Snowfall, FX's excellent piece of historical fiction, is about to enter its sixth and final season. There are many ways that Franklin Saint's Walter White-esque journey from neighborhood dealer to kingpin could conclude, especially after seeing his empire decimated at the end of Season 5. Many similar Prestige TV series featuring antiheroes end with that antihero's demise. But as likely an option as Franklin's death is, it's not the only option.
There are other choices for Snowfall's final season -- and they come from a place of reality. While the show's storylines are fictional, the series is inspired by a real period of time. Its characters are reportedly influenced by actual people. When one looks at the truth, it gives a few hints about where Franklin's story may ultimately end up when Snowfall joins Mayans M.C. among FX's concluded originals.
RELATED: Breaking Bad Characters Reunite Over a New Kind of Product in PopCorners Ad
Snowfall Is Partly Based on a True Story
Franklin's rise begins in the summer of 1983 when he learns how to make crack and begins to build out his game from a few friends to a burgeoning organized crime syndicate. He develops relationships with arms dealers and the CIA. He involves his family, some reluctantly, in his business. Although the show occasionally gets a little out there -- like when Franklin and Oso were trapped in a tiger's cage in Season 5, Episode 6, "The Iliad, Part 2" -- it generally sticks closer to things that did or could have happened in real life.
The late John Singleton based the series on the dichotomy of his youth growing up in South Central while going to school in the more affluent area of Tarzana, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The characters were reportedly inspired by people he knew growing up. But there's another notorious figure who claims the show stole his life story. Freeway Rick Ross told Shirley's Temple that he and Singleton had been working on a movie together. Also a Los Angeles native, Ross built up a cocaine empire in the '80s that expanded across the country. Like Franklin Saint, Ross invested his profits in property and is alleged to have sold cocaine for the CIA in order to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. How these stories developed, particularly the latter, suggests a few outcomes for Season 6.
RELATED: The Mandalorian's Moff Gideon Isn't Scarier Than Breaking Bad's Gus Fring
True Elements Foreshadow Franklin's Season 6 Fate

Snowfall has had nearly a year between the announcement of its final season and its airing. As such, fans should be able to expect a well-thought-out and hopefully satisfying conclusion, like Breaking Bad's character-altering Season 5. While Franklin's demise would be the obvious outcome, he is waging war against his family and the CIA -- both options being life-threatening. He is also ignoring the advice of his confidants and building a new gang of killers, which further frays the horse hair on the sword of Damocles hanging above his head. Death might be predictable, but it's also not implausible.
Another possible outcome would be leaning into the Freeway Rick Ross angle and having Franklin arrested in a sting operation -- with the series closing as the door to a cell closes on him. That would be interesting as it is unclear how Franklin would do in prison. Would he be seen as a leader or have a target on his back? Maybe he works the law books and like Ross before him, finds a loophole that lets him out of prison and writes his memoir. Such an ending proved wildly successful for Better Call Saul, and it would line up perfectly with Snowfall's feel of being based in reality.
The least likely option for Franklin's fate is that he wins the war, gets out of the business and continues to build his real estate empire with his mom and girlfriend and child. That would be a satisfactory conclusion, but by the end of Season 5, the only characters who have a real chance of surviving with their money and freedom intact are Leon and Wanda -- an ironic turnaround for a once violent thug and a former crack addict. Whether Franklin goes out in a blaze of glory like Walter White and Jax Teller or faces the music like Jimmy McGill, Snowfall deserves an ending that honors Singleton's legacy and inspirations.
Snowfall Season 6 premieres Feb. 22 at 10:00 p.m. on FX.