at ambulance, who was "really dumb". Gleb says "like you?", and Semyon says "yes", before realising that he was just mocked.
- Driven by Envy: Levin, when he thinks that Bykov stole his "scientific breakthrough". He reacts by destroying Bykov's favourite ficus... and then fails to escape before Bykov returns.
- False Reassurance: Bykov asks who wants to go home. When Gleb and Semyon rises their hands, he says that today, their home would be the emergency department — "quiet and cosy place where they gather loudly screaming patients".
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Lobanov's patient Babaykin got his head stuck in the pot when he attempted to scare his wife. Later Semyon himself makes the same mistake when Gleb tricks him into proving that he didn't make it up.
- I Have This Friend: When Levin asks for permission to make extra tests on Samoylova cause she, apparently, has some new disease, Bykov says that "a colleague of his" diagnosed her with Dysautonomia
, hinting at himself. Levin misses the hint and says that "colleague" is an idiot, who should go work as janitor, as diagnostics isn't for him. Bykov, who was trying to help him, decides to just let Levin make a fool out of himself, and allows him to proceed with his "plan". - Jerkass: Levin's patient is rude, stubborn, and thinks that she know better than any of the doctors. And this is not the first time she comes here, only to ignore all Bykov's recommendations. Unsurprisingly, Bykov just drops her on the only one of his interns who may potentially be even more insufferable — Levin.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Earlier in the episode, Semyon indirectly caused his patient (who got his head stuck in a pot) to suffer a concussion when he accidentally provoked him into blindly running into a wall. Later, he suffers same fate himself.
- While Semyon himself was already punished by his stupidity and got himself hospitalised with concussion, Gleb gets punished with a night shift for indirectly causing Lobanov's injury: rather than help him, he tried to further humiliate him.
- Münchausen Syndrome: Levin's patient, Samoylova, has real illness, but she thinks that she has "Kondinsky-Konovalov syndrome", which she found out in the Internet. And she thinks that she knows better than any of the doctors what illness she has, and wouldn't accept any of their suggestions; since this is the eight time she goes to their hospital, only to not accept her real diagnosis, this time Bykov just drops her on Levin, who is even more insufferable. This tactic proves to be right in the end, when Levin scares her enough to consider accepting Bykov's help as the better option.
- Mistaken for Dying: Varya, "just in case", attaches her patient to a cardiograph. The patient, annoyed by the constant beeping, disconnects himself from the cardiograph to sleep, which leads to Varya noticing a flat line, panicking and trying to "reanimate" him (by jumping on him and starting giving the "first aid"). Patient gets angry, but Bykov actually sides with Varya.
- Pet the Dog: When Varya's patient complains for a second time, Bykov actually sides with Varya, reasoning that in the case of real emergency, this would have saved his life, to which the patient agrees. After the patient leaves, Bykov tells Varya what she did wrong while giving the patient "first aid" (for starters, she wasn't supposed to jump on him when giving him indirect heart massage, like she did; especially since with his health problems, this could've actually hurt him even more). She still receives a night shift, but it's obviously an improvement over his prior treatment of her.
- Revenge by Proxy: Levin, when punished by Bykov, destroys Bykov's favourite ficus. Unfortunately for him, he fails to escape before Bykov finds out. Bykov punishes him by playing his records to the other interns, for them to laugh.
- Reverse Psychology: Gleb uses it to prank Semyon at two different points:
- Gleb does rather poorly disguised attempts to trick Semyon into going to rest, while Romanenko would do all the work. Lobanov doesn't fall for this, as even he can see that Gleb would just snitch on him, resulting in Semyon staying on a night shift. So, Lobanov does all the work by himself... which was the true goal.
- Gleb tricks Lobanov into putting a pot on his head (which he previously took off the patient's head) when he tells Semyon that this pot is too small for human head. Lovanov falls for it.
- Right Behind Me: Lobanov, when searching for vaseline to free his head from a pot, insults Bykov, not knowing that he is in the same room. When Bykov answers with "I love you too, Lobanov", Semyon panics and attempts to run, only to hit a wall several times and collapse.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Babaykin misses that Semyon is making fun at him (as his condition is too idiotic to not laugh over it), and takes his joke about cutting off his head to make removing a pot easier as face value, and blindly runs away, only to hit a wall. He still blames Lobanov afterwards.
- Shout-Out: When Lobanov's head gets stuck in a pot (a-la improvised helmet), Gleb mockingly calls him "Darth Vader", grabs a pointer as improvised lightsaber and says "may the Force be with us"; all of this is an obvious reference to Star Wars.
- Sleep Deprivation: Once Varya's patient gets tired of her constantly disturbing his sleep with excessive tests, he asks Bykov to replace her. Bykov instead gives him three hours without Varya, to which he agrees. But before going to sleep, he unplugs himself from a cardiograph (which she brought in earlier). This leads to Varya mistaking him for dying, and attempting to "save" him.
- Speech Impediment: Bykov tries to say a pun on Varya's name and word "barbarian", fails to pronounce it multiple times due to amount of "Rs" in it, and comments that he should probably visit a speech therapist.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Varya, who's the last one to receive a task, asks what she should do. Bykov, who made it clear right from the start that he expects nothing from her, suggests her to go home, find a man and start a family. He does give her a task when she tells that without anything else to do, she would just follow him and observe him working.Bykov: "Female doctor" isn't even funny. Sterilising cats sounds more interesting.
- That Came Out Wrong: When Semyon's head gets stuck in a pot, he asks Gleb to bring vaseline (a lubricant). Gleb decides to further mock him, and says that he prefers them staying just friends.
- Too Clever by Half: Levin spends a lot of time on useless tests, and then deduces that his patient has some new, not yet discovered disease, instead of what she thinks she has (though her own "diagnosis" is no better than his). She even suggests to him Bykov's earlier diagnosis as a possible solution, but Levin rejects it (saying that whoever diagnosed it was a moron) and decides to make even more useless tests, culminating in attempt to cut a part of patient's brain for analyse. This is what shakes her out of her delusions and motivates to ask Bykov for help. Levin, of course, gets punished with a night shift.
