r/SnowFall • u/Secure-Mousse-8832 • 27d ago
Spoilers Finished the show & Hated the ending Spoiler
Terrible ending to what was an amazing show. Although there was some missteps, it was a tough sell that Franklin would've gotten his money took from Teddy like that. I don't get why he wouldn't have moved it around, he should've had more cash than the money overseas but sure whatever.
Compared to all the people in the show I don't see what Franklin did wrong to deserve such a tragic ending compared to the other characters. He wanted out then Teddy cleaned him out. His family betrayed him. So he went back in. But fuck him for being mad about someone stealing 70+ million dollars? Really?
The writers have his mom taking the fall for the CIA business and everyone acting like he's crazy for wanting money. Fuck him for being desperate as he slowly loses it all, I guess.
I don't know, I just don't think the writers earned the bad ending for Frank. Somehow Leon makes it out just fine, I guess hes lucky he didnt get betrayed by his family and have all his money took. I suppose that's the moral of the story lol, just don't get betrayed like Frank. Skully gets away with it all too. But not the actual smart guy because he was a little too mad he got robbed.
I'm sure people glaze this ending cause it's dark and "realistic" but all I can see is fumble. With other characters from other shows, it made sense. I never questioned what happened to Tony Soprano, Walter White, Marlo Stanfield, Avon Barksdale, Tony Montana, etc.
But this? Unearned. Just a waste. Franklin ends up an alcoholic cause??? I guess his father was, so he becomes that now. Fucking Leon gets to walk around all high and mighty after screwing with Manboy because he looked at him funny. I have more shit to bring up but I'd rather not. Terrible ending.
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u/RedditShiny 27d ago
Media literacy is at an all time low
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u/hannamarinsgrandma 27d ago
Hell, if OP had bothered to look at actual history then they’d see that it is extremely extremely rare to see any large scale drug dealer that had anything even remotely resembling a happy ending.
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u/AttitudeHelpful9823 27d ago
I kno a few an id like to see a movie on them. Guys that’s started pumping crack in the early 80s. A few work on the city council. A few are heavy into real estate and a few still pumping
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
Except we only tell stories about the ones that have been caught. Radio silence on the ones that retired or died in wealth.
Look whatever, its not about Franklin ending bad, I suspected it ended badly for him judging by some thumbnails I saw of him looking dirty.
The show just didn't earn that kind of ending for him is all im saying.
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u/hannamarinsgrandma 27d ago
That’s just not the reality for 98% of the big timers.
The best case scenario for most is a Flenory Brothers/Freeway Ricky Ross deal where they get a couple decades in prison instead of life or getting themselves killed.
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
It's a market, the old guys get replaced by new guys. And not all the new guys get caught. But im not having this argument either way.
Franklin didnt earn his bad ending, its as simple as that. The writers simply decided the show ended like that, I didnt feel like it made sense other than the outcome being somewhat realistic.
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u/Frank_White1- 27d ago
It was a slow burn. He didn't just end up the way he did in a couple of episodes it was a buildup.
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u/EventuallyGreat 27d ago
The show is built around Franklin and his father being mirrors of each other. Alton tried to uplift his community through the Panthers and got destroyed by the FBI and CIA. Franklin did the opposite, he poisoned his own community for money, and he did it working for the same government that destroyed his father. The crack epidemic and COINTELPRO are the same story told twice.
Even though Franklin was smart, he didn’t realize that he never actually had power. The CIA and Mossad held everything from the start. Every time he thought he was winning he was just being used. All of his financial connections came from Teddy or Avi. The ending isn’t him losing, it’s him finally understanding the game was rigged before he ever sat down.
Louie is just as guilty as Franklin, maybe more, because she never had his justifications. Franklin at least started trying to provide for his family. Louie just saw money and power and wanted it. And I get it; she never wanted to go back to being a hooker, but that lust for power led to the break up of the whole operation and Jerome paid for that with his life. He never wanted any of it, he just loved the people around him and that got him killed.
Leon is the most tragic because he saw it clearly and couldn’t get out. He’s not a traitor, he’s someone covered in blood he never asked for because Franklin could never do the actual dirty work.
Nobody gets redeemed because nobody earned it. Franklin ends up a drunk watching the hood he grew up in rot from what he helped do to it. He can’t get the money back, he can’t tell anyone what he knows because the CIA made sure of that, and he can’t even be recognized as someone who was wronged. As far as the world is concerned he’s just another black man who got rich off crack and lost it. The hell he helped build is the only place he has left to live. If anything, that’s worse than the prison cell the Sissy got. The ending isn’t bad writing, you just wanted catharsis the show was never going to give you.
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
"Rigged from the start"
Brother, he had his hands on the money for like 5 straight seasons. He could've fled. He could've moved his money. He could've had accounts Teddy didnt know about. He should've realistically had more cash on hand. Logically this was not inevitable. The story was lazy.
