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10 mins
We take a look back at the iconic show, Snowfall, and explore the mind of Franklin Saint and his tragic ending.
By Jennifer Igbokwe
Spoilers Ahead!
The art of Snowfall, and the beauty of the journey that we are invited on, can be explored not only through the exceptional performances of the cast, but also the perfection of storytelling throughout this show.
Over the last 6 years we have been welcomed to understand and accompany these complex, and constantly developing characters during these rare, and pivotal years of their lives.
Using The Saint family, their friends, business partners, and the wider community of South-Central Los Angeles, a collection of interlocking stories unfold centred around a piece of rock that would change the lives of the Saints, and consequently everyone around them. These stories are told in a way that compels the viewers to sympathise with their circumstances, cast judgement on their decisions, and become moral compasses when it seems that our favourite characters must do, or excuse, one more thing until they’re in safe waters once again.
Franklin’s Ambition
Franklin's development over the last six seasons has unearthed many things about what lengths the young man we met hustling behind the counter of a corner store, would go to in the effort to reach the freedom that he craved, deserved, and eventually achieved.
Yet despite Franklin's drastic developments, some constants have remained with him throughout his journey.
Franklin remained the same ambitious and driven individual throughout his journey, the only things changing, or developing rather, were his circumstances, and the pressures that his ambition would have to operate under in the effort to accomplish his goals. His ambition and drive were clearly displayed to us from the first episode with him selling marijuana alongside working at the corner store, which quickly escalated into him impulsively risking his life to take on a brick of cocaine from Avi, an eccentric drug and gun trafficker.
Franklin’s ambitious nature was quickly used to separate and define him from those around him. He was set aside from his uncle, Jerome, who warned him against the dangers that came with dealing cocaine; preferring the comfortable, low stress income partnered with dealing marijuana, thus opting out from initially helping Franklin build what would become an empire. Whereas like Franklin, Louie was ambitious, and she was ready to take on the risks feared by Jerome to gain the money, respect, and freedom that she too desired. And similarly, to Louie, Franklin's ambition would soon spiral into disaster.
His ambition, which was ultimately the search for his freedom, became rooted in the stability of his empire, and as we saw, when his empire became unstable, so did he.
The shock we face in Franklin’s development, is when his endless ambition is met with a desperation that drives him to actions, we simply wouldn’t have, initially, expected from Franklin.
One of the first most noticeable actions of an overly ambitious, and desperate Franklin was when he forced Ray Ray to kill Lenny, a decision made to teach a lesson about what his ambitions, and his future, meant to him.
The threat to Franklin's newfound sense of self, accompanied by the new depths of desperation that this situation had uncovered - with his fear of owing Avi, as well as having to work alongside sketchy characters such as Karvel, unmasked layers of himself that seemingly, only these intense conditions could have unveiled. However, as the show develops, and the conditions remain intense, the actions that could once be described as lapses in judgement, or decisions made in extreme circumstances, simply becomes his character.
When Franklin learns that he has killed one of his friends - Kevin, we immediately sympathise with him - he had lost one of his childhood bestfriends and was facing jail time, even with Franklin becoming accustomed to the intense situations that came with dealing cocaine, Franklin wasn’t ready for jail.
Despite being unintentional, and yet still preplanned, we are faced with the truth of who he was ready to violate and betray, when motivated by his ambition and equally, or even more importantly, the protection of his profits.
Franklin’s newly formed grasp on power and money also demanded loyalty from those around him. Kevin’s perceived betrayal when giving the recipe away to Oso and Lucia, may have been one of the factors Franklin used to convince himself that his anger and actions were justified.
Jump to season 6, and Franklin has been stripped down to his core, where his ambitions remain - but when motivated by a dark desperation he reveals the cost, and consequences, of his ambition.
And in the end, with no money, family, business, or enemies to chase, he must truly face himself, and we must face the consequences of the decisions made by what was once a wide eyed, ambitious kid.
Franklin's ending
Franklin's bitter ending was hard to watch, and yet it was the only ending that he deserved once we had seen the person Franklin was becoming, the lengths he had gone to, and his actions towards his loved ones when his desperation had grown greater than his ambition.
Franklin ignored warnings about the dangers and vulnerabilities of the business he was getting into from all corners of his life, his parents, Jerome, Melody, Andre and eventually even Leon - his once trigger-happy best friend.
In season 1, Franklin made it clear he had no remorse about the ‘plague’ he was raining down on his community, so much so that he ‘slept like a baby’ at night with no regard for the broken homes that his drug dealing had created.
This attitude is why him becoming a product of the environment he helped to create is somewhat bittersweet. Chasing the bottom of a bottle, broken and alone, is seemingly a direct reflection of the impact he had on his neighbourhood and all the addicts he had helped to create, and would then later use, and rely upon as fuel for his ambition. His addiction also appears to be metaphoric of how he led his life once his relationship with money had become the centre of his world, constantly chasing a desire he would never be able to satisfy.
