Leverage

That's it, girls! Lono, harder! Pull back!

Back up! Arms!

Tighter! Tighter!

Angela, arms straight.

That's it.

Good girl.

5, 6, 7, 8.

1, 2, 3, 4...

5, 6, 7, 8! 1, 2!

Hey!

Are you the morons in charge?

Well... I'm the company C.E.O.,

So, yes, I'm the "moron" in charge, miss...

Coach cornell.

Your set-up here is a mess.

These are one-inch mats.

We should be working on 12-inch mats.

Not according to the safety standards.

The safety standards are a joke.

Pep athletics doesn't set the safety standards

For competitive cheer.

The gymnastics and tumbling safety administration does.

Pep owns the safety administration.

Listen, if you don't like the way we run our competitions,

Miss cornell, uh, feel free to take your team home.

Of course, your entry fees are non-refundable.

Okay, here we go. Come on, marcy.

Oh, my god!

Marcy!

Marcy!

Get the medics! Call the medics! Okay.

Hello? Yeah, we need an ambulance right away.

- Leverage - - S05E05 -

The doctors think she'll eventually breathe on her own,

But her legs...

But it was an accident. It wasn't your fault.

This wasn't an accident. It was negligence.

Negligence is hard to prove.

What makes you so sure that it was this company's fault?

Pep athletics controls competitive cheer.

They write the safety standards,

And not to protect the girls... to be cheap.

3% of female athletes are cheerleaders.

66% of female athletic injuries come from cheer.

Hmm. Is marcy covered by insurance?

You have to be to participate in pep competitions.

But you have to buy it

From pep's subsidiary insurance company.

I see. And let me guess... they don't pay out.

Mr. Ford, pep has blamed me for the accident

And banned me from coaching.

I'm a fully qualified gymnastics coach.

Pep's coach-training program...

A fry cook gets more training.

My team's not safe without me.

Well, we gona make sure they are.

Do you hate me? You hate me.

Is that why you're making me do this?

No, parker, these girls... they need a coach,

And you're the best gymnast I know.

Besides, it puts you

On the inside at pep H.Q. In D.C.

They're running cheer camp

For the next week up until championship.

But they're teenage girls.

What do I know about teenage girls?

You were a teenage girl?

Only sort of.

Look, did you know about this?

Girls being dropped from 20 feet.

It's unbelievable. I know, right?

20 feet? Psh! Walk it off.

Parker, you do know that normal people

Don't just "walk off" a 20-foot fall, right?

So...

All those times I pushed hardison off a building

And he was all "aah!"... he wasn't just being funny?

I thought it was funny, parker.

No way in hell was it funny. You're always upside down, man.

I fell off a building. I was upside...

Like a himalayan tree frog.

You calling me a frog? You calling me a damn frog?

Say it again. Say it to my face.

Guys... maybe focus, guys.

Focus.

Damn frog.

Pep athletics.

They started out selling workout clothes,

Then they turned into

22 subsidiaries and shell companies

That run competitive cheer.

They set safety standards, they train coaches,

They sell uniforms, they sell insurance,

And they also televise very lucrative competitions.

And they profit off of teenage girls the whole way.

Now, because of their corporate structure,

It lets them hide the fact that it's the same company.

the mafia has a less-complicated set-up.

Yeah, and with them, you need a federal task force

And a rico case to bring them down. Mm-hmm.

Now, this is the C.E.O., wendy baran.

She's an ex-cheerleader,

And she's the one who moved pep into cheer.

She took them from selling sweat pants

Into running a sport.

Ah, there's the crux of the problem right there.

Technically, legally, cheerleading is not a sport.

It's an activity.

What's the difference?

A sport has legally mandated safety standards.

Yes, and a for-profit company cannot run a sport,

Which is why pep wants to keep

Competitive cheer from becoming a sport,

Unless, of course, we made it one.

That's when the safety standards kick in.

Yes, and then pep would be doing a free-fall without a mat.

So how do we make something a sport?

Well, we don't, actually.

The federal high school athletics committee does.

This is a job for congress.

Ah, I love government.

Shady deals, back-room meetings...

It is grifter paradise.

This is wrong.

We work outside the law, not smack-dab in the middle of it.

Relax, eliot.

Elected officials are the easiest marks in the world.

Between their ego, the greed, and the politics...

More hooks than a bait shop.

I'm just saying, we'd be better off running a stock scam

Or maybe a little heist.

Hey, the government's just a system, baby.

And if it's a system, we can hack it.

I already got

The cheerleader protection act, H.R. 505, up for vote

In about 20 minutes.

Poor bastards won't know what hit them.

Right. Assuming it passes.

Assuming what?

It's a bill to keep high-school girls out of wheelchairs.

Who's gonna vote against it?

Ladies and gentlemen, this bill is a staggering...

I say a staggering overreach of government power.

You were saying?

How the hell did this bill come up for a vote

Without us knowing about it?

I don't know.

I-I've been trying to keep tabs on things, but...

Now, I was a quarterback in high school,

So I think I know a thing or two about cheerleaders.

And one thing I know is that they do not want big government

Getting all up in their business.

Cheerleaders are strong, independent young women.

They don't need a bunch of white-haired old men

From washington telling them what to do.

They don't need a nanny state dictating their every move.

Sophie, can you get a head count?

They got parents to do that for them.

Now, I know it's hard for parents to raise a teen.

Judging by the body language, I'd say...

Zero for, seven against.

These parents are hard-working americans.

Hardison, we got to stop this now.

I can't hack the agenda while the meeting's in session.

No, we've got to stop this now... not the agenda. The sound system.

What we're talking about

Is having this August body March into their towns

Straight down the neighborhood streets

And right into the front door of our high schools.

And make no mistake,

Once we let big government into our high schools,

Well, who knows where that might...

Just press this button.

I said, who knows what...

Sorry.

Anyone... anyone mind if we table this

Until we can get things working around here?

Uh, folks, we're gonna put this off till next week,

And thank you all for coming.

looks like we have some time.

Maybe this won't be a complete disaster.

Did anyone else catch that?

Baran, the C.E.O. Of pep...

The bill was about to be voted down.

I mean, that's the best thing

That could happen for pep, right?

You're right. She should be thrilled. Why the long face?

Okay, parker, I need you to break into baran's office

And see what she's up to.

Sure. No problem.

It's not like I'm dragging around

A flock of cheerleaders or anything.

Yeah. The rest of us...

Let's go steal us some congressmen.

+

and here's our committee.

According to sophie, we've got seven nay votes.

We need to flip four to win.

The good news is we got tons of data on these politicians...

Voting records, financial records, all that.