Your need for a break excepted (but duly noted and appreciated, truly):

"HOMER!!!!!"

Quite possible; however, the estate of Stanley Kubrick may wish to sue for partial credit. (Or maybe even Douglas Trumbull lol)

If you listen really, really closely (and are using headphones, as per Lynch's recommendation):
Miguel Ferrer can be heard uttering 'Fuck TV Recappers' during the end credits.

Hey man; Canadian [subsidized? lol] drugs coming down to the U.S. pays dividends, maaaaan.

ha; like the Jacob/What's-His-Face origin episode in Lost.

Eh; I kinda felt he leaned a mite bit too much on Kubrick/Douglas Trumbull with the whole "Mushroom-Cloud-echoes-2001-Stargate" sequence.

Wow.

"Finally a band on this show I recognize. Although I still find the musical interludes unappealing."

hah!

"And now, with a one-week hiatus ahead before “The Return, Part 9,” the show leaves us with this episode to ponder."

I had thought this, too.

The 2% World is the UPSIDE DOWN from Stranger Things! Just less….disgusting? lol j/k

Honestly it's much more likely the whole "Older Nora" piece isn't real than to view it as reality *and* she lies.

yes! Or *somewhere* symbolic/surreal/dream-like.

I'm not fully convinced they *weren't* in an Other World.

I just wrote a long piece on my observations/impressions, but to summarize: a friend and I, who just watched the finale this evening, aren't fully convinced that this was even *real*.

The reviewer is assuming that this is actually real; that their interactions happened in the real world.

I sure have!

Very, very true.