Snowfall season 2 episode 8 recap: Fall from grace

On Snowfall this week the dark underbelly of the drug world started to show itself, as several storylines moved closer to their peaks.

Snowfall didn’t leave the audience in suspense for too long. Soledad brought the DEA in on Gustavo almost right as the episode opened. Lucia did warn him, but he wasn’t able to get away in time. How long will it be until he turns Lucia in? We’ll see.

Franklin needed more room for his business, and since he had a whole hell of a lot of cash, he just bought a house. Actually he bought two, and gave one to each of his friends.

Gustavo wasn’t going to give Lucia up that quickly. He was pretty stoic under the interrogation, Soledad never got physical with him, but she did unleash some pretty nasty threats. Essentially she promised to have the gang members who were already in prison beat and kill him, so her department wouldn’t have any of the blood on their hands. He still seemed unmoved, so what would get through to him?

During the interrogation Lucia called, trying to find Gustavo. She, on the other hand, was visibly upset when she realized he had been captured and went to seek out help. And clear her name, all in one fell swoop. She just had to prove the recipe was good, by cooking some up.

Franklin and his mother may have truly reached an impasse. In episode 7, remember, he had paid off her debt and her mortgage, so she and Franklin’s father wouldn’t lose their house. But her disapproval of Franklin’s dealings (both the illegality and the drug part) went so deep that she refused to accept it. It seemed like Franklin finally broke at the end, telling her that he didn’t “give a f**k” if she gave him the house and then ended up on the street.

Teddy found out his old boss had been fired, and wanted to know why. The trick was finding someone willing to tell him. His level of favor in the department went that high in the first season, and it didn’t look like things had gotten a whole lot better. When he finally found someone who could (theoretically) answer his questions about his old boss it turned out to be Julia, his ex-wife from season 1. Needless to say, the conversation didn’t go too smoothly.

Lucia bought her life with that recipe, but not her happiness.

Franklin and Jerome were in their kitchen talking when Aunt Louie came in, spilling her plans to escape the area, at least for a while. Jerome tried to convince her to stay. But before anything could be settled, someone called Franklin with the news that Leon (and presumably Wanda) had broken into their ‘kitchens,’ and taken ‘as much as they could carry’ of the drugs there. When they tracked Wanda down, she admitted she had been stealing/using.

Lucia, clearly feeling lost, actually called Soledad (Lorena) to turn herself in. It didn’t seem like she had confessed to shooting Pedro, but Soledad (Lorena) assumed he was dead already. When she and Gustavo met up with Lucia, Lucia came quietly. Gustavo almost looked disappointed in her. Eventually they got to negotiating for their release, promising to help track down (it seemed) Teddy and Matt in exchange for their freedom. Gustavo was worried that others would see them as ‘sneaks.’ Lucia wasn’t concerned. After all, the first betrayal, from Pedro, came from inside her own family. It would take a lot to top that.

Teddy learned some of what he wanted to know about James’ departure, but it wasn’t to his liking. And he didn’t learn enough (or really anything) about the current situation. That would be concerning for him because the whole ‘use drug money to fund insurgents in another country’ would be frowned upon, just a bit. James had some sort of document/file that was supposed to clear Teddy’s name, but with James out of the picture, that might be too.

It has been kind of amazing (and not in a good way) that Snowfall managed to get this far without really showing addiction to/withdrawal from the drugs. That is an unavoidable reality of the kind of drug culture pictured on the show, but isn’t glamorous enough (apparently), so it wasn’t shown. A bit of that was included this week with Wanda. After admitting to stealing/using some of the drugs they got from Franklin (apparently for a long time, too) she was cut off. She went a little, not crazy really, but unreasonable, and Leon ended up handcuffing her inside a closet so she couldn’t steal any more. That wasn’t really the best look for the show, but at least it showed that this whole drug thing can create problems as well. It doesn’t always solve them.

Kevin and Leon got into a bit of an argument after Kevin found out that Franklin had bought the houses under his company’s name, and didn’t really give the houses to them. Leon pointed out that it wasn’t like they had left anything behind for Franklin. But Kevin couldn’t be sure. He was the one who gave Lucia the recipe in the last episode, so not wanting to depend on Franklin’s good will makes sense (for him.)

In an effort to convince Aunt Louie to stick around, Jerome stole the bench they ate on for their first date and brought it to the front porch. A nice piece of nostalgia. He also gave her half of what he had earned (that week? that month?) as a show that they were partners.

Teddy went to a meeting with some government official to try and give his whole operation a bit of breathing room. He asked for some investigation (probably the one into the Villanuevas) to be shut down. To make that happen, he offered to turn over the identities of two cartel operatives. This was probably the two people he linked up to in Columbia/Nicaragua.

Soledad (Lorena) was trying to interrogate Lucia, without much success. Then Franklin paged her. Lorena didn’t know who Franklin was, so the ensuing phone call opened up a new door for her. Lucia told Franklin where she thought Kevin was headed, telling him to hurry. Then she and Lorena headed there as well.

Upon their arrival at the park, Lorena tried to get Lucia to come with her and point Franklin out. Lucia refused, so she got handcuffed to the car so she couldn’t run away.

Lucia and Lorena had arrived at the bottom of the hill, but Franklin and his friends showed up at the top. Kevin, knowing (or at least believing) that his friend’s killers were there refused to wait and headed down the hill. Franklin followed him, and pulled a gun when Kevin refused to stop. His arms were visibly shaking, and Kevin didn’t take him too seriously — stopping his charge down the hill, but then starting again.

Kevin thought he saw one of the killers and fired, but missed, and that alerted Lorena (and the park at large) to their presence. It was only then that Franklin actually fired his gun, hitting Kevin in the back. Lorena found him, still alive, but left him to pursue Franklin and Leon up the hill. Of course both of them got to the top and escaped.

Lucia might not have been so lucky. She wasn’t part of the firefight, obviously, but one of the gang members at the park saw her as he was escaping, and seemed to recognize her. But the consequences of her actions will have to wait.

This week’s episode definitely began to show the less glamorous side of drug dealing, and of using drugs in general. It still didn’t take that as far as it really could have (should have) but at least all the characters aren’t getting off scot-free all the time. It also seems like all the storylines are coming to a head just in time for a dramatic close to the season. But you have to assume Franklin at least will get away, because the show needs some intrigue for a season 3, and life inside either prison or a rehab clinic isn’t going to do it.