SPOILER ALERT: The following story reveals major plot points from tonight’s series finale of FX’s Snowfall.
After 6 seasons, FX’s hit drama series Snowfall said its final goodbye tonight, and while most of what transpired was somewhat expected, seeing a promising life end in poverty and despair is absolutely heartbreaking.
Viewers have been on a journey with Franklin Saint (Damson Idris), seeing his highs and lows and cheering him on no matter what he’s gotten himself into. But money and power tend to change people, especially when said fortune comes from criminal activities. In the end, Franklin is left with no family and friends to speak of—except his day one Leon Simmons (Isaiah John)—a shadow of himself resembling his father Alton Williams (Kevin Carroll) at his lowest in Season 1, drunk and destitute.
“His final moments were incredibly challenging. There was a fatherhood connection there, which I connected to personally so it was deeply emotional for me. Franklin’s connection to his father and his becoming an alcoholic was incredibly difficult,” Idris told Deadline. “Behind the scenes, I had a little flask with me that no one knew about. I would touch it with my lips just to have the taste. I’ll also admit that I didn’t shower. Luckily I wasn’t disrupting anyone with any odors,” he said with a laugh.
Thanks to Cissy (Michael Hyatt), who is locked up in prison for murdering Teddy McDonald (Carter Hudson) in episode 9, Leon makes it out alive just in time. With his wife Wanda (Gail Bean) by his side, they leave for Ghana in search of a new life until the crack epidemic is under control. When Leon returns, he seeks out his friend Franklin, who is hiding out inside the family home which is now dilapidated, and bears an eviction note on the door.
Leon is stunned at who Franklin has become but they take a walk around the neighborhood while they catch up. In one corner, the duo walks past a movie that’s in production as a nod to co-creator John Singleton’s hit film Boyz In The Hood, released in 1991, the year Snowfall ends.
Isaiah John as Leon Simmons, Damson Idris as Franklin Saint
“If you think about it in some ways, Snowfall is a little bit of a prologue to Boyz, and how the neighborhood got to the point you experience in the film,” series co-creator Dave Andron. “We did jump forward in time a number of years and we didn’t put an actual date on it but the newspapers that Leon steps on the street are from September 1990, which was when John started filming Boyz in the Hood. It was very intentional to drop back into that moment in time to pick up that story where John picked it up with the movie. That was a little tip of the hat to him.”
Now, for anyone wondering why the decision was made not to kill off Franklin and put him out of misery, Andron explains.
“It’s funny because when we talked about whether should Franklin die, there was a contingent of people who felt that that was an easy way out. That that him dying means he doesn’t have to face the damage he’s done. He destroyed this neighborhood and did unreal damage to his community. They really needed a helping hand and what they got was another plague. I think in those terms, the dramatic irony of him having no place to live except for Cissy’s house where he will constantly be faced with what he has wrought felt like a certain kind of hell. Now he has to be on the street with these junkies who he in some way is responsible for. The dramatic irony of that felt right to us,” said Andron.
Damson is proud to be part of Singleton’s legacy; Snowfall serves as the filmmaker’s final project before his death in 2019. His time with Singleton will be forever cherished.
“My favorite moments were my time with John Singleton, building the character and discovering the world and just educating myself on the era. So many people didn’t know about certain things related to the crack epidemic,” Idris said. “You look at the laws that came from it, the bias and the Clinton administration and so many things that impacted Black people in this country. It was amazing to understand that history.”
As Deadline exclusively confirmed in late March, a spinoff is in early development with the character of Wanda rumored to be the connective tissue between the original show and the offshoot. In the series finale, Leon mentions he and Wanda are back in Los Angeles because she’s interested in producing music potentially setting up the show’s follow-up.
“She came back from Africa at the very end, and even though we don’t see her we hear about her from Leon, she’s back and she’s got a dream,” Andron shared. “She’s gonna have a whole life and she’s found something she’s passionate about, something she wants to be a part of. This for me goes back to the Wanda whom we first met. If that creativity and heart go into music, I feel like she might actually be able to carve something out.”
He continued, “And you know, West Coast hip hop is about to explode. So telling the story of what’s been going on in South Central in the way that Singleton told it with Boyz N The Hood. And so as you know, it leaked out there that we may try to continue telling that story because it felt worthy of Snowfall, and I felt worthy of John Singleton. So we’re gonna see if we can figure that out.”
