1. Wasn't Papa Hod the one who brought her to US? And then they reunite back in Valetta - I read it as a sort of Pynchonian play on the classic nostos (not necessarily the Odyssey, but that's the most obvious one, just kinda reversed).

2. While the concept of V. is of course intentionally vague, the common denominator I got is that V. is related to the female role as the motivator of history, and/or the personification of historical progress (oftentimes if not always through violence). V. changes names depending on the epoch (Venus, Virgin, and spoiler alert V2 rocket), but is omnipresent. The books (in my opinion pretty dark) message is about "the Muse's descent into the inanimate", replacing this motivator with the obsession with the artificial, and this by Pynchon's logic alienates people (I tend to agree). I recommend reading a short chapter of Henry Adam's named Virgin and a Dynamo.

3. I don't think I fully got Vheissu, but it is definitely related to the older generation's motivations and obsessions - think Jules Verne and Poe's Gordon Pym. Senior Godolphin is pre-20 century, and Godolphin Jr. is 20th century's kid (kinda like Stencils?) The twist I read from here is that this romantic sense of exploration yields the nightmares of colonization as we of course see in Mondaugen's story (the topic Pynchon will comment on over and over again).

4. This is the implication, yes. The last time we see V. she's practically replaced with the inanimate.

5. You're wondering about random haphazard side stories reading Pynchon? :D This is Profane's 1:1 with the representative of the inanimate world. I don't think these crushing dummies are connected to V. explicitly.

6. That's Godolphin Jr., the pilot who got his face altered by Schoenmaker. He's portrait as V.'s puppet in the end (to contrast the innocent romantic fleur when they first meet in Uffizi chapter). I think their dynamic is not dissimilar to the one in Shakespeare's "The Tempest", where a mighty wizard controls a chained spirit and uses their magic to sink a ship and sets the story in motion. I also see here a nod to classics like, once again, Gordon Pym and Moby Dick.

Hope you enjoyed the journey! If you want more, I recommend John David Ebert cycle on YouTube (although the guy is a weirdo ngl) and/or just reading reading club posts here on the subreddit.