After six amazing seasons, Snowfall has wrapped its critically-acclaimed run with an episode titled "The Struggle." For longtime fans of the show, the final episode of the series was exciting to watch as a truly unhinged Franklin (Damson Idris) took viewers through a wild and frantic ride. There was also something quite poetic about seeing how his final moments contrasted with his actions from the first season. Not to mention, we admire that most of the surviving characters received an appropriate sendoff.
So when it was all said and done, what does the end of Franklin's story mean?
Warning spoilers ahead.
Before jumping into Franklin's ending, let's run through the other major characters.
What happens to Leon, Cissy and others?
Wanda
To see Wanda (Gail Bean) leave LA behind to return to Ghana wasn't much of a surprise as she mentioned previously this season that being in LA was a trigger for her and her sobriety. Plus, she wasn't a fan of living in the projects.
The most interesting part about the conclusion of her story is it's not over. As previously reported, Wanda is expected to lead the new Snowfall spinoff. We get a hint at her possible story arc when Franklin asks Leon (Isaiah John) how his wife is doing, and Leon states "it's a long story" but confirms she's good. He goes on to say she's now attempting a career in music. Will Wanda be a rising musician in the new series?
Leon
Speaking of Leon (Isaiah John), from the very beginning of Snowfall he's always been Franklin's hot-headed bestie — impulsive, fearless and not a novice to being arrested. During the series finale, it was evident he now thinks about the repercussions of his actions and their impact on the community. Seeing him transform into the voice of reason and building a free legal services clinic to help those in need marks tremendous character growth. No word yet if he'll be showing off more of this growth in the spinoff.
Cissy
Cissy's (Michael Hyatt) story ended much like it began, protecting her son. She started off the series wanting to protect Franklin from criminal influences. Then as she saw that was impossible, she did what she could to help create a real estate business for Franklin in an effort to safeguard his way out of the drug game. After returning from Cuba, she even sought to keep her son safe from Teddy (Carter Hudson). Unfortunately, for all her efforts, she was unable to protect Franklin from himself, which she refers to as her "greatest tragedy."
Cissy killing Teddy before he had a chance to transfer the millions to Franklin was her last-ditch effort to free her son from the hold the power and money of the drug game had over him.
Gustavo
If you'll recall, the Snowfall audience meets Gustavo (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) as a struggling wrestler named El Oso. So to see him in the finale coaching wrestling was a full-circle moment (one that was hinted at in the previous episode in a discussion he had with Franklin).
Despite us holding out hope that the Snowfall loose end of Lucia (Emily Rios) would be tied with her and Gustavo reuniting, the writers had something else in mind. He winds up receiving a message from Xiamara (Joey Marie Urbina) telling him she and the kids are safely in North Carolina and would love to see him. It's not known whether or not he travels to see his family, but the smile he flashes indicates it's probable.
What happens to Franklin?
While our initial Snowfall prediction that Franklin would survive all of the season 6 chaos rang true, we couldn't have predicted that in the final beats of the show he would be without his mother, Veronique (Devyn Tyler), his son, money or a home. However, as he put it, he's "free" in the end.
It's not lost on us that Franklin's word choice is a complete nod to something he said in the first season of the series. During Snowfall season 1, Franklin mentioned his ultimate goal for selling drugs was so he could gain his "freedom." That begs the question though, given Franklin is worse off than when he first started working at Cho's convenience store, was cocaine what really enslaved Franklin?
We'd also be remiss if we didn't talk about Franklin's developed alcohol problem. Again looking to past seasons, Franklin yelled at his father Alton (Kevin Carroll) that he was nothing like him. Sadly, in the series finale, Franklin drew comparisons with his dad's early days on the show as he too was addicted to a substance, disheveled and lost in his thoughts.
Lastly, it was touching to see Franklin and Leon walk past a movie set as they ventured around the neighborhood in the last few scenes. On set, there were a group of young boys where one was playing with a football. For those that may have forgotten, Snowfall was the partial brainchild of the late John Singleton, who happened to write and direct the 1991 classic film Boyz n the Hood, based in LA.
Long story short, it would seem that the young boys on set in Snowfall were actually filming Boyz n the Hood. In the movie, the young protagonists played with their football in the neighborhood in similar clothing. Let the video below serve as proof of our theory.
All episodes of Snowfall are now streaming in the US on Hulu.
