Franklin has been compared to Prometheus, the Greek Titan who stole fire from the Olympian gods and gave it to humanity. Zeus punished Prometheus for the transgression by subjecting him to eternal torment, binding him to a rock where an eagle would be sent daily to eat his liver after it grew back the night before. Franklin’s fate is eerily similar to that of Prometheus — his descent into alcoholism and agoraphobia sends him into a perpetual cycle of liver abuse and self-imprisonment. As the years pass by, he falls further and further from grace.
It’s a brutal way to end a show so beloved among Black viewers. As Andrew Ricketts at Okayplayer wrote: “Snowfall makes the bold choice to portray how Black love survives or dies amid Black ruin.†There have been many instances of love surviving and dying throughout the show’s run and tonight’s finale, but because Franklin has always been at Snowfall’s center, it’s understandable to want to see his love survive. That desire is what makes Franklin’s ending so incredibly painful to watch. It’s natural for many viewers to want him to live happily ever after. But happy endings are for fairy tales, and the story of the destruction in our community is very real, and it has continued long after the downfall of Franklin Saint.
After coming close enough to his money that he could taste it and having his mother take his chance at happily ever after away, Franklin begins to drink himself into a stupor as he scrambles to hold onto any semblance of wealth he has left. Directly after Cissy fatally shoots Teddy, Franklin runs into a bar to use the pay phone and update Veronique, then calls Teddy’s handler Stephen who tells Franklin that if he wants to stay alive, he needs to drop Ruben off to the CIA. Before he calls Stephen, the bartender sees how distraught Franklin is and gives him a shot on the house, marking the first time we’ve seen Franklin willingly ingest a mind-altering substance. Ignoring Ruben’s pleas not to trust the CIA, Franklin does as he’s told, hands the KGB agent over, and then embarks on a total emotional bender as his world unravels.
The rose-colored lenses I’ve viewed Franklin through are shattered as he proves that he’s using the same tactics Teddy used on him on his own people. He frantically asks Leon for the $3 million he’s saved in exchange for some bullshit plan to make him a part owner in Franklin’s real-estate company. Leon sees through it, tries to get Franklin to do some reflection on the situation with Cissy, and denies the offer, saying he isn’t going to disrespect her sacrifice by giving Franklin blood money. Franklin goes full Teddy, yells, “I’m the reason y’all niggas got this fucking money in the first place,†and threatens to take the money violently if he has to. But Leon is protected by his people, so Franklin is forced to go another route.
Next, Franklin goes to Cissy’s trial, where she pleads guilty (after yelling to the courthouse that she murdered a CIA agent who helped flood the streets with cocaine), is denied bail, and is sent into custody. She is now a martyr, openly admitting to her crime and accepting her punishment. While she’s in custody, Franklin visits her twice. The first time to suggest fighting the charges (which she ignores), and the second is after his life implodes once again. When Franklin’s business partner Paul Davis shows up at the house to talk about what has clearly already been a discussion with Veronique to sell his stake in the Spring Street development, Franklin realizes V has been making moves behind his back. He confronts Veronique, aggressively chastising her, and then grabs her by her neck to further intimidate her. As a final, prideful move, Franklin tells Veronique that he sold all the properties to his mom’s old boss out of spite, saying since he built this shit, he can tear it down if he wants to.
Still drinking, Franklin goes to the bank to attempt another move to get access to cash but quickly finds out that Veronique already withdrew what they had in the account and fled. With no other options or equity, he visits his mom again, this time asking her to sell the house and give him the money. The entire visit, she doesn’t utter a word as Franklin escalates into hysterics as he realizes he’s not getting anything else from her. As the camera captures the mother and son meeting, the frame emphasizes the partition between them, the blank space representing the disconnect in their relationship and mindset; at one point, there’s even a ring of light around Cissy’s head. He blames her for everything, taking zero accountability and being escorted out by an officer.
