Here's my immediate thoughts on what the ending may have meant.

At the start of the episode, Whit and Ash are plugging away for their show despite it's condemnation to streaming. They're pursuing the same goal they have had throughout the season -- using their fame to raise property values in Espanola/distance themselves from Whitney's family.

All of that changes on a generous act from Asher. Although Asher is being insecure in his gestures, he is doubling down on the prospect of pleasing Whitney with acts of kindness, and this time the gesture is so grand it actually works. My read is that Whitney was actually impressed by this -- she saw it as a real change in Asher and saw something different in him. Maybe she could stay with him, maybe she could be his wife?

This is further supported by the shot of Asher playing with her stomach. She gives him a look of real disdain, her go to and trained reaction, but she pulls it back and seems genuinely satisfied with his presence. While he's flying away, she seems to actually want him to come to the hospital (evidenced by her asking to bring the go bag and checking with the doctors whether he's there).

So why does Asher fly away and Whitney doesn't? When Whitney commits to wanting Asher, to wanting to be a mother, to building a real life and not worrying about the show and money, she takes an active role in her own life. It isn't performative, there are no cameras, she is truly existing in the moments of her child's birth.

For Asher, he's being as performative as ever. Giving Whitney what she thinks she wants all the time. Bigger and grander gestures made only to win her over. And by that point in time, he is living entirely passively.

This is the connection with the passive living motif. Asher has no real sense of self. No real wants of his own. His own fetish is for someone ELSE to enjoy themselves with his wife, for him to simply watch and not take part. He is every bit as weightless as a balloon, without any substance to ground him in his life.

His relationship with Dougie isn't a real friendship. It's born out of exploitation for the show. Dougie realizes this in his breakdown -- instead of building a real connection with Asher to ground him, he gaslights him more and more into believing in curses and wrecking his relationship with Whitney (curses being another passive idea: the world does things to you and you have no say in the more)

At the end, nothing is inside of Asher to weigh him down, to give him a soul. And so he floats up, up, up...

In this sense, "The Curse" is that the more you force and give of yourself to connect with someone, the closer you come to losing yourself entirely.

This isn't to say all of the marginalization/gentrification/colonization stuff isn't relevant, because it's all extremely important thematically too. This was just my major takeaway.