Excellent episode! Obviously Matt had to work it out so that Ashley would have been taken out of the equation by the end, but it seems odd to hold that against him or the other players. Their situation was either leave yasha (who is charmed, attacking them, and doesn't want to leave) or stay and die without even trying to close the door on the Laughing Hand. They tried I think three different times to get yasha out of there, but it just wasn't working.
There were some rules shenanigans, but I think whether Oban lived or died, we would still end up in the same place (though we might have lost another party member or two). He's a demon who is going to come back, so brainwashed Yasha being accompanied by him, or by his residual goo that will eventually be him again, is basically the same thing.
I will say, it seemed like the Laughing Hand's fear inducing movement killing wisdom save thing seemed like it was forgotten about for a round or two. Unless I missed something and people were immune to it after saving/already being affected by it. Considering those were also in the rounds when Fjord was on death's door and everyone was trying to run out of the tomb, they're lucky Matt forgot, if that's what happened. I really thought Fjord was a goner there. Same with Cad the round before.
Jester's Mirror Image was incredibly useful, and led to some super dramatic moments. I'm also super excited that she got the cool whip because she can do all sorts of cool stuff in and out of combat with that.
Liam seems to do one weird, left field magic usage per episode. When he made Beau giant right as she needed to squeeze through a tiny door, I laughed out loud. The woman nearly got bisected by a magic door for no reason, lol. That sure would have been an ignoble way to go.
All in all, I think this is an awesome ticking clock to set the tone and pace of the rest of the campaign (seems like it will be treated with more immediacy than Uk'atoa was), and there's something nice about knowing this is the final Ashley Break™ before she's back for real. And when she comes back, it's going to be HIGH DRAMA. I'm excited for campaign 3 on her behalf when Ashley can be a full time party member throughout.