Nora Died. (TL:DR at the bottom)

I know this sounds like one of those shitty fan theories like ________ was dead all along/is in purgatory or whatever but I've thought about this since Saturday after I showed it to my lady and I think there is enough supporting evidence in the show.

So we know that when Kevin dies he goes to this place that serves as some thematic journey in order for him to deal whatever part of him is keeping him from moving on from embracing his loved ones and being happy. The entire second season revolves around him feeling disconnected from his new life because he can't let go of his old one, just as the third season is about Nora doing the exact same thing, but instead of Patti she's haunted by the memory of her family and just like Kevin she decides to kill herself in order to deal with her past for good but instead of getting drugged she gets irradiated.

If you listen to the story Nora tells it sounds as believable as Kevin being and international assassin or the president, I know what some of you are thinking "But u/OpenUpYerMurderEyes, Kevin had to assume sort of persona in order to go on his journey, Nora is just herself, how can it take place in the same place?" to which I offer two answers.

A) Kevin's problem has always been his inability to feel like he belonged after the departure. His dad went crazy so he took his place as the chief of police despite the fact that his officers are often suspicious of his abilities (the guy who looks for Dean questions his sanity, the dude who contacts the ATF after Gladys dies goes over the chain of command) after Laurie joined the GR he became a single father and is so bad at communicating and being emotionally available he doesn't hug his daughter, who is suffering just as much as he is, untill the final episode of season 1. Nora LOVED being Nora, it gave her special attention, she had fun in Guest pretending to be something she wasn't and all but in the end she still needed her loss to be recognized and said her real name before getting hugged by Holy Wayne, in season 2 she has Lily and so she is able to be strong enough to keep her sanity together while Kevin was losing his mind but in season 3 she gave her away and so needs to be a mother again. Her journey to the other side isn't about her hating herself, it's about her needing to be with her kids again.

B) Thia may seem like a stretch but I think it's worth mentioning is that Kevin destroyed the other side in the episode beforehand with nukes and that seems very final, however, remember that Kevin was in Melbourne when the nukes launched, we are told once they launch the nukes Russia will launch them back at the US and end the world but we only see the bombs in Australia. Now I'm not a fan of people being too literal about this sort of stuff, I do think it's more powerful if the whole other side gets nuked to apocalypse but I think this fits thematically with the third season since from the opening moments the show tells us this season about what happens when the world DOESN'T end after everyone expects or wants it to, why wouldn't the same go for what happens in the other side? Maybe a lot of people died but not enough to make the other place totally inaccessible or useless to anyone else who needs it.

Another key component of this puzzle is water. Both times Kevin goes to the other side he emerges from water, in the last season he has to drown himself to get to the other side just like Nora. Water is a symbol in this show for cleansing, not so much season 1 since they were mainly adapting the book, but season 2 is all about Miracle and the water from the spring where Kevin tried to kill himself, when he sees Patti in the other side she's floating in a pool and layer he has to drown her, the entire third season is about a great flood coming and everyone but Nora and Matt trying to stop it from happening. Nora has to hold her breath in irradiated water to go to where they are then she has to find boat after boat after boat before finally reaching her family, when we catch up with her we see all these red marks around her hairline, may be due to old age sure, but it may be because of the radiation she had to endure to go and come back just like Kevin has that scar he wants to show Nora but we never see, sure it can be from the pacemaker surgery but it might be from having to cut his twin brother open to get the key to end the world.

One last thing to bring up is who Kevin and Nora need to come back. For both of them the people to bring them back are total strangers who the main characters only heard of in passing, either Richard Burton aka God or the Doctor that created the machine that brought Nora to the other side and back, nothing much to add just another parallel.

Umtimately the point of the final scene is that it doesn't matter if Nora really saw her family or not it's just a nicer story, it may or may not be true, what matters is that Kevin believes her, that's why it's so perfect, I think the only bad fan theories are the ones that actively rob the text from its power so forgive me if some of you feel this way about mine but I think the scene is much more powerful if it's about mutual understanding and growth, whether they do it literally or not they have to kill themselves in order to become the people they need to be and they need each other and that's what the other side is, a place to kill yourself in order to move on. Thanks for coming to my TED talk, this is literally the greatest show I've ever seen.

TL;DR: Nora died and went on her own International Assassin style journey to let go of her past and move on.