IDK, I agree that (a) it is perfectly in character for Ten to be high-handed and short-sighted about yanking people back from death, (b) and the ending is meant to be ambiguous and unsettling (and even more so in hindsight), and (c) I'm not sure Moffat meant it to be quite as unsettling as it is... but I don't think it's unambiguously horrible from River's end, either. Disappointingly quiet after a high-octane life, sure, but not as much so as actually being dead. She's got all the books in the universe feeding a very powerful reality simulator; I'm sure she can craft adventures in any time period/fictional reality she wants to for herself and her friends. Or potter about doing mad science. Or hack the Library distress beacon to leave troll messages for the Doctor throughout spacetime. The worst part is probably that the Doctor isn't there, not that she'd be bored.
The ending is ambiguous and unsettling as shit though. For the entire episode. I mean, the image of Ten opening the TARDIS doors by snapping his fingers was made irrevocably unsettling by the Handlebars vid, but I am 100% sure Moffat meant it that way from the beginning and had plans to gradually make that obvious later for everyone who couldn't already see what path the Doctor was headed down. And the final image, of River going "sweet dreams" and turning out the lights, is definitely meant to inject a hint of nightmare fuel into that idyllic afterlife.
The ending is ambiguous and unsettling as shit though. For the entire episode. I mean, the image of Ten opening the TARDIS doors by snapping his fingers was made irrevocably unsettling by the Handlebars vid, but I am 100% sure Moffat meant it that way from the beginning and had plans to gradually make that obvious later for everyone who couldn't already see what path the Doctor was headed down. And the final image, of River going "sweet dreams" and turning out the lights, is definitely meant to inject a hint of nightmare fuel into that idyllic afterlife.
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