Sumith Prasad
FX’s crime drama series ‘Snowfall’ revolves around Franklin Saint, who grows from a marijuana dealer to the kingpin of Los Angeles’ drug scene in the 1980s. Franklin takes control of his own life after the departure of his father Alton Saint from their family, only for the latter to live in the streets. When Franklin becomes one of the most influential individuals in the City of Angels, Alton finds his way back to the family and his wife Sharon “Cissy” Saint. Alton disappears from Franklin’s empire unexpectedly after the fourth season of the show, making one wonder what really happened to him. Is he really dead? Let’s find out! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Alton’s Final Stand and Disappearance
Alton is dead. In the fourth season, Irene Abe, a reporter at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, investigates the death of Detective Andre Wright by digging deep into the murder’s connection with the drug scene of Los Angeles and the CIA. Meanwhile, Alton has been running Edgewood Shelter, a place for the homeless and the victims of the crack cocaine epidemic of the time. When he learns that his son Franklin is funding the shelter with the money he gets by selling cocaine, flooded in the city by the CIA for funding a war against communism in Nicaragua, Alton stands against the same. He joins hands with Irene to expose the CIA’s connections with the drug scene of LA through Theodore “Teddy” McDonald.
After Irene gets killed, Alton speaks on air about the CIA flooding the city with cocaine. As a former Black Panther, Alton doesn’t tolerate the reality that the government is killing its own citizens to fight a war away from the country. He reveals Teddy’s alias “Reed Thompson” on air and warns the Agency that he will expose the real identity of the CIA agent who is selling cocaine to the dealers in LA if they don’t stop ruining the lives of the citizens. Teddy realizes how his entire operation will come to a premature end if Alton continues to speak. In the fourth season finale, Alton and Teddy confront each other in the presence of Franklin and Cissy.
Teddy aims his gun at Alton, only for Cissy to intervene. She proposes leaving for Cuba with her husband so that Teddy doesn’t have to worry about Alton exposing him anymore. Knowing that it isn’t wise to kill Franklin’s parents in front of him, Teddy allows Cissy and Alton to flee from the United States to Cuba. Cissy then returns to LA after Alton’s apparent “disappearance” after more than a year. She thinks that Teddy didn’t keep his word, which makes her consider the possibility of the latter killing her husband. Since there isn’t evidence to believe the same, she doesn’t become completely hopeless about Alton returning to her alive one day.
In the eighth episode of the sixth season, Franklin captures Teddy to retrieve the $73 million the latter stole from him. When Cissy talks to the former CIA agent, he reveals that Alton isn’t dead. He adds to her that he took her husband to a Puerto Rican prison and imprisoned him there to silence him. Since there wasn’t any blood or dead body present where Alton was last seen, Cissy believes that her husband is really alive. However, Teddy has been lying to Franklin’s mother about her husband’s imprisonment in Puerto Rico to use her as a way to escape from Franklin. Teddy thinks that Cissy will rescue him from her son in return for her husband.
After striking a deal with Franklin to gain his freedom back, Teddy reveals the truth to Cissy. Realizing that Cissy won’t be of any use to him, he tells her that he shot and killed Alton. Cissy then kills Teddy, exacting her vengeance on him. As Franklin and others have been believing, Alton is dead for good.
