Was the Hulu miniseries "Nine Perfect Strangers" (opens in new tab) an overly complex story about forgiveness, healing, and health (opens in new tab) or a trippy tale about shoplifting? If you're on the former side, then the show was concise and provided a happy (albeit undeserved) ending for everyone. Personally, I prefer the latter. Masha is a criminal genius who robbed a prison and got a yellow Lamborghini. So let's use that lens to unpack what happened to the strangers in the finale, "Ever After." (Open in new tab)

The finale begins with Carmel admitting that she was the one who shot Masha years ago. She reveals that she had no intention of shooting Marcia at the time, but Marcia's callous attitude made her pull the trigger. Thanks to her stunning makeup from her theatrical days, she was able to pull off her disguise and escape unnoticed.

She tells Masha to turn herself in, but Masha absolves Carmel of the crime. This is because that is what prompted Masha to open Tranquillum House. After her identity is revealed, Carmel wakes up in a sensory deprivation chamber that Masha/Glory left behind "to protect herself." After a brief panic attack, Carmel escapes from the pod into a locked room. The rest of the strangers eventually come to her rescue, but they end up locked in with her. Marsha/Glory/Yao begin "fire therapy," in which they start a fake fire outside the locked room to induce guests to have near-death experience revelations. Carmel realizes that she has finally received the forgiveness she needs to move on. At the end, Carmel is seen leading a group therapy session, stronger and calmer than before.

Yao spends most of this episode leaning into Masha's questionable decision. He also witnesses the Marconi family's distressing hallucinations about their son. Delilah escapes Tranquillum, goes to the police, and brings him back to the wellness resort. Yao and Delilah reconcile, and flash-forwards show the happy couple volunteering with the Peace Corps.

Newly united, Jessica and Ben decide to renew their vows. Ben also discovers that his Lamborghini is missing. In a near-death fake experience, Jessica reveals that her ultimate dream is to become a "girl boss" and Ben wants to go back to work. In a flash-forward, we learn that Jessica and Ben run Tranquillum House.

After Lars tries to inform the Marconi family of Marsha's intentions (which, in the end, he is unable to dissuade them), he sees and records their hallucinations. Eventually he feels that it is not his place to witness their suffering, so he leaves and returns to the rest of the group. During his near-death experience, he realizes that he has made mistakes in his relationships and that his ultimate desire is to become a father.

Flash-forwards reveal that Lars has indeed reunited with his significant other, become a father, and contributed an impassioned profile of Marsha and her health regimen to the cover of The New Yorker magazine.

Trigger warning: reference to death by suicide. Despite initial hesitation, the Marconi's dive headfirst into Masha's LSD cocktail and eventually meet Zach. Zach says that it is not their fault that he died by suicide. The scene from the first episode, with Napoleon, Zoe, and Heather in the car together, is repeated in flash-forward.

Tony and Frances reconcile in the finale, with Frances admitting that she was afraid of letting her emotional guard down. After being particularly frightened by Masha's strange behavior, they rejoin the group to search for Carmel. The two are trapped in a fake "fire room," which confirms their feelings for each other (and their desire to get a house and a dog). We also see Francis defending Marcia during the police interrogation by lying that it was he who accidentally locked everyone in the fake fire room.

Later, Francis and Tony have dinner together at the Four Seasons (Tony orders two cheeseburgers, a soda, and an ice cream sundae). Frances asks for a pen and paper and begins furiously scribbling down ideas. Jessica and Ben run Tranquillum, Yao and Delilia join the Peace Corps, Lars has a baby, Tony and Frances get a house and dog, and spend time with Tony's estranged children. (This episode shows Masha struggling to keep her Tranquillium guests in check after getting high on a cocktail that Masha prescribed for the Marconi family. Her main concern is to join the Marconi family in the woods in the hopes that their delusion, Zach, will prevent them from reuniting with their seven-year-old daughter Tatiana, who they lost in a car accident in Russia. Thanks to Zoe's guidance, Masha is finally able to meet Tati in a "snow covered" field and holds her for a few hours before the police come to take her away. Masha seems indifferent to the investigation. And it turns out that Marcia was right not to worry. All of the guests, grateful for Marcia's healing process, protect her from being charged with a crime.

At the end of the episode (open in new tab), we see a happy Masha driving in Ben's car and a hallucination of Tatiana in the passenger seat. On the dashboard is a book titled "Nine Perfect Strangers" written by Francis. This scene suggests that Masha's ending actually happened, while the other flash-forwards may be just part of the book's story. All of this is very meta, given that the show is based on a book (Liane Moriarty's book, not Francis').