'Snowfall' Season 3 finale ‘Other Lives’ sees Franklin decide to stay and set right wrongs after his near-death experience
Spoilers ahead for 'Snowfall' season 3 episode 10 'Other Lives'
The sign of brilliance, to judge a piece of art - be it a book, painting or a piece of music - is how deeply it moves you. It could be that the piece of art inspired you, evoked in you the passion for something new or it could just be the mere beauty that takes your breath away.
This was present in the finale of 'Snowfall' Season 3. Flaws in the 10th episode? There wasn't the time to dig into them while marveling at how deftly Franklin Saint's (Damson Idris) side on the moral scales was handled.
We last saw Franklin getting shot by Melody (Reign Edwards) because she wanted revenge for her father Andre Wright's (Marcus Henderson) death. She was sure Franklin was the one who killed her father, she did not think twice before shooting the man she once loved.
He was left to bleed on the floor and his fate was not revealed in the last episode. The first question the finale needed to answer was if Franklin survived. Was he taken to the hospital, did he suffer major damages and what about the business?
All of it hinged on Franklin's safety. Sure, the FX show was renewed for a fourth season which meant there was a fair chance Franklin would return, but what would be his attitude towards the business? Is he still fine with ruining the lives of so many people, his people? The finale, however, did not answer any of these questions directly.
Instead, the writers drew parallels to the life of the Frankin that we know versus a Franklin Saint who had taken the more acceptable route for a black man desperate to survive and come up in the world. After a brief recap, we see Franklin seated in a physics lecture where the professor is giving them a talk about the multiverse theory and this is the first clue that indicates what we are seeing is one of the possible paths Franklin could have taken.
So, was he successful there? Franklin, on a scholarship in a college with a majority white population, is seen as a threat and things do not turn out well. He is treated unfairly, he is a victim of racial prejudice and it gets so bad the pent up rage the boy feels bursts out one fine day and he is kicked out of college.
In this version of Franklin's life, a CIA agent even tries to recruit him to work for the government because diversity is the need of the hour and hiring Franklin could help the government agency. His best friend, his uncle and aunt - all of them live the lives Franklin wanted to run away from and yet life led him to that same place.
It is towards the end that we understand this version of reality was one of Franklin's many nightmares. He is second-guessing every decision he ever made and all of it still leads Franklin to the same place - a neighborhood that is decaying.
The Franklin who was shot by Melody survives and he decides to stay and fight for his people. At a time when gang wars are rampant in the neighborhood and his mother Cissy (Michael Hyatt) is hell-bent on taking him away from the business to keep him safe, Franklin realizes it would all be for nothing if he left now.
Despite having earned enough money to abandon the neighborhood and built a comfortable life elsewhere, Franklin is not satisfied. This time, he isn't influenced by power, fortune or fame. He simply wants to stop running.
It is the reason he seeks out Reed Thompson (Carter Hudson) and directly asks him for the federal government's cooperation. He tells Reed he is now ready to fight, fight for people whose lives are affected because of the gang wars, and the lives that he helped ruin in the first place with rock.
He offers to officially become a CIA asset who can help the government curb gang wars. He says he did not realize the extent of damage selling cocaine would do, and now, he is also not okay with being anyone's "slave." So, in the end, Franklin asks Reed if he would join hands with him.
What happens next? Well, we will have to wait for season 4 to air.
