You have just... exited the Twilight Zone? Interpretations of the Ending Sequence of Tower of Terror (and also A Land of Shadow and Substance Watches the Twilight Zone S1E2 and S1E3)

When discussing the Tower of Terror, the story's framing device as a "lost Twilight Zone episode" is one of the more difficult-to-wrangle aspects of the ride and its design.  To start with, there's the issue of how "properly" Twilight Zone the plotline even is, which I wrote an entire post about (I highly recommend you read that post before this one).  Furthermore, here's also the question of what exactly the contents of the episode are, including the outcome of its plot.  For the majority of my time writing for this blog, I already had one rather credible, but also unfortunately dark interpretation.

Namely, that the characters that we (the guests) represent are dead at the end.

Or, at least, some of them.

"A warm welcome back, to those of you who made it, and a friendly word of warning, something you won't find in any guidebook: the next time you check into a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you're filling, or you may find yourself a permanent resident... of the Twilight Zone"--Florida's ending sequence (emphasis mine).  

(Note that DCA's ending omitted everything before the line starting with "the next time you check into a deserted hotel...")

If one subscribes to the "karmic justice" interpretation of the Twilight Zone, then it makes sense that at least some of "us" are dead, as the punishment for trespassing on the site of a tragedy and taking unwise dares.  It's possible, especially in the shortened DCA finale, that Rod Serling's lines are being delivered to an unseen television audience, presumably over shots of the crashed elevator that contains "our" corpses.

Not only would this interpretation be part of the "karmic justice" story, but it would fit with the general popular perception of the Twilight Zone as a creepy and dark dimension.

However, the last two episodes I watched (S1E2 "One For the Angels" and S1E3 "Mr. Denton on Doomsday") both notably paint the Twilight Zone as a place of significant optimism and mercy, albeit in perhaps-unexpected ways.

In "One for the Angels", a salesman encounters Death (who is surprisingly friendly, if frustratingly bureaucratic) on his intended death day.  He negotiates for more time by insisting he not die before he gets to make one great sales pitch, with the intention of just never making another pitch again in order to escape the deal.  When Death insists on taking another person's life instead to balance the celestial scale, the protagonist instead makes his great pitch to save a neighborhood child's life.  Hilariously, the pitch is not some great argument for the life itself, but instead distracting the personification of Death with sales speeches for ties, souvenirs, and toiletries!  In the end, the protagonist fulfills his bargain, and is informed that he's made it to heaven, peacefully walking off with Death at the end.  It's a solidly happy ending, with the protagonist having fulfilled his life's goals, saving a child's life, and being welcomed into a pleasant afterlife.

This isn't the only episode I remember where Death is a surprisingly nonthreatening person.  In fact, I'd consider "Death is a surprisingly chill dude" to potentially be a theme in the series!  It's a rather optimistic theme, too.

"Mr. Denton on Doomsday" (an episode I'd never seen before, incidentally) is a western.  A straight-up western, about a gunslinger-turned-alcoholic, in a series usually marketed as science fiction or horror.  In truth, The Twilight Zone really can't be categorized as any one genre...but that's beside the point for this post.

Anyways, Mr. Denton was the fastest gun in the West, until he took to drinking to forget the horror of having killed so many people who challenged him to duels.  A possibly-supernatural traveling elixir salesman intervenes in his fate, first by giving him his gun back to get him to stop drinking, and then by giving both Denton and the latest challenger a maybe-magic-maybe-mundane elixir that's supposed to make them both better shots, but instead makes them mutually disarm each other.  However, both their hands are irreparably injured, so neither will be able to duel again.  Denton is free to live his life clean and without the pressure to kill people, as is his challenger.  Once again, a happy ending, with the supernatural providing mercy and giving everyone a better fate than before.

So, anyways, back to Tower's finale.  Sure, the supernatural definitely punished "us" for trespassing, but maybe it didn't punish us as severely as I initially assumed.  Perhaps it shook us up a bit (quite literally), but then let us go, hopefully as better people for the lesson.  We might literally just get to... exit the Twilight Zone.  Maybe, despite what that "for those of you who made it" might imply, just for once...