i just wanted to surface that thing with manray cuz most people who make the assertion that the ending comes completely from left field overlook that pierre/manray convo.

also, i sensed the death of peerless after his visit to his father... something in the voice over narration as he was driving home... about how he never wanted to end up like his father (broke and principled, or somethin' like that... i've only seen the flick once and that was back in oct '00).

never saw the jada thing coming. her whole devolution into insanity thing definitely came from nowhere, but then, if i saw the cat i was tryna get next to get publicly executed on the network i work(ed) for, i'd probably snap, hold myself accountable, and kill the dude i can't believe i used to be with (peerless), too, so... that wasn't all that shocking for me.

on alternate endings:

i'da still killed off savion (and i can't believe i'm sayin' that, cuz i LOVE him)... just for the sake of "irony." don't all the people tryna "get-out-the-'game'" in black flicks (i.e. caine in menace 2 society, wesley in sugar hill, spike lee in mo' betta blues) get offed or seriously maimed on their way out? it's not new territory and for some reason, it proves to make some kinda effective ironic commentary about the consequences of ill actions...

i'da left jada sane and wouldn't have killed peerless, but i DEFINITELY woulda left him insane, surrounded by those talking figurines... and he still woulda been narrating at the end from his point of delusion.

i REALLY woulda liked to have seen some closure on womack, but i'm not sure how that woulda worked out....

and though the mau-mau's shouldn't have been killed, they fo' sho' needed to be arrested cuz that gangsta execution thang didn't make no dang sense. u don't off somebody like that and get away (unless u're, like, o-dog in menace or jada in set it off)

as i look back on what i've revised, though, the ending i've come up with still doesn't seem all that great. it would be highly anti-climactic to leave everyone pretty much unaffected and... living...

*shrug*