The show jumps three months later with Franklin living in Cissy’s house, drunk, desperate, and in debt, as the banks are on his head to get their money. He meets up with Top Notch, who hasn’t found Veronique and is ready to move on with his life. He gives him one last discovery — Peaches’s location. Badly addicted to drugs and living in squalor, Peaches was only 25 miles away, living off the money he stole from Franklin. Franklin tries to take back his money, killing Peaches in the process, and calling a mechanic, Miguel, to open up the safe containing what Peaches had left. As Miguel opens the safe, a junky appears, complicating the situation, and Franklin shoots him. Terrified, Miguel opens the safe and finds a mere $12,000. Defeated, Franklin kills him too.
Jumping another two years into the future, we glimpse everyone’s lives as they try to distance themselves from their crimes. Louie is on the run from the DEA, who is determined to find her. Gustavo is working as a wrestling coach, with Xiamara finally reaching out now that enough time has passed, giving at least one of our characters a happy ending. Another year later, we see Franklin is an alcoholic recluse who is squatting in the house amidst decay and many notices from the city on the door. Leon is visiting the city (Wanda left for Ghana shortly after Cissy got locked up, and it’s implied he followed Cissy’s advice and went with his wife soon after) and finds Franklin playing the role of the crazy neighborhood bum.
Leon and Franklin walk around the neighborhood, a lifetime removed from where we began. Franklin is bitter and stubborn, still blaming anyone but himself for his current life. The world has moved on without him, and you can see the ’90s Black culture that was directly impacted by the aftermath of the events of the show — they even walk by someone filming a movie on the street that looks very much like a scene with the young boys from John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood (what a great way to pay homage, and how funny is it that Franklin said it wouldn’t win an Oscar). Veronique has had the baby and, without giving up their location, told Franklin that she would raise their son right and break the curse. But Franklin is stuck in a loop, manically talking about being watched and how everyone is fucking with him because “they know who the fuck [he is].â€
They return to the beginning: Cho’s convenience store. Leon tells Franklin that he’s started a legal clinic to help his people as incarceration rates continue to rise after the Len Bias law ripped through the Black community, calling it Jim Crow all over again. He asks Franklin if he wants to help, but once they’re outside Cho’s, it’s clear that Franklin doesn’t give a shit and asks Leon for some money, which is the thing he cared about most and the thing that led to his demise with pride and greed getting in the way of him living a healthy, fulfilled life. When they return to his home, the authorities arrive ready to take the house. Left with absolutely nothing, Franklin tells Leon that now he’s free — on his terms. He tells him that Leon is his best friend and he’s proud of him, then walks away, bottle in hand, as Leon calls after him. Kendrick Lamar’s “PRIDE†plays us out, ending the tragically real story of Franklin Saint.
Final Forecast
• This ending was bleak when I considered what this show means to Black viewers. Franklin Saint will always be remembered in the minds of Black TV fans as an enigmatic main character, one that most viewers unflinchingly root for, objectivity be damned.
• As hard as it was to watch, why should Franklin have a happy ending? I think that many Black viewers have projected our love for so many Black men in our lives onto Franklin, so we want him to live happily ever after. He’s the one who saw the addictive nature of the rocked-up coke and continued to push it onto the streets to build an empire that benefited mostly himself at the cost of other people’s lives. But, week after week, fans watch the show hoping he walks away with everything he’s ever wanted and more — we see his humanity above all because we know exactly how he feels. He’s our brother, our friend, our neighbor, our classmate. Anyone who grew up in poverty under systemic racism knows what he’s motivated by.
• Now that it’s over, I can confidently say that Snowfall is now a part of a legacy, an exemplar of this particular time in television where Black creators are pushing boundaries like never before. Its intentional focus on Blackness and the effect of organized crime on the Black community is a huge reason why Black viewers have such an emotional attachment to the show. According to Michael Hyatt, who plays Cissy, this was a part of John Singleton’s vision to “tell the story of the people. And the generations. And what it did to our people from a different perspective.†Sadly, most people who were caught up in the drug game of that era had a grim fate, and despite what Franklin means to us, the series finale stays true to that reality.