Nowhere to go but HOME

Laura is shown dead, wrapped in plastic floating in the water.

SOME MONTHS LATER appears on the screen (sycamores looming in the background)

Cooper is asked by he MFAP: Is it future or is it past?

Then we are shown Annie wheeled down the hospital corridor on a gurney.

This clearly could not be "months later," as Cooper arrived in TP's right after Laura's murder and ended up in the Black Lodge only a couple of weeks later.

Add to that, Annie is shown speaking trance-like in her hospital bed. Speaking to Laura in a shared dream, the dream we witnessed earlier in the film. Speaking to Laura before her murder.

As for Cooper, he is in the Black Lodge both before and after Laura's murder. First warning Laura not to take the ring, then later realizing Annie has the ring.

When the magician chants out between the two worlds, time dilations are the rule, not the exception.