If they wanted a cliffhanger there was a galaxy of ways they could do it without insulting everyone's intelligence.
I also liked the whole concept of Season 3. As for ending Zero Hour on a cliffhanger, they really didn't need it. I've said before that the homecoming at the end of Stormfront II would have been a beautiful way to end it.
And even better, if they had cut or moved the episodes that added little or nothing to the storyline -- Extinction, Exile, Rajiin, North Star, Carpenter Street and Doctor's Orders -- they could have given us deservedly stronger homecoming arc:
-- North Star: I like the episode. I just think it made no sense to have Archer stop to check out a human colony that had nothing to do with the Xindi when time was of the essence. It could have been set up in the closing moments of another episode and then revisited if/when the mission was complete.
Back on Earth:
-- The rise of xenophobia (we see a little of that in Home but no mention of the ascension of the radical Terra Prime).
-- Archer's guilt issues (again we saw a little of that in Home, but getting laid to cure it isn't quite the same as doing penance by, for instance, turning to the Vulcans for help in finding the aliens he stranded when he took their warp core.
-- Similitude: Phlox said the Lysarians prohibit using the larvae to create these short-lived clones. The Lysarians should at least try to hold Archer and Phlox answerable for the creation of Sim and his murder.
-- Hoshi should be suffering from severe post-traumatic stress.
-- Trip goes home. We never saw a single relative in "The Expanse." It's as if when Lizzie died, he became an siblingless orphan. Yet we have heard references to his mother, a brother, nephews... I've always thought it was really odd that we knew more about Travis' family than Trip's.
