Yes, everyone being 'finished' at Moonrise is pretty clear, but I think that 'finishing' is just having their minds wiped of the implantation, maybe with some Absolute stuff put in to make them fanatics. Mind-Flayers don't have tadpoles, so whatever influence we're positing the Absolute has over the tadpoles, it follows that she might have some influence on the Illithids, one that the Dreamer can mess with. Using the Illithid powers is what starts the ceremorphosis process, and we're told pretty directly whenever we do, that the entity in our minds feels sated or content, we also loose something of ourselves. So I think that it means that the statsis isn't total, it's just slowed the process that using the tadpole accelerates, or possibly while using the tadpole, the stasis ends before being put back up.
Part of the theory, is that as we become more psionically active, our telepathic link to the entity in the box becomes stronger, leading to our more and more involved dreams.
As for the intro, to me when he looks at the bodies of the fallen Mind-Flayer, I don't read any expression, except the normal alien and unknowable one that I would expect from beings of cosmic horror.
Because I don't think that the Absolute is ready to reveal herself so dramatically, If indeed Astarion was taken from BG, it must have been done more subtly than a giant tentacle ship snatching people in the streets. This might mean that Cazador is more directly involved with the Absolute. If that writing on his back is Absolute or artifact related, then maybe he wasn't kidnapped at all and it was just a hand-off.
