The brilliant thing about the almost-Flowers-For-Algernon ending is that the movie is SO dark that you think they are going to actually go through with it at one point. We should know better because the idea of someone you love completely forgetting you and not loving you anymore is something that would have made the movie completely inappropriate for kids but you are so overwhelmed by the movie's other adult themes that that fact doesn't enter into your head until much later after the movie is over and you are digesting it.