A couple of weeks ago, I was watching Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It was a great movie, but also a little confusing because it involved a lot of universes of Spidermen…and women…and pigs…and kids? It was a pretty long movie, and at the end, just as it was wrapping up, the music starts pulsating, and dramatically ramping up, and I’m like this doesn’t sound like wrap up music…My instinct was right because out of nowhere, the TO BE CONTINUED card pops up and credits. I’m like…wait, what? My mind then goes back to when my son saw the movie in the theater and he probably mentioned that it was a To Be Continued…

I fell for it.

To Be Continued happens a lot these days. The first time I felt the same thing at the end of a movie, when it felt like it was was Back to the Future. I was more about the time machine, because my brother teased about what the time machine was. When the Optimus Prime truck lowered with smoke pillowing out of it, and when the smoke dissipates, you see a freaking a Delorean backing up, my mouth was agape. Before that movie, time machines were just mainframe computer looking things with a lot of switches and knobs. On top of that, Marty McFly gets to see his parents as teenagers. And his actions changed how successful they were in the future. Just as I felt Marty’s life was complete, Doc come barreling back with the Delorean, and says they need to go to the future and his kids lives are in the balance. And the Delorean starts levitating, and then the three words appear on the screen, followed by three dots. To Be Continued…

Up to that point in my life, sequels weren’t a thing. Well, besides the Star Wars trilogy, and Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark and… For me though, sequel’s never really entered the chat. I was so confused by the To Be Continued thing. Were they going to wrap this thing up right now? Do we just stay in our seats and watch Part II? Or is it be coming in a few weeks? Months? At that point in my life, I didn’t know how movies were made. I had no idea how long I would be expected to wait. (It was 4 years.)

Then there was TV shows. At that point in my life, I didn’t realized how TV worked either. I didn’t know that shows got 13 episodes, but could be cancelled before that. And if they performed well they got 22 for a full season. I didn’t understand that shows would start with a bang, end with a cliffhanger, then disappear for the summer, showing repeats. I didn’t understand that cliffhangers were meant to keep you invested in the show, by not resolving the big problems at the end.

I didn’t realize until I got older, that that writers specifically created season finales with cliffhangers in mind. The reason why they created cliffhangers was because they understood the psychology of the human brain. The human brain is wired to seek order, predictability and safety. When the brain sees a cliffhanger, they angrily see something that isn’t complete, and it works overtime trying to complete the incomplete picture. The brain so uncomfortable, that it makes people fly into a rage, or into an uncomfortable sigh, like I did at the end of Spiderman. It’s like an itch that can’t get scratched. The psychology part of the finales do two things to human brains. First, it makes the final scenes more memorable because it wasn’t complete, and second, it causes the watcher to salivate (rage, scream, cry) enough to where fans must tune in to close the loop in the Season Premiere.

If you that wasn’t enough, your favorite TV shows also incorporate the same principles in mid-season finales, and in a smaller way, throwing smaller cliffhanging at the end of every episode.

TV and movies aren’t to blame for all of this though. Humans are the ones that have been showing them how to do To Be Continued’s in their everyday lives. Instead of episodes and seasons, we just break up our time in days. As you know, we almost never wrap up all our issues by the end of days, but we have to go to sleep at some point. To Be Continued’s are why Nyquil and Melatonin were invented. To Be Continued’s often cause anxiety, rage, anger, or at the very least uncomfortability, but almost always sleepless nights.

I’ve spent endless, restless nights tossing and turning over unfinished episodes, or even seasons of my life. I’ve lost sleep over stupid things I said to a girl, or things I said in a job interview that I wish I could have taken back. I’ve lost sleep over basketball games that should have turned out differently, or freaking out over moving to a new city in the morning. I’ve lost sleep about emails I got from work, or even an idea I got for an award winning blog post idea. (Of course, those are the ones that I forgot to write down.)

To Be Continued’s are the reason why our lives are always changing, and in constant upheaval. They are why we are anxious, uncomfortable, uneasy, and active. If my stupid minds wasn’t always so obsessed with closing loops, I wouldn’t be so motivated to keep getting up in the morning just to close a loop. If my mind could just shut up every once in a while, I’d be able to lay on the couch guilt free and take a nap. If my mind could just shut its piehole, I could just stare into space at work and contemplate the universe, without thinking that a boss was walking behind me wondering why I wasn’t slavishly working on my ever so important work.

To Be Continued’s are the reason why we love and hate relationships. Stop me if you’ve heard these before…”Let’s just talk about this later…” or “I can’t wait to see you on Friday…” or “I just want to get some closure on this, or I won’t be able to move on…” Relationships are built and destroyed on To Be Continued’s.

To be Continued’s are what builds not only movies, TV, but music, and any other type of entertainment. The reason why Avenger’s End Game made so much money was because of Avenger’s Infinity War’s ending. It’s why everyone sat in the theater so quietly, wondering how in the world the next movie would… It’s why Olivia Rodrigo put out Drop Dead, then The Cure, and Stupid Song. Because she knew that those songs would be itching your brain, and your life wouldn’t be complete until you had the whole album. And why it set records.

The thing that will most blow your mind about To Be Continued’s is…something I will tell you about next time in the Epic Conclusion of this Blog Post.

While you eagerly anticipate the epic conclusion of this blog post, here are some Bitter Friday Giftures to pass the time…

A couple of weeks ago…

And just as it was wrapping up…

And out of nowhere…

And I was like…

And the movie said…

And my brain did what any rational brain does…

But I thought I trained my brain…

That movies, TV, music and all entertainment…

But somehow in this one vulnerable moment…

That movies learned this from us…

It’s why most of us don’t sleep…

It’s why we can’t sleep when our girlfriend says…

At some point we just need to tell our mind…

But most importantly…

ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH

Bitter To Ben Continued Ben