Leverage

Sam?!

Sam?!

Is that Sam?

He's stopped breathing! Somebody call an ambulance!

Give him some room.

I got it, folks. Back to work, please.

Come on, back to work.

There's grapes on the vine, people.

We'll take care of this. Get back to work.

Everyone, get back to work!

The autopsy just showed heart failure, but, um...

The day after my dad died

a lawyer from the winery knocked on my door.

And, let me guess,

said that your father's death wasn't their fault.

- Right. - Hmm.

Then he gave me this.

Wow.

That's not normal. Right?

That's a lot of zeros.

The check isn't valid

unless I sign this nondisclosure agreement.

- Huh. - That's why I contacted you.

I want to know what they did to my dad.

You don't... you don't pay people to keep secrets

unless you have secrets to keep.

So, what we're gonna do is

we're gonna find out what the secret

of your father's death is.

Come on, people!

I got 100 broke citizens standing outside that gate,

hoping to get picked for work.

You slow down, you go.

I want my quota met.

Hey! New guy!

What?

Still got to fill out your paperwork.

Yeah, boss.

And pick up your pace!

Punk ass.

He can get a little rough. You better be careful.

Yeah, well, I ain't the guy that...

wants trouble.

Let me carry that for you. Thanks.

Oh, your water. Oh, yeah.

So you work the harvest for two weeks, huh?

Yeah. It's... It's steady work...

If you can keep it.

Pruning begins from leaf drop in the fall

to bud break around April.

Mm.

Oh, thank you.

Welcome.

I had a good buddy of mine that worked out here.

I don't know if you know him or not... Sam Knox.

Um... I'm sorry.

I-I've got to go.

People spooked out here, Nate.

Any movement on getting somebody inside?

Yeah, working on it.

Get me any background information you can

on Sam Knox's working conditions.

- Copy that. - There's the full nondisclosure agreement

that Kristin's required to sign

in order to get her settlement.

That thing's 100 pages longer

than the one you sign for the CIA.

The winery's just trying to get her to shut up.

And how did you get your hands on the CIA contract?

You ask too many questions.

You know, a man dies, you take responsibility,

you make amends.

You don't bury your head in the sand,

and, you know, make cash payments

to people so they'll be quiet.

Unless it's the tip of the iceberg.

Who wants to bet that Sam Knox is not the first victim?

Parker's in.

Okay, Parker, talk to me.

I'm Intern Parker. Intern Parker.

Intern Parker.

Nate... I'm going in.

I'm Intern Parker.

Intern Parker.

Yeah, we've, uh... We've been working

on her long-con abilities,

you know, internalizing the character more.

Is that really necessary?

Winery interns?! I'm an intern, too!

All right. I'm so excited.

We get to stomp grapes and taste wine.

So, you're the new the cellar rats.

All right, I know why you're here.

You want to learn how to make wine

in the ancient tradition of the great vintners of Europe.

Well, that's not gonna happen.

That's like me teaching you Latin to go to the moon.

We're gonna increase the output of this winery by 1,000%,

and for the pleasure of being part of that,

you get college credit.

Welcome.

What? Wait. Is... Is college credit code

for "you're not gonna pay me"?

Get to work!

Is Intern Parker working for free?

She's just a character, Parker.

Yeah. But I know what Intern Parker's worth is.

And Intern Parker deserves a fair wage for her labor!

Yeah, you might want to dial that back a little bit, yeah.

Dial it back, yeah. Thinking so.

Uh, charmer we heard, that's Frank Madigan.

He recently bought the Bee Meadow Winery.

Basically, he fired all the staff

and hired a bunch of part-timers.

Where'd he get his money?

He used to run a chemical manufacturing company.

They made acrylics, adhesives, dyes, epoxies, fertilizers.

What's his safety record?

He's got several worker fatalities.

He's basically trying to pull the same thing he did there...

Paying for silence.

I mean, if his old company was a person,

he'd be doing time for murder one.

Instead, he buys a winery.

We got negligence, worker deaths, cover-ups.

New digs, same M.O.

Now, he said he was gonna increase yield by 1,000%.

That's a big claim. He's up to something.

Yeah. Now, Parker and Eliot, they're investigating the death.

What's our gig?

Let me see the financials on the winery.

Okay, so here's the loan

that Madigan took out to buy the winery.

Now, it says here he put up his wine collection as collateral.

Can he do that?

If you have a strong collection made up of certain vintages,

it can easily be worth millions.

Yeah, some of the biggest cases I investigated

were wine-insurance payouts.

What is the jewel in his crown?

That would be a bottle

previously owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Excuse me?

It's the only one of its kind.

Appraised value is... Priceless.

Okay, when Eliot and Parker find out Madigan's secret,

that bottle is what we'll use for leverage.

Let's go steal a bottle!

No, no, no, we... not steal. No, no.

I mean, a wine like that... A Thomas Jefferson bottle...

That collection is gonna be heavily insured.

So if we steal it, I mean, we're just

gonna be handing him a fat insurance payout.

No, I think we need to maybe ride with him through the loan.

If his wine collection is the collateral,

let's make the collection worthless.

If the bank finds out the collection's a fraud,

Madigan loses the winery.

Yeah, we just take

a 200-year-old bottle of grape juice

and turn it into two-buck Chuck.

Let's go fake a bottle.

Nate, this isn't what I do man, okay?

I make beers, man. I-I-I don't do wines.

Well, Madigan, he broomed out the old staff.

So there's job openings. That's the best way in.

Hardison, you're gonna make a great vintner.

I don't even know what a vintner does.

A vintner is like the resident geek.

Wine-making, it's fermentation, a chemical process.

So you just pretend that you're making whatever it is you make.

What I make is beer!

Man, did you even try my Jicama Plum Stout?

Uh-oh.

It's ridiculous, man.

The flavor's just... it's pungent, and it's amazing, man.

And if you did, you would know that I know my beers, man.

This is wine. It's a completely different field.

It's like trying to play football on a baseball field.

Interview jitters. Relax.

Sophie's got you all the answers.

What paper did you say you write for?

Wine blog. "Kay Syrah Syrah."

That's clever.

So, you were the vintner at the Bee Meadow Winery

until Frank Madigan took ownership.

Everyone wants to know,

what's the real reason behind your departure?

At the end of the day, you can't rush the grapes.

Oh, you can totally rush the grapes. Yeah.

What kind of materials do you use?

Sustainably harvested oak barrels.

Well, what's wrong with plastic? Let's save some trees.

Bottom line... I value quality over quantity.

And, you know, I got three words for you...

Volume, volume, volume.

You're hired.

Interns... Jason Brown, the new vintner.

When he says "clean," you say, "how clean?"

But we've already cleaned.