User Reviews

After a powerful episode nine, which should have been the season's end with a cliffhanger, episode ten was a real letdown.

We never saw Franklin's rescue after he was shot, and his flashback, or life before his eyes, or whatever they were showing was way too long. Then, Fest forward to present day with no segue.

If they would have cleaned it up a bit it would have made a great S4Ep1

I'm frankly stunned. Stunned by the rash of negative reviews!

Many of you who didn't like this episode were looking for quick answers to the obvious questions like what happened to Mel, who found Franklin, and how did he survive. This episode wasn't intended to provide those answers. Instead we were given spider web of connections and back stories that gave us so much more about how Franklin has become the monster he is today. Maybe we will find out more about his shooting and the aftermath next season, or maybe we won't.

I certainly can't blame anyone for being unfulfilled. I ask you to consider and appreciate what the episode tells us, rather than focus on what it leaves out. That is what the writers intended.

Snowfall is an excellent series. Brilliant acting, superb writing, fact-filled story line, and some of the best camera work on television. I'll can't wait for season 4!

I thought the alternate reality was a beautiful showing of the justification for Franklin's path in life.

If you think the alternate reality was meant to show what his life COULD have been if he stayed away from crime, I believe you missed the point.

Rather the alternate reality gave us a look into the harsh realities of what his life WOULD have been like if Franklin did not take control of his destiny. In this alternate reality everyone was worse off, Leon is a hardened criminal, Jerome and Aunt Lu are still dealing weed from their living room, Franklin's mother suffers to pay the bills without the help of Franklin's father, and Franklin himself was kicked out of school forced to head back home to a life of oppression and poverty. He tried to live within the system and the system no matter what was built to fail him.

The alternate reality was used to show us that no matter what path he choose he wouldn't be able to control anything in his life, and if you remember that's exactly what Franklin tells Mel he wants in the first season, freedom. When he wakes up from this alternate reality is when he knows he can't give up. He has to keep fighting for that freedom, because if he gives up he will end up living in the system designed to fail him.

My only complaint is that I wish the episode was longer. It would have been easier to follow and they could have fit more information in there like how Franklin was saved, or where is Mel.

Reading through the negative reviews they're mostly immediate reactions to when the episode first aired. I completely get that after the cliffhangers from episode 9, to get a more off the beaten path episode dealing with an alternate timeline could have felt like a let down.

But now that the show has progressed a couple of seasons, in retrospect it's actually a brilliant episode. What it does is give so much more context to one of the biggest themes of the show.

How the world around you and moments in your life can lead you down different paths. That everything that happens and the choices you make are invariably effected by the small and big events. But also this is a story about America and how its history and sins shape its future.

Franklin's rise to drug kingpin isn't just a story about one kid in the hood being greedy, but the broken system that made becoming this monster the lesser of evils in his mind and how the country and government downright enabled it.

And seeing what could have happened, the things that changed for the better, worse, or even stayed the same gives us more context into who Franklin is and everything that happened. How much of this was a choice or an inevitability.

It's really some fantastic television that doesn't beat you over the head with clear answers or morals. Just another world of events that lead to their own issues and situations even with the same people.

And having a quick resolution of him being shot or not seeing what happened to Mel yet doesn't really matter. Not only because we know the story continues but obviously Franklin wasn't killed. If you thought that would happen you missed the point.

I do feel like older tv dramas and GOT have kind of ruined how we perceive certain scenes in shows now. The former abusing cop out "death" scenes to fabricate stakes and the latter making every character dispensable considered objective quality. But shows with plot armor or none are not inherintly good or bad.

It's all about context. If the show is using this to tell the story or just a cheap gimmick for viewers; and here's it's clearly the former. Franklin being at risk of dying isn't going to make the show better bc it isn't about him really. He's a necessary vehicle in the greater story being told.

And him getting shot is just another consequence and reaction of all these moving parts and another event that leads to a huge changes and new reactions and consequences. It changes Franklin, the game, and everyone around it. It's not a throw away.

A show that I often think about when watching this is The Wire. And that show pulled this stunt as well and no one got mad because the point was not survival of the character, but how an event like this invariable changes everything.

The alternate timeline story sets up the ending as well. That Franklin learning to give into what the system wants from him is the clear next step. Whatever the cause we know it will be good and bad for everyone involved and even the country itself.

I thought game of thrones set the bar high for terrible end of season episodes but no, Snowfall said "hold my beer" and delivered a complete waste of an hour that I'll never get back. 90% of the episode was what? A dream? Some alternate reality that took up the entire episode and they didn't explain. Then they snap back to reality and he's out of the hospital with 5 min left in the episode and they explain absolutely nothing about his shooting??? Holy crap this episode literally makes me want to give up on this series.

After a very dramatic episode 9 episode 10 faltered badly. Franklin never cared about what his dealing drugs was doing to his community while he was making his fortune.Even to the point that he executed his police officer neighbor who had saved his life and was the father of his girlfriend. Now we're supposed to believe that he's coming back from near death to run his drug empire because he's concerned about his community.

This episode was the most beautifully shot short movie I've seen in a long time maybe ever in my opinion. I already love this show but this episode in particular is amazing I love the way they show his backstory in this and the story telling along with the music was perfect. This is by far my favorite episode in the best tv show. When he goes back to his moms after what happened at college all the scenes and the music are beautiful and really touching and his moms words of encouragement but also them both understanding the reality of the situation is so sad but so good. I loved this episode i don't know why others hated.

The way this season ended was in one of the most brilliant and creative ways ever. The easter eggs in this episode, like the first murdered guy by Franklin's family, the guy tried killing Frankling and in season 1 or 2 Leon kills him or seeing Ted and Franklin together in a room and Franklin receiving an invitation to the CIA. How could people say this episode was bad. It's literally a missing puzzle piece to understand what Franklin meant in earlier seasons and to understand why Franklin is and thinks that way. Don't ever touch a series again if you rated this bad. You aren't smart enough to understand.

What a weird way to end a season! Episode Nine was an excellent one, episode ten was good but not as a season finale, maybe if it was an extra after the season it would make much sense.

We really needed a scene to complete what happened when he was shot and laying on the floor.