Spoiler warning: We’re talking about Wanda and Leon, Lamar’s music dreams, Artillery’s attack, and how Episode 1 ends.
Baby, The Drop: A Snowfall Saga opens in 1990 Los Angeles, and Wanda Bell has traded one hustle for another.
No drugs.
No Franklin Saint empire.
This time?
She wants into the music business.
Episode 1, “Click Pop,” makes it clear pretty quickly that Wanda survived everything we watched her go through on Snowfall, but surviving isn’t enough for her anymore.
She wants something of her own.
And I already know this woman is about to stress everybody out trying to get it.
Wanda Has a New Dream
Wanda is clean and back in Compton, working at a used-car dealership while also interning at a record label.
Selling cars pays the bills.
But music is where she sees her future.
She has her eye on a local rapper named Artillery, whose music meant something to her while she was getting her life back together.
Wanda believes he could be big.
The people above her at the label?
Not nearly as convinced.
So Wanda does what Wanda does.
She keeps pushing.
Eventually she gets enough attention for Artillery that her boss, DG, gives her an opening.
If she can help bring Artillery something worth listening to, maybe there’s a deal to be made.
And suddenly Wanda has herself a mission.
Lamar Has the Talent Wanda Needs
That brings us to Wanda’s young cousin Lamar Kinsey.
Lamar loves music.
His family loves the idea of him doing almost anything else.
They want him working, making reliable money and staying out of trouble.
Honestly, I understand them.
Because simply getting home from the record store requires this boy to calculate which gang territory he can safely walk through.
At one point Lamar ends up running for safety and has to call his older brother James to come get him.
James is furious.
To him, music is not worth getting killed over.
Lamar sees it differently.
This is what he believes he is supposed to do.
And Wanda sees that same hunger.
So while everybody else is telling Lamar to be realistic, Wanda is telling him:
Make the record.
Wanda and Leon Are No Longer Together
And yes, we need to discuss Wanda and Leon.
Because if you came over from Snowfall expecting these two to still be living happily ever after?
Sorry.
They’ve separated.
Leon is now running a free legal clinic and trying to help repair some of the damage the streets caused.
Wanda is heading straight toward an industry that still overlaps with those same streets.
So naturally Leon thinks this is a terrible idea.
Wanda even ends up sneaking into his place because she needs something from his record collection.
Imagine being separated from somebody and they still feel comfortable climbing through your window.
Leon should probably update his security.
But their scenes also make it obvious that the feelings between them are not completely dead.
The problem is that they want very different lives right now.
Leon wants distance from street chaos.
Wanda sees music as the road to her future.
That conflict is definitely coming back.
Wanda Gets in Front of Artillery
Wanda eventually gets a chance to pitch Artillery.
The man is immediately suspicious of the label.
And I don’t blame him.
Here come business people talking about contracts and money while you’re the one creating the music.
Artillery isn’t impressed by corporate talk.
But Wanda gets his attention because she actually knows his work.
She understands what he’s trying to do.
That matters.
He gives her a challenge:
Bring him a track that makes him want to work with them.
Okay then.
Wanda knows exactly who she needs.
Lamar.
She gives Lamar an old record to sample and tells him they’re going to make something for Artillery.
Now we have a plan.
Which means something terrible has to happen immediately.
Artillery Is Brutally Attacked
Artillery’s music has made him enemies, especially because he has been speaking about police violence.
He is attacked and badly beaten.
Then word starts spreading that he is dead.
Wanda’s entire opportunity appears to disappear overnight.
Except…
Artillery isn’t actually dead.
The story was put out while he recovered.
So now Wanda has another problem:
She and Lamar have a track.
Artillery is alive.
But reaching him means walking directly into a dangerous situation.
Naturally, Wanda says let’s go.
Of course she does.
James Finally Lets Lamar Choose
James initially refuses to let Lamar go.
And honestly, this might be the most responsible decision anybody makes in the episode.
But Lamar finally stands up to his brother.
He’s tired of everybody deciding his future for him.
He knows music is dangerous.
He also knows he doesn’t want to wake up years later wondering what could have happened if he’d tried.
James finally hears him.
Instead of stopping Lamar, he agrees to drive Wanda and Lamar himself.
That felt important.
James isn’t suddenly saying:
“The streets are safe now!”
He’s saying:
“If you’re determined to do this, I’m not letting you do it alone.”
Big difference.
The Ending Gives Wanda Her First Real Break
Wanda, Lamar and James make it to the house where Artillery is recovering.
Nobody wants to let them near him.
Wanda keeps trying to talk her way through.
It’s not working.
Finally, Lamar does the one thing that matters.
He plays the beat.
The room starts reacting.
Then Artillery hears it from another room.
He comes out.
They play it again.
And Artillery starts rapping over Lamar’s track.
There it is.
That’s the moment Wanda has been chasing the entire episode.
She hasn’t built a record label.
Lamar isn’t famous.
Nobody has made a dollar yet.
But they got the right beat in front of the right artist.
Sometimes that’s how everything starts.
My Take
“Click Pop” was a good premiere because it doesn’t spend the whole episode trying to remind us how much we loved Snowfall.
Wanda has history, but this feels like a new chapter.
And I like putting her at the center.
She survived addiction and some of the worst years of her life, and now she’s ambitious enough to want more than simply being grateful she made it out.
Lamar also works for me because he gives Wanda somebody whose dream she can recognize.
My biggest concern?
There are a LOT of new names, family relationships and music-business pieces introduced quickly.
I had to mentally start arranging everybody in assigned seats.
But the ending brought everything together nicely.
Wanda believes she knows talent.
Lamar believes he has talent.
And now Artillery has heard it too.
SoulNeekTV Rating: 4 out of 5 Tea Cups ☕☕☕☕
A solid beginning that gives Wanda a real reason to lead this new story.
And after all those years surviving the crack game, she has chosen the music business.
So basically she found herself a whole new group of people to argue with.