‘Snowfall’ Season 6 Episode 9 Synopsis: The Biggest Takeaways

(WARNING: Spoilers for this week’s episode of snowfall see below.)

snowfall is just one episode away from officially closing the book in a series that will rank as one of the best of the last decade. In its final season snowfall left no stone unturned and left no character untouched. Fans are still stunned by the death of Jerome in episode six, which follows notable departures from the season including Teddy’s father, Veronique’s mother and Wanda. Franklin attacked his family and was attacked by them, all in an effort to get back his stolen $73 million. In episode eight, Franklin got one step closer to his money, which brings us to the penultimate episode of snowfall season six.

In the ninth episode of snowfall In season six we see what Franklin and Gustavo decided to do with Teddy and the KGB agent. Both are still alive, which may disappoint some fans, but it’s all part of Franklin’s plan. Teddy is of no value to Franklin if he’s dead, so the best Franklin can do is torture him into revealing the account numbers for the $73 million. Teddy and the KGB agent are both handcuffed to a chair in a warehouse where they spend days while Franklin, Cissy, Veronique and Leon work to get the information they need from Teddy by torturing him. It starts with Franklin forcibly playing Russian roulette with Teddy, but when that fails, thanks to some advice from Veronique, he ups the ante. Franklin then tortures Teddy by pouring hot fat on his chest, and after a few incidents, Teddy finally reveals the information Franklin has been searching for all of Season 6…but not without first making a deal. It looks like things are going to end well for Franklin and Teddy, but an angry and frustrated Cissy throws it all away by shooting and killing Teddy seconds before Franklin can wire the money to Teddy.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways we have after Season 6 Episode 9, Sacrifice:

Franklins $73 million A $37 million safety net would not have saved him

In the middle of this week’s episode, Cissy stops Franklin in the middle of his torturous killing spree with Teddy and begs him to stop everything. Cissy suggests Franklin hand Teddy over to the KGB while they flee the country. It’s a confusing proposition for Franklin, who can’t seem to understand why Cissy suddenly wants to let go of the money. What he doesn’t know is that Teddy told her that Alton is still alive and can be found in a Puerto Rican prison. Despite this, Franklin makes a deal with Teddy to take only half of the $73 million in exchange for Teddy’s freedom and right to live another day. Teddy promises not to tell anyone about his kidnapping and torture, and although Franklin seems to think so, we know better than to trust Teddy. Nothing would have stopped Teddy from having Franklin arrested once he was free. Furthermore, Teddy’s survival is not only a risk for the Saint family, but also for Gustavo. So much so that he made Franklin swear that Teddy would be killed after the money was returned. $73 million — well, about $37 million — and that alone wouldn’t have been enough to provide the safety net Franklin and his family needed. I’m not sure if he knew that, but it doesn’t matter now because Teddy will take that $73 million to his grave and leave Franklin in the same position he started the season.

Teddy’s influence killed him

Throughout Season 6 and even previous seasons, Teddy used the leverage he had against the others snowfall characters as a weapon against them. That lever only worked because it was feared by them, and Teddy knew that, so he made sure to use it frequently against the likes of Franklin and Louie. All in all, that leverage did him more harm than good. It killed his father, kidnapped him, tortured him to the extreme, and killed him. Instead of using it to get what he wanted faster and get himself off the op to safer ground, Teddy just wanted to keep the Saint family under his thumb. It’s no surprise that someone, namely Cissy, went berserk and retaliated with an attack that ended things once and for all. Leverage is something to use, not keep, simply because its use disappears once the opposition becomes fearless. Cissy lost her fear when Teddy told her he shot Alton twice. Cissy then returned the favor directly to Teddy without hesitation. So much for that leverage.

Cissy has finally stopped living under Franklin’s rule

Since the peak of Franklin’s partnership with Teddy, Cissy hasn’t been able to do much to stop Franklin from throwing himself headlong into the drug game. She tried to talk him out of it, refusing to accept money from him and more to eventually accept his new lifestyle and grow closer to him where she felt she could protect him. Once the decision was made, especially with Franklin’s real estate business alive, Cissy found herself under Franklin’s rule. Sure, Franklin often remained respectful of her, but her influence wasn’t enough to sway him from things he had set out to do, which was more or less the case for those around Franklin. The most recent example of this is seen in episode nine when Franklin rejects his mother’s pleas that he let Teddy go in order to just pack up and flee the country. For the first time in a long time, Cissy refused to obey Franklin’s orders. This time, she took it upon herself to make sure her family and other loved ones were safe. And the only way to do that, in her eyes at least, was to kill Teddy.

Franklin couldn’t see past the money

All Franklin wanted was his $73 million back. Nothing could stop or distract him from getting it back, which he boastfully explains in Sacrifice. “Hear me very clearly,” he says to Cissy and Leon in the episode. “I’ll never give up. Never. I’ll get my damn money back.” Franklin’s pursuit of his money prevented him from adequately mourning the death of his uncle Jerome. It kept him from seeing the perspectives of someone who could make his decisions questioned in the slightest. It prompted him to curse Veronique’s mother earlier this season, and it prompted him to kill Teddy’s grandfather, although that’s something most viewers won’t object to him doing in season six from snowfall, Franklin couldn’t look beyond the money, and while the journey there seemed to have been worth it when he had the chance to get it, you can’t help but run through the what-ifs and could-haves of his options , now that the 73 million dollars lay is long gone. Regardless of what they were, we can agree that in all of this, Franklin couldn’t see past that 8-digit number. Maybe things could have gone a bit differently if he’d considered other options instead of waiting until irreversible damage was done to take half of what was taken.

New episodes of Snowfall are available on FX on Wednesdays at 10pm EST/PST.