The following contains spoilers from Snowfall Season 6, Episode 3, "The Door of No Return," which debuted Wednesday, March 1 on FX.

Snowfall regularly employs jarring depictions of violence that sear into the viewer's brain. But in Season 6, Episode 3, "The Door of No Return," the show finds more resonance in the quiet. Taking a trip to Ghana, Leon and Wanda find the peace and harmony they desperately want together -- yet they both know in their hearts that this euphoria will soon come to an end.

Leon's evolution may not redeem him for the wrongs he has committed -- not least of which was the accidental murder of a child -- but it has made him a better, more thoughtful man. Wanda's redemption is easier to get behind as she was more victim than aggressor, though she is confronted with the sins that left her outside her own family. Their time in Ghana further opens their minds and makes them more mature as they learn about their history, which brings to bear the generational trauma that they have both experienced.

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On a wall in a marketplace in Elmina, Leon sees the J.J. Rawling quote "The errors of the past must be corrected in order to re-establish the confidence of our people in a secure future." The words bring him another step closer to knowing what he must do. Staying in Africa with Wanda may be what they both desire, but Leon believes it is his responsibility to try to clean up the mess crack has made of his community in Los Angeles. His resolve is further strengthened when he learns about the history of the slave trade and how it changed when foreigners began buying their people.

As their tour guide to Elmina Castle explains, the history of Ghanaian slavery is a tangled web. The castle was built by the Portuguese for the gold trade, but as it passed through Dutch and British hands it became home to a far more decimating business. Before Europeans came, slavery was a war practice in Ghana; victorious tribes would enslave their rivals. The guide explains how it changed and degraded when they began selling their people to the colonists and that they must keep the doors open to remind themselves of the sins committed against the children of Africa and of a bargain with the devil. The castle's history serves as a poignant metaphor for Leon's state of mind.

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Snowfall's Leon and Wanda look at each other in a Ghanian market

The tour brings Wanda to tears and she tells Leon it was good that the people of Ghana who helped perpetuate the slave trade were able to forgive themselves and never do it again -- clearly alluding to both of their troubled pasts. Yet instead of allowing himself to be forgiven, Leon compares getting people hooked on crack to enslaving them. It also isn't lost on the viewer that in his analogy, the CIA is representative of the colonial slave traders. Wanda tries to disabuse him of the notion that it is his responsibility to fix it, but he can't be dissuaded. The emotional maturity and conscience Leon has developed has made him need to be a good man -- but in Snowfall, that will likely lead to more tragedy rather than heroic triumph.

Leon and Wanda’s trip to Ghana also provides a deeper perspective on Snowfall as a whole, as it gently but deftly touches on tribalism, slavery, and the generational wounds of colonialism -- including the complicity of the affected class. Both in history and in the present day, as the violence escalates and sides are drawn, the prospects for everyone’s survival dims. That includes the KGB, who are spying on the DEA, who are spying on the CIA, who know the Russians are involved… somehow. The history Leon learns in Africa and the reality he confronts back in the United States add further depth to the series that helps set it apart from TV's procedural-oriented crime stories.

Snowfall airs Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. on FX.