I also wonder if they wanted to end it diplomatically. Maia (sp?) was loved by Sam, he wanted to get back to her so bad and you would expect the writers would want the audience to want Sam to get home to her. OTOH, he finds a "home" in the past and a relationship building with Annie. I wonder if the writers thought there would be a bunch of viewers who would split on where he ends up and with which girl. So instead of having some viewer say wait a minute, I thought Sam wanted to be with Maia so bad and the other viewers saying wait a minute, he seemed to have found a place in the past and with Annie, they played Switzerland and have it be neither. :shrug

I was meh on the ending but in a way I'm glad I didn't have to sit there and debate where he ended up and whether the prior episodes led to that conclusion the right way. There were some good moments in the episode and I liked some of the symbolism going on. It wasn't the "epic" ending a lot of people were hoping for but in a way I kind of like it was a nice, neat, wrap up and tied in all the "stuff" (Windy, interesting relationship he had with Gene, "spaceman", the voice on the phone, etc.)