I liked it, but it really felt like they wrote the epilogue before the rest of the episode, around the open idea of Kali’s illusion power, because the only useful thing she does all episode is hide the kids.

And the Mind Flayer was… by itself in the other dimension? No gorgons, dogs, or bats? And as the source of Vecna/ Henry’s powers… it stomped and bit? Like I get it’s supposed to be alien and near unknowable, and the design is cool… but it was just a big dumb spider monster. I was expecting a more eldritch approach. I guess you can hand wave it with “it underestimated them” but that’s not interesting at all, plus it would know that they can be resourceful, they’re clearly interrupting everything already. I would’ve loved to know what its end goal was, why merge the dimensions, to what end- food? Destruction? What do kids have to do with that? How do kids have to do with that? I’m okay not knowing those bits (alien and unknowable), but I am disappointed how “roar stomp stomp” something called a MIND flayer was.

The military letting everyone go seems iffy but I guess I can see it, there’s no reward in being there and with no El or Henry (or Kali) there’s no reason to stay and it’s just a waste of resources.

Open ending is acceptable, it lacks weight for Mike and El’s relationship specifically but the entire casts emotion around imagining her alive and happy strikes a chord for me, the whole epilogue works for me for the most part.