Snowfall 1×02 Review: “Make Them Birds Fly”

Worlds start to collide in Snowfall’s second episode, “Make Them Birds Fly.” During the premiere, we were introduced to three main storylines. However, the second episode focused mainly on Franklin and his journey from slinging weed for his uncle to selling cocaine for a slightly deranged man.

One of the key elements that made the premiere great was the use of music. The intro to “Make Them Birds Fly” starts with Nina Simone’s sultry “Feeling Good” as it shows Franklin counting his cash from his first sell. The lyrics, “it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me” parallel with Franklin’s storyline as it is a new day and a new life now that he’s graduated from weed to cocaine. While Franklin is dealing with the newfound confidence about him, he is still very naive when it comes to the business. As “Feeling Good” fades away, Franklin takes his cash and, on impulse, buys a motorcycle right off a guy in the street.

Franklin rolls up to Avi’s home expecting to be praised for selling a kilo in a night. Instead, Avi barely acknowledges him and has Frankin drive one of his injured men to the hospital. Typical grunt work and not what Franklin expected. While Avi is impressed, Franklin is the low guy on the totem pole and he also isn’t the type of drug dealer to give someone a gold star for doing their job. But because he needs Franklin to hit the South Side community, he gives him another kilo to sell again.

While Franklin thinks he’s gotten his new role figured out, Teddy is still learning the ways of his as an undercover operative. He’s having to battle with Alejandro to have more say in the operation after taking over for former CIA Operative Logan Miller, who died after overdosing on the product.

Teddy was a little rusty when he first met Avi, leading Alejandro to question if Teddy should be a part of the meet-ups at all. After that, Teddy takes charge by setting up a stash house, having Alejandro count the money and prepare the coke to transfer. Teddy pulls off his first meeting with Lucia and even goes back to convince Avi that they can actually be partners in this game. It was nice to see Teddy’s storyline develop more from the basic introductions in the premiere. Between the other characters, Teddy’s storyline is the most complicated and has potential to rival with Franklin’s as the focal point in this show.

“Make Them Birds Fly” did Gustavo justice after barely having any screen time in the premiere. The Mexican wrestler turned cartel lackey proved his worth when he went face-to-face with Pedro and Lucia. Instead of handing over the money–they had him steal from Ramiro, Pedro’s father–he handed them a family picture. He wanted to make sure he could trust them since Pedro was stealing from his own flesh and blood. It was nice to see a character mostly forgotten about during the premiere make a name for himself.

He proves his worth to Lucia after hearing her side of the story. She even trusted Gustavo to go to the meet-up with Teddy and allowed him to watch over the cocaine while she and Pedro went to the cartel meeting. Lucia definitely trusts Gustavo, but it’s clear Pedro doesn’t. It will be interesting to see where their future leads. Gustavo has already killed one person, by accident, for Lucia, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he did it again.

As the music set the tone for the beginning of “Make Them Birds Fly,” it definitely set the tone in the end as Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” plays as Franklin leaves Claudia’s club. His can’t-touch-me-attitude catches up to him after yet another successful sale. Behind the club, Franklin gets jumped, robbed, and left bleeding in the street. In five seconds he has lost his money, motorcycle, and swagger. While a horrible and an it-was-bound-to-happen incident, this should toughen Franklin up and teach him that he really isn’t untouchable.

The lyrics, “when the day lies ahead of me, seems impossible to face. When someone else instead of me, always seems to know the way” fade out as a disheveled Franklin looks up from the cement. This could foreshadow Franklin needing to partner with someone since going at it alone is no longer the answer.