Where Are Wanda & Leon Now? Plus, Gail Bean on Wanda’s Reinvention

The Drop: A Snowfall Saga Episode 1 “Click Pop” opens in Los Angeles in 1990, with Wanda Bell (Gail Bean) trying to build a new life after everything she went through on Snowfall. She’s back in Compton, working at a used car dealership to make ends meet, but what she really wants is a way into the music business.

For Bean, returning to Wanda meant recognizing just how much she had changed since viewers last saw her.

“Well, it was a mourning of sorts. I felt like I grieved Wanda from Snowfall because, as we grow, we shed some of who we are, right? It’s a reinvention of herself. If you look at 2006 to 2016 of your life, and then 2016 to 2026, it’s the same you, but two completely different versions of you,” Gail Bean explained to TV Insider.

“Sometimes we reminisce about our last decade or era and think, ‘Dang, I really loved her. I really liked her.’ But I had to be open to this new version of Wanda — what it looks like on the other side of addiction, on the upside of having a vision, and being a Black woman in the ’90s trying to rise in the face of misogyny, patriarchy, and a pretty checkered past.”

“So I did grieve the Snowfall Wanda, but I had to be open to this new version of Wanda. When you travel outside of the country — in the ’90s, for someone to go to Ghana, to Africa — you’re different. It changes you. Losing friends changes you. We’ve all lost somebody.”

And Wanda thinks she may have found it. Warning: Spoilers ahead for Season 1 Episode 1 “Click Pop”  of The Drop: A Snowfall Saga.

She discovers Artillery (Simi Sims III), an artist whose tape, “Officer Blackman,” speaks to her on a deeply personal level. Meanwhile, her 19-year-old cousin Lamar Kinsey (Asante Blackk) has the music bug, too, and when he plays Wanda his music, she immediately hears something in him.

Ray Mickshaw/FX

Unfortunately, Lamar’s family has other plans for him.

Meanwhile, Lamar’s skipping school and hanging out at a music store, but simply getting home is dangerous when he has to navigate different gang territories. After he’s chased and forced to hide inside a pharmacy, his brother, James Kinsey (Peyton Alex Smith), comes to his rescue. James wants Lamar to forget about music, get a job, and put some money in his pocket before their grandfather, Big Daddy Casey (Mykelti Williamson), comes down on all of them.

Wanda, however, isn’t ready to let Lamar give up.

She sneaks into Leon Simmons’ (Isaiah John) place to dig through his record collection, giving us a look at where the former couple stands. There’s bad blood from their breakup, but also friendship and love. Africa changed them, and while Wanda found herself there, Leon questions why, after escaping the streets, she now wants to head back toward them with Lamar.

Despite everything that’s changed between them, Bean says Leon remains one of the few people who sees Wanda as more than the worst parts of her past.

“He still remembers and holds on to Wanda Bell from before, and so many people hold a candle to her darkest times. So to have someone who loves you in spite of that, who can truly remember and hold on to the good parts of you, is special. Oftentimes, we have people who hold us to one bad moment, when our bad moments may only be 10% of 100% of our lives.”

Ray Mickshaw/FX

Her opportunity comes through Macroscope Records, where she is interning for former gangster-turned-record executive Darryl “DG” Grant (Brandon Mychal Smith). During a meeting that also includes lawyer Leonard Vance (Eric Balfour), Wanda pitches Artillery. The head of the label, Jenny Favarella (Isidora Goreshter), likes the idea despite Artillery’s reputation as a wildcard and tells DG to get him to come up with a new song — and to take Wanda along for the ride.

Artillery isn’t eager to work with them, dismissing people like DG and Vance as “vultures.” Wanda gets through to him by proving she actually knows his music, including his earliest demos, and telling him how it helped her when she was getting clean.

He gives her one week to find him a song.

Meanwhile, Lamar’s future comes to a head during a Sunday gathering at Big Daddy’s house. The family is angry that he turned down a job with the pastor, especially after he was nearly killed getting home from the music store. Wanda wants to bring Lamar into the music business, but his grandmother isn’t having it.

So Wanda gives the decision to Lamar instead of to his family. “This is about you,” she tells him. “What do you want?”

She gives him a One Way album to sample and tells him they’re making something for Artillery. They need to bring him some real “player sh*t.” But while they’re creating, Artillery is being brutalized by police who don’t take kindly to his song about a fallen comrade. They beat him nearly to death before leaving him in enemy territory.

At Macroscope, Wanda makes another play. She doesn’t just want to find Artillery’s next record; she wants to partner with DG on it. He quickly shuts that down. “My money, my name, my connections,” he tells her as their argument escalates and eventually turns physical. Then comes the news: Artillery is dead. Sort of.

Wanda learns the story was apparently put out there to protect him, meaning there’s still a chance to get him Lamar’s music. But James refuses to let Lamar go. Lamar explodes, furious that his brother won’t let him dream. Eventually, the two talk it out, and James not only relents but drives Wanda and Lamar himself.

Ray Mickshaw/FX

Now all three are in it together. They head straight into Blood territory, where Artillery is hiding out at a packed house party. They can’t get past his manager, and things quickly turn hostile.

Then Lamar puts on his track. The party starts moving. It catches Artillery’s attention, and he emerges from the back room when he hears the beat.  He asks for them to “run that sh*t back,” and Artillery begins rapping over it, creating a song on the spot. It’s the break Wanda and Lamar have been chasing.

Wanda came looking for a new sound. By the end of the premiere, she’s found one, and Lamar may have just found his way into the business with her.

The Drop, Tuesdays, 9/8c, FX and Hulu