Is Comet ISON just a a residual pile of cosmic dust? Or did it survive?

Shortly after passing perihelion, it looked like little was left. This SOHO LASCO C2 (narrow field) time lapse video shows what was believed to be the dusty remnants of ISON, without a bright nucleus, emerging from its close encounter with the sun:

But now, a few hours later, whatever is left is gradually getting brighter in the LASCO C3 (widefield) imager. From what I’ve read, the experts are totally confused (click image for the latest):

UPDATE: At 8:46 p.m. CST, Karl Battams Tweeted that he and his associates now believe ISON has survived with some portion of its nucleus intact.