Leverage

Dodgson: After that, we scale fabrication output by 20%.

Liddell: This will mean more downsizing.

There are 60 names here

10 this week, 10 the next, and so on.

Call their names, send them to H.R.

Any backchat, Mr. Carroll can assist.

Maybe if I cut some work hours, we can save someone --

No one is saving anyone, Alex.

Just do it.

All right, all right, nearly finished, people. Just a few more.

Number 462,

809,

791,

and 20.

Edith, I am sorry. If there was any--

All right, that's it, people.

Back on the clock.

Half the workforce has been cut in the last six months.

Entire sections have been closed.

What Charles is doing makes no sense.

Who's Charles?

Charles Dodgson III.

He's the "Dodgson" in "Dodgson Energetics."

I don't mean to be harsh, Mr. Liddell,

but companies do die.

D.E. isn't dying, Mr. Ford. It's being killed.

And if the factory dies, Oxford dies.

The factory is the town's life's blood.

We could just get rid of him.

What? Good Lord! No, I don't want Charles hurt. My God.

No, no, no, what... what...

What he means is that we could...

We could take him... out of play.

Like a forced retirement.

Yeah.

You... you have to understand...

His father ran D.E. like a sweatshop.

When Charles took over, he stopped all that.

He was like his grandfather again.

He was so full of energy and new ideas for the future.

You don't want him taken out of play.

You don't want him removed from the company

or anything like that.

You got to just tell us what you want.

He was once someone we all loved and admired.

I want you to fix him.

I want you to make Charles the way he used to be.

Can you do that, Mr. Ford?

"Yes"? You said "yes" to the man?

Nate, are you out of your damn mind?

We are running the white rabbit.

The white... what? No, Nate. No, that's not what we do.

That's what I said.

All right, listen, we wreck the bad guys.

We don't turn one kind of guy into another kind of guy.

Wait... What is the white rabbit?

It's the ungriftable grift. It's impossible.

Yeah, but we do impossible.

No, Parker, not like this.

For this, you have to get inside the mark...

Like inside their head, inside their dreams.

Can't be done. Nate: That's not true.

There's a grifter sitting right here among us

who has successfully pulled off the white rabbit... Sophie.

- It's possible. - There you go. It's possible.

A bit of NLP, some mesmerism,

some of Eliot's special sedatives.

Eliot's got sedatives?

Eliot: It's just a little psychotropic I picked up outside of Bogota.

Puts you under fast, keeps you dreaming for days.

Unless you take a stimulant before they dose you.

See?

Possible, griftable, doable.

This guy hasn't broken any laws, all right.

He's not skimming. He's not mobbed-up.

Why are you thinking of doing this?

Look, we're not God, Nate.

Why do we get to choose what kind of person he gets to be?

Guys, if you think about it, every job that we do,

every single job, we're kind of playing God.

We're not doing it for payback.

We help people. We save people.

And I think this guy can be saved.

I think the town can be saved.

So we're gonna do this.

Uh, what comes to me when I think of D.E.?

Uh, history, excellence.

Charlie really pumps life into this place.

I mean, he's the one that really keeps it going.

Yeah, he's like a mad genius.

He... he makes coming to work really exciting.

But most of all, family.

I mean, all this happens because D.E.'s a family.

I mean, everybody who works here...

Hey, man.

Is invested in our future,

so we're just moving forward together.

Well, that guy's changed.

Now, that's Charles Dodgson five years ago.

Four years ago, his pop hands him the keys to the family biz.

Now, D.E. used to make high-end batteries

for military drones, hybrids, laptops.

I'm sorry... "used to"?

Well, three years ago, they were hip-deep

in developing the Alpha Broadcast Battery,

and then all of a sudden, Dodgson started making cuts...

Departments, personnel, clientele.

Yes, question from the sexy stuff in the front row?

How do we break into his head?

Well, dude keeps a tight schedule...

I mean, work, home, work, repeat.

No friends, no family, groceries are delivered.

He doesn't even drive his own car.

Okay, there it is right there... car service.

It'll be easy to swap Eliot out with his regular driver.

Swap Eliot out for what reason?

I still don't see an in on this guy.

That's because you didn't hack three months' worth

of satellite data to track Charlie boy.

He drops in here once a week... behavioral therapy.

Now, at first, I thought it was O.C.D.

Turns out they're panic attacks.

And he's keeping these little visits secret...

just between him and his driver.

Wait... you know what?

Give me a week, a warehouse,

some digital projectors, Eliot's cocktail...

Yeah, we can put this guy in wonderland.

Nate: All right, Sophie.

Now, you're gonna take point on this,

and you'll decide whether or not it's a go.

All the way through it.

I'm sorry... Dr. Polito's office?

Emma Rauschenbaugh.

I'm looking after Dr. Polito's patients while he's away.

He had a medical emergency.

You're his 7:00... Charles Dodgson?

Yeah, the thing is, I really only came down here

to terminate Dr. Polito.

Oh. But I've studied your file, and I...

Tell me, did you never discuss your dreams with Dr. Polito?

It was enough of a...

a chore to come down to this place.

My family... we don't do this.

Yes, I have given it quite a lot of thought, and please,

what would you say if I just suggested

that I could solve your panic issues in 10 days?

10 days?

10 days.

So, your dreams...

In guided dream therapy, you and I enter your dreams

even when you're not here at the office.

My father had this. He controlled it.

He controlled himself.

If he was able to do it,

I'm sure I can take care of this myself.

Well, he probably had help.

Dream architectures can be quite complex.

Yeah, you didn't know him.

Thank you for your time, doctor.

Nate, I lost Dodgson.

He quit therapy.

No. No, you didn't. No, he's not.

No, Dodgson is about to have a panic attack.

Parker, you're up.

Eliot.

Yeah, I'm good to go.

Sorry... what was that?

I said, it's... good to know...

that there's, uh...

that these little towns like this Oxford place exist.

Man, I used to drive 18 up 35

from Dallas to Oklahoma city.

And right past Oklahoma city, you jump on the old 66, hey!

And there's little, small towns littered all the way...

Look out! Look out!

Woman: Oh, my God!

What are you doing? That was way too close.

Had to make it look real. Was it good?

You all right? You okay?

I'm okay.

Everything's good. It's all right, sir.

Girl's gonna be fine.

Don't touch me. Don't touch me! Don't... just drive.

What are you doing here, Alex?

Well, uh, I did an extrapolation of the effects

the cuts you've made will have on the company.

If you keep this up, D.E. will go under in a year.

Six months, and it's not going under.

I'm selling it out.

A year of cuts kills us,

but six months makes us lean and attractive to buyers.

Selling out? What... is that what this is?

Every chip, every cable, every hard drive.

But to do that, I need to trim D.E. down,

cut the dead weight, which now includes you.

You're fired.

What?!

No, no. Mr. Dodgson...

- You're done. - Charles!