SPOILER Teddy was the physical representation of “The Man” and Western Civilizations and destroyed the Saint family. Not Louie.
In the black community I see a lot of people blaming Louie for destroying the Saint family and saying she caused all the issues that led to their downfall. That is completely wrong, and shows that what Louie said in the scene explaining to Jerome why she couldn’t leave the game is 100% true, even in the real world.
When everything is going good, things are successful, and big decisions are being made everyone except black women get the credit or make the decisions. When everything goes wrong black women are usually the 1st scapegoat or the one everybody points the finger at.
Of course this allows the true villain, the true puppet master, Teddy, to get away with the blame. He, and the system behind him, is the true evil behind everything.
HE put the battery in Franklin’s back. HE put the battery in Louie’s back. He used all of their weaknesses against them.
He used Franklin’s greed.
He used Louie’s ambition.
He caused Cissy’s self righteousness to turn into a thirst for revenge.
He used Jerome’s need for love, family, and belonging.
He used tried and true divide and conquer tactics that Western Civilizations have used for centuries to get them to do his bidding.
He left the game, came back, killed Grady, and refused to honor Grady’s price. He did this not for any patriotic reasons or to help the war effort. He did it because in his mind he was thinking “how dare Franklin continue on being successful without him.”
Louie through her ambition went to Teddy behind Franklin’s back. He could’ve easily refused, but he recognized this as a way to exert more control over Franklin and Louie and an opportunity to divide and conquer. So he accepted.
Then Franklin said he was out. Again, Teddy was pissed because how dare Franklin try to go off into the sunset and be successful without him. So what he’d do? Took every penny he had. As Franklin said, he didn’t leave him anything. He didn’t have to do that, but he did it. This led to Franklin having to go to Louie for money and coke, and again with her ambition and need to be in charge she refused, so he robbed her and Jerome, and killed their people.
Teddy accepted the deal that Alton and Cissy would go away and never return to US. Watched them get on the plane, waited till they got comfortable, then went behind Franklin’s back and killed Alton anyway.
Also notice how he had way more respect for Gustavo than Franklin, even though Franklin was making him way more money than Gustavo ever did. The reason being? Because he could control Gustavo. Because Gustavo never tried to go off and be successful on his own, and didn’t have the know how to do it like Franklin. He didn’t try to go legit or start businesses outside of Teddy like Franklin did. That’s why he had way more respect for Gustavo, but even then when he started to see Gustavo drifting away he started to plot against him.
This show was more than a drug dealer show. More than a show about the destruction of the LA black community during the crack epidemic. It was a show about how Western Civilizations have used, controlled, and destroyed black and brown civilizations for centuries. That is why Teddy is the ultimate evil and a representation of Western Civilization. Louie was just a pawn like everybody else.
Also, I hate to call Cissy’s self-righteousness a complete thirst for revenge. Yes she wanted revenge for Teddy killing Alton and seeing her as no threat, but she also saw that there was no way Teddy was going to let Franklin get away with that money. He would’ve dedicated his life to tracking down and destroying Franklin. So she sacrificed herself. There’s a reason why Leon’s journey to Ghana and the White Slave Castles of Sub Sahara Africa were shown. Again showing this was about more than drug dealing.