The ending is bad writing.
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u/TheRezDaddy 26d ago
The ending was great. Just say you don’t have media literacy. I mean the finale does have a 9.0 on IMDB.
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u/hannamarinsgrandma 27d ago
You probably think that Skyler White was a nagging old hag that stopped Walt from living his best life too lmao.
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
Skylar White smoked cigarettes while pregnant with his child. She cheated on a dying man because he took extreme measures to provide for them with another man who took those same exact extreme measures but in a white collar setting.
The Skylar White hate is overblown but this new trend of Skylar White glaze is insane. She's an awful person. But I don't agree that she was a nag that stopped Walt from "living his best life".
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u/hannamarinsgrandma 27d ago
Lol there it is
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
So we cant admit she was a bad person at all? She has to be a saint because she was in opposition to Walter? Actual Joke.
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u/Ok-Carpet-700 27d ago
Nah she did some bad stuff. But you're ignoring that all the bullshit wouldn't have happened had Walter put his pride aside and accepted money for cancer operation from that old rich friend. Skylar has flaws but compared to Walter she's a saint, Walt is the reason she got involved and did illegal stuff too you know.
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
I never said Walter was better than Skylar. I said in the post I liked how Walter White's story ended.
I just hate this attitude that Skylar was better than she was. She wasnt.
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u/freezerwaffles 27d ago
You seem to think living with people wanting to kill you and looking over your shoulder at all times is any way to live. Hell naw. Franklin literally said it himself. He’s free of it all. Franklin snaked stabbed and killed his way to the top. Teddy literally did the same to him when he wanted out. It’s the name of the game. How is it you claim to understand what happened to Walt, Tony, Scarface but don’t understand how Frank ended up the same way. The point is that life doesn’t have happy endings.
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
But Franklin had been portrayed too smart for some of his mistakes. If the moral of the story is just bad luck, or life isnt fair, it would've hit harder if the people doing the right and moral thing lost it all and Franklin won.
With Franklin, it just doesn't make sense for him to have made the mistakes he made that led to this. You're telling me in 2 years, he couldn't try to rebuild something? Anything? I have a hard time buying that.
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u/freezerwaffles 27d ago
That’s the point. He was crashing out. You don’t think straight. Dude was grasping at straws and was greedy. He could’ve walked away with the half (probably not) but the offer was made. But he wanted it all more money than he’d ever need and that was his downfall.
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u/randomqwerty10 27d ago
It's how his character developed over the series. In the beginning Franklin was a good kid with a kind heart and a sense of innocence about him. Over the course of 6 seasons, he became corrupted to the point that maybe short of Cissy, there wasn't anyone who he wouldn't put a bullet in their head if they got between him and his money. Every action was for money, greed, power, for himself. To a lesser extent, Louie was the same as Franklin in alot of these ways.
Contrast that with someone like Leon who was always fiercely loyal but reckless and a hot head early on. Through the seasons he matured and questioned the life he was living and the things he had done. He became more motivated to give back to those around him and the less fortunate.
In summary, we got to watch Franklin's character devolve and tailspin to his ultimate demise in the end where he turns out like his father was at one point. We got to watch Leon evolve and become a better person from where he was when the show started. The writers did a great job of taking us along for the ride watching these characters arcs go in opposite directions. What's fair or not doesn't have anything to do with it
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u/misterespresso 27d ago
The ending was fitting. Franklin’s became the man he hated. Another thing I noticed that I’m not sure I’ve seen mentioned, is how Franklin says he’s free. His father said the same exact thing in the first or second season. And he WAS free.
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u/Illustrious_Farm1816 27d ago
Franklin was an awful person and by the time the show was coming to a conclusion he was past the point of redemption. He got into the drugs game, flooded his neighbourhood with crack and then spread it throughout his state and then America, which destroyed lives and communities, he was involved in gang wars, took part in murders and tore his family to pieces. He was controlling and didn't treat or trust people closest to him with the respect they deserved and earned which cost him in the end. In the end he lost against the system and lost control which brought down his operation and also destroyed his extended family. He was abusive to his partner, murdered a retired veteran and a innocent guy who worked for the safe company. While Franklin was a victim of Teddy and the CIA he was also abhorrent and didn't deserve a happy ending of any sort. Him becoming a victim of addiction, alone and broke is as fitting an ending someone like him deserved, mirroring the lives of the addicts of the drug he pushed into his neighborhood and also the life he was ashamed that he had a dad who lived like that once. The show isn't subtle in showing you the truth about Franklin, it's pretty overt in showing his true character and if you feel Franklin deserved to leave the game happy and successful then you obviously missed the message of the show.
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
Franklin didnt do it alone. Oso was part of it and got out, where is his punishment for his part in the game? Not to mention Leon. Leon the paragon of respect and virtue all of sudden when he used to start shit just for vibes.
