Mid-way through Season 2, Emily Rios' Snowfall character Lucia just disappears, leaving fans wondering all these years later, where she went and what happened.
Snowfall ran for six seasons on FX, chronicling the crack epidemic that swept across Los Angeles (and much of America) during the 1980s.
The series starred Damson Idris (who was once rumored to take over as Kang in the MCU) as Franklin Saint, a young drug kingpin who aims to plant his flag in the hyper-competitive drug trade in South Central LA.
Where Did Lucia Go in Snowfall?
The fate of Lucia (played by Emily Rios) in Snowfall has long been the subject of debate among the show's devoted community.
Lucia debuted in Season 1 of the hit FX series as the niece of an ultra-powerful Mexican crime boss and the heiress of the internationally-known Villanueva Cartel.
In the show's first two seasons, Lucia and her family served as a crucial part of the its ever-evolving narrative. This included seeing her recruit the infamous ex-wrestler El Oso and breaking off from her drug cartel family to start her own cocaine smuggling business.
However, her time on the series came to an end in Season 2, Episode 9. This particular chapter in the Snowfall story saw Lucia working with the DEA under the promise of immunity should she offer up some names.
While reluctant at first, the drug queen pin seemingly offers up the name of Damson Idris' Franklin Saint before being set free by authorities.
The last fans saw of the character, she was packing up her things to make a break for it and seemingly fade into anonymity. This, however, did not go as planned as Lucia and her partner Gustavo were cornered by a man with a knife.
She chooses to fight back against the man, pulling a gun, letting off a shot, and wounding the man in the process. While bleeding, her assailant gets away running off having stabbed Gustavo and leaving him for dead.
This is the end of Lucia's Snowfall story, with the character never being seen or heard from again in the series.
The last audiences get of her it is mentioned that as Gustavo is taken to hospital, she had fled to Miami with little other information offered beyond that.
Even as the show came to an end in 2023, it failed to resolve her story in any significant way, leaving the character in Season 2 and forgetting about it.
Following Season 2, the series would take a drastic story turn, going from an ensemble drama that focused on several different planes of drug-dealing action to putting the spotlight almost solely on Damson Idris' Snowfall character.
The Real Reason for Lucia's Snowfall Exit
The real reason for Lucia leaving Snowfall in Season 2 has never been publicly disclosed.
It is not as though there was any major controversy between actress Emily Rios and the production (at least in public), or her story had come to its long-awaited end. Sure, Lucia's story has some sort of conclusion, but it certainly feels like one of the show's biggest hanging threads over six years later.
While no official reason was given by the production, some have speculated Rios' departure may have been so that she could focus on sobriety.
Shortly after her time on the series (about a year later) Rios posted on Instagram, sharing she had been sober for a year, potentially offering further credence to this popular theory:
"Of all the roads I’ve traveled the journey back to myself has been the most magnificent. #ONEyear"
In the lead-up to the show's series finale, series co-creator Dave Andron commented on whether Lucia would come back in any, especially as her story related so closely to the series' long-time character El Oso (via Deadline).
"Regarding Lucia, I think Oso’s story has moved on," Andron posited, adding Oso always wanted a family, and realized Lucia was "not that person:"
"Regarding Lucia, I think Oso’s story has moved on. What he always wanted was a family and he thought with Lucia he was going to get it but he realized she was not that person. Oso has found the thing he wants that was really important to him. I know it’s frustrating to not have all the answers but Lucia just isn’t his person anymore."
In her time since leaving Snowfall, Rios has continued to act, making her comeback to the craft, starring alongside The Penguin's Cristin Milioti in 2021's Made for Love.
Snowfall is now streaming on Hulu.