Seeing Franklin become an addict in the same way his father once was, for which Franklin had repeatedly condemned him, is somewhat fitting, and still when considering the circumstances that drove both these men to addiction we are once again left feeling grief for the life Franklin could have had. Ultimately, both Alton and Franklin turn to addiction due to the trauma of their direct, and indirect dealings with the CIA. Alton was forced to kill his brother once he had found out that his brother was cooperating with the CIA against his community. The ruthless necessity of his decision left him traumatised, and stagnant in shame leaving him with only the comfort of alcohol. Similarly, the trauma of Teddy’s theft, Franklin’s punishment for no longer wanting to fund his covert CIA operations, ultimately triggered Franklin’s descent into addiction, as once the strong hand of Teddy had infiltrated his empire, the stable foundation he believed he had built his future on, crumbled.
His father, Alton, who would soon become a consequence of his own, and Franklin’s ambitions, feared the aspirations and desires he saw in Franklin, and even Cissy. Such aspirations would lead to Franklin destroying his neighbourhood, killing lifelong family friends, and lead to Cissy making demands that would encourage Franklin to betray leaders within his community, such as the couple he had removed from the longstanding community library for his real estate dealings with Paul Davis.
These actions become less surprising as Franklin’s story develops. Once we see that Franklin ultimately excuses his father’s murder, not only to keep himself and his family safe, but also to keep business running smoothly, the worries, and arguably drastic decisions of Alton become more understandable.
The contrasts between Leon and Franklins development throughout the show, is what makes us so happy and content in the ending Leon achieves.
Not only had Leon recognised the transgressions in his actions, but he also truly tried to uplift the community he assisted in destroying and make amends for the lives he had ruined. For instance, we see Leon taking the children from the projects on trips to widen their perspectives, keeping communal washing machines in service and in season 6, we briefly see a conversation between Leon and Skully. The once ruthless drug dealer, whose daughter was accidently killed by Leon, is consoling Leon as he apologises.
Leon genuinely cared about doing right and helping his community, which is why in the end, despite Franklin’s actions against him, he still reaches out to find him, to try and help him.
Betrayal vs Return on Investment:
Everyone Franklin helped was an investment he planned to cash in on financially, or in the form of favours.
Franklin funded Alton’s shelter, an arguably redeeming action when considering he was the one, indirectly, putting people on the streets through his drug dealing. He ultimately invested his community in the game he believed he was winning, and despite warnings, Franklin didn’t care, he saw a good return on investment with his neighbourhood.
Franklin continued funding Alton’s shelter until a worker refused to give up Alton’s location once he had publicly outed Teddy and the CIA for the influx of cocaine into America. Once he realised he couldn’t control the worker, he withdrew his investment, literally putting homeless women, children, and men back on the streets.
Nothing Franklin did, not even charity work, was out of the goodness of his heart, it’s always about having control over the eggs in his basket, over the people who could hurt him.
His ultimate investment into the game washimself - did betting on himself pay off? He had gotten his freedom, but notthe American dream he believed he could sell out his morals for.
Denial
Franklin's rejection of Omar Little’s famous line ‘money doesn’t have any owners, only spenders’ took his desperation to a whole new level, as he believed that he had ownership over not only the money he had earned, but eventually the money of those that built his empire alongside him.
In the past denial had always worked to his benefit. It had allowed him to be driven, creative and come up with solutions to problems - instead of accepting the dire situations he often found himself in. Such as, coming up with Avi’s stolen money, and convincing Teddy to let him and Leon go after Teddy had kidnapped and locked them in a basement.
But his denial had now also betrayed him.
Despite not giving up, and refusing to face his reality, he is still denied the fantasy he believed he deserved.
His denial took him on a journey, fuelled by the belief that he is owed money, a happy ending, and the freedom he had craved over the last 6 seasons.
Franklin went to every single person and place he could in the effort to find his money, instead of facing his reality.
In the end when Franklin had no money left, and he came to rob his best friend Leon, he repeated exactly when Teddy had said to him - all Leon’s money was his, because ultimately everyone’s fortune had come from his hard work, him building this empire brick by brick, this was the same mentality he used when he robbed Louie and Jerome at the end of season 5.
When Franklin hunts down a now crack addicted Peaches for his stolen money, we see his denial and desperation meet in a way that is truly hysterical, and arguably delusional as he believed there was significant money to be found in the hands of an addict.
Conclusion
This final season forced us to decide what kind of people we were dealing with, and whose perspective we should be trusting.
Was Franklin an ambitious young man, wanting to play the system at their own game, and provide his family with financial freedom, or has his motives been the same since the beginning, has he always been the person ready to sell out his family, and his community, in the pursuit of his own ‘happy ending’ and freedom?
With the use of cyclical foreshadowing, well laid easter eggs, and perfectly executed dialogue this show effectively tells a gripping, and cautionary story about corruption, greed, ambition, and family.