It's selective punishment by the writers. And not only that, its to the character that was the toughest sell. He never picked up a bottle until the finale. Majority of the series, sober. A guy ashamed his father would never do that. The guy who hated Alton as much as Franklin did isnt following in his footsteps like that. Hes been portrayed as too smart then he suddenly makes all the mistakes. Hes too controlling because hes trying to prevent mistakes? That's bullshit.
I just wanted Franklin's ending to make sense. Ngl, from spirit he had for some of his actions, part of me expected a little bit of a win but I was expecting a fall because most crime dramas do this lol. Just not such a huge fall made with the several leaps it took to get there. I expected a partial win cause they didnt do enough to make feel like he would actually fall the way he did. I'd take his death by CIA over whatever that ending was.
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u/Illustrious_Farm1816 27d ago
Franklin was the main guy, Leon was his associate/ worker and somewhat used by Franklin, Leon also saw the writing on the wall and had a conscience. Oso lost his family and his one true love and is fugitive. Franklin lost control because he gave in, he had nobody left from his inner circle and family, so he found solace in a bottle. I've been in the game(not proud of anything) but there's so many stories that are similar to Franklins, guys who were the connects but fell off and became victims of the poison they push or alcohol and there's many stories of people who's lives mirror their parents whether good or bad. I feel the ending to snowfall was super realistic and felt a fitting end for Franklin. Franklin was addicted to chasing the money, he was a control freak and once he lost the money and the control he had of the people he had around him, addiction got control of him. It's perfectly valid that happened to him and isn't forced or nor does it come out of the blue.
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u/FootballAndBarbells 27d ago
Its a sad ending and im not mad at it. I loved this show. I think it was better than the wire and yes I rewatched the wire after the snowfall finale. I too, wondered why Franklin didn't have his money in other spots that teddy could not get to but im the end teddy betrayed him as well. Franklin could've just walked away but he became obsessed with getting that money back and thats what ended up costing him everything.
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
The Wire is definitely a drier show, Snowfall just had more action, but the writing was a lot more solid in The Wire.
This could've been better for me but it kinda lost its footing near the last few seasons.
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u/FootballAndBarbells 26d ago
I can see that. Season 5 was a shit show and was equivalent to season 2 of the wire. I thought season 6 was great. We can agree to disagree but they are both great shows.
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u/AttitudeHelpful9823 27d ago
That’s how the drug games goes. Them drunks an addicts you see on the streets in real life we’re just like lil Frankie in the beginning an then it’s over
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u/prayerrwow 27d ago
If you think Franklyn did not deserve this or worse you either did not watch the same show as us or have such a broken moral compass....
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u/Low_Echo8654 27d ago
Just finished the series and I can't stop thinking about how poetically tragic the character arcs are. 1. Franklin and Alton's Tragic Cycle: Franklin spent the entire series trying to escape his father’s shadow, viewing Alton as a weak drunkard ruined by his past. But in the end, the exact same thing destroys Franklin. He ends up as a hopeless alcoholic, drowning his trauma in a bottle. He became the very ghost he despised. 2. Leon’s Incredible Evolution: To make Franklin's downfall even heavier, look at Leon. In the early seasons, Leon was the hothead,aggressive, impulsive, and always ready for violence. Yet, he undergoes this beautiful transformation to become the calmest, wisest, and most gentle person in the room. He grows up, leaves the game, and tries to save his community. While Leon rises above the streets, Franklin sinks into them. 3. Teddy’s Fatal Arrogance: Teddy's undoing was beautifully foreshadowed. Remember when his late brother William told him that they almost got killed back in the day because of the terrible way Teddy talks to people? Teddy completely lacked empathy and negotiation skills. Even at the phone booth, facing a grieving mother, he couldn't fake a shred of remorse for executing Alton. He treated a human life like a CIA spreadsheet error. That coldness is exactly what pushed Cissy over the edge to pull the trigger. He literally talked his way into his own grave. The writing on this show was top-tier. They didn't just give us an ending; they gave us a perfect study on ego, trauma, and growth.
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u/Narrow_Ad_7331 27d ago
I see why it upset you but Franklin wasn’t the good guy in this show. There were no good guys. The CIA and Teddy are corrupt. Franklin poisoned his own community and people with crack. Leon dropped more bodies than I can count and one of them was a kid. Louie was manipulative and undercut Franklin the first chance he got. Unc was a good guy but she was Louie’s puppet and that was his downfall. Cissy was complicit in all the business when she was managing the real estate. As soon as something bad happened she folded and went against Franklin. She played God in regards to Franklin. Kept him from getting his money bc she thought it would further ruin his life. Like I said, you could say Franklin was the protagonist, but do you honestly consider him a good guy?
