I'm a well read grad student who's bluntly honest about all things, although I try to be most honest about myself.
Not only did I not see it coming, it was a whopper of a cliffhanger. This volume took characters in directions I didn't see coming, and I'm not sure how it's going to continue after everything that has happened. I'm sure it will, and it will be brilliant, but... wow.
And the thing is this is a natural progression: how could something like this not have happened? How could Archer and Armstrong react any differently than they did, given their personalities? Just because it seems logical and even inevitable in retrospect, it wasn't something I foresaw. And that right there? Something where I go, 'what the fuck just happened? Oh, right, the only thing that could have!' That's the best kind of writing.
The art continues to be gorgeous, as do the cover galleries in back. Highly recommended, as it keeps getting wackier and funnier with each volume.