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Originally Posted by JoeC2012
The machine was a macguffin to get Nora and Kevin to Australia, nothing more.
Well, even if we never see or hear about it again, it was a little more than that.
The radiation machine is sort of to Nora what the GR was to Kevin. It's the wish fulfillment they've struggled with throughout the series projected onto some kind of nefarious group. Their first instinct is to discredit said group so as to sort of slay their own demons, but there's always a part of them under the surface that wonders if they're onto something. Kevin has always had one foot out the door on whatever family he's currently a part of, and the GR's whole thing is "there is no family" - that's always been at the heart of his battles with Patti (both the alive and dead versions) and it was reiterated again in this past episode with his visions of Evie. Nora can't get past the Departure of her children, no matter how hard she tries, it's always there in the back of her mind, the guilt, the grief - any chance of being reunited with them, no matter how small, is sort of her ultimate fantasy. It's like, if she knew the machine was real, she would "go through", but if she could categorically expose this group and this machine as fake, she could destroy the fantasy.
We already knew Nora was taking steps back this season before she even heard about this machine - losing Lily, the Wu-tang tattoo incident. Now the radiation machine, not to mention her boyfriend being treated by her brother as some kind of messiah. All told, it was enough to basically reset her entire grieving process. She's back to square one.