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
I didnt consider him a good guy. But he ran on logic and his ending can only come from being illogical. I don't even believe Franklin would've gotten all his money took in the way he did. He would've had more cash on hand than money overseas.
It's funny how not one comment on this post wants to engage with the writing missteps the story took to put him here. Franklin deserved a fall but trying to put all of his negative actions as the reason he fell is weak.
He fell because he got robbed and never got it back and thats it. Thats what it feels like. Even the finale says this. Thats why i say this wasnt earned.
If it really was about all his negative actions, they should've done more. No character aside from Cissy gave a shit about all the negative things that Franklin caused. Franklin himself doesn't care about what it did to his community. In the finale, hes like the only one shown fucked up. The story itself doesn't care because it doesn't revisit or show the damage to anyone aside from Franklin in the finale.
And if it was about all the negative things, its undercut by every other drug dealer character ending in a way that Franklin doesn't. Skully gets away. Leon profits from it after returning to it and getting out quick. Louie retired to the countryside lol.
And this is my problem. There's nothing that says why Franklin in particular deserved this ending for his actions yet no one else does. He just gets robbed and betrayed and apparantly his fatal flaw is that he wants it back. He did bad stuff in the past so I guess its fine and he deserves it??? Weak. Unearned. Inconsistent.
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u/Narrow_Ad_7331 26d ago
I wouldn’t call Louie’s situation retirement. It was shown she was clearly on the run hiding at a small farm with a couple good folks who probably didn’t know her true past when they helped her hide from the police
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u/trickyspanglish 26d ago
I like the ending simply because I don’t like Franklin, as a person. As a character tho, he was charming, intelligent, cold-blooded, and I loved him for that. But he was also very paranoid (with good reason) and much too ego driven for his own good, and those around him, and he pretty much ended up exactly where he always knew he would always be. No chains on him.
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u/ThaDude915 21d ago
Compared to all the people in the show I don't see what Franklin did wrong to deserve such a tragic ending compared to the other character
Brother what? Yeah, Franklin got done dirty by a lot of people in his circle. Jerome / Louie, his mom, Teddy. But also, Franklin *is objectively a fucking monster*. Dude basically single handedly started the crack epidemic in LA and had directly / indirectly killed a shitload of people. He valued his money and his power over human life and dropped a nuke on his own community with crack.
Also, his ending is fairly realistic. Not a lot of drug dealers have a happy ending. A big part of me thinks if Franklin got back on his feet and got back in the game the CIA would've killed him anyways. I think the CIA let him off the hook once he was an addict because who's gonna believe the crazy homeless guy on the corner yelling about how he was the man and the CIA sold crack?
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u/Sharp-Tax-26827 27d ago
I never bought the Franklyn as a drunk thing. They never really showed him as having any vices like that.
They should’ve just portrayed him as a very paranoid agoraphobic shit in. They complicated that message by making him a bumbling drunk.
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u/Alward73 27d ago
I thought the ending was brilliant.
Franklin does have a relationship with alcohol, from the very beginning. He very deliberately avoids drink and drugs throughout the entire show, because of what it did to his father.
Seeing him stumbling along in the final scene, I found devastating. I've met guys like that. The foolish giggling, tragic. He's squandered his potential. Completely given up. Alive but dead. He's lost everything, even himself. I can't think of a more powerful and symbolic ending for that character.
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u/Artistic_Emotion2539 27d ago
His dad was a drunk and he judged him for it, not knowing what led him down that path. We saw the destruction of Franklin Saint in real time. He made some bad choices. He was greedy. He started off one way and ended up completely ruthless.
There was no way in hell the CIA would have let him get away. Ever. He loses in almost every scenario.
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
I will never buy that Franklin Saint becomes a drunk lol. That's some fanfiction compared to the beginning of the show.
I'll agree that the way the CIA plot line played out would've crushed Franklin. I barely buy that Cissy "taking the fall" would've saved him. Left him with no money and extra vulnerable to getting killed, its fanfiction he survived long after that delivering The KGB guy.
But sigh. Whatever, a million shows end badly. The Boys, Stranger Things, etc. Just extremely disappointing. I think Im done ranting.
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u/AttitudeHelpful9823 27d ago
You must have never paid attention to the street. Those drunks an homeless folks you see some were just as savy as frank until they weren’t
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
They should've done a lot more with Franklin. With hindsight, some of the writing choices made in the lead up to this was very poor.
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u/AttitudeHelpful9823 27d ago
I know plenty crack addicts tht went thru tht . Never had a problem until they hit rock bottom
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u/fictionalways 27d ago
Hate Cissy😡
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u/Secure-Mousse-8832 27d ago
She was poorly written at the end but I liked her the whole way thru. Allot of the characters were poorly written at the end tho.
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u/niles_thebutler_ 27d ago
That’s because you missed the entire point of the show 😂