When it was midnight again

It'll happen. A new series with a door at the end of every episode, a Friday that felt like a Saturday, autoplay quietly back on after an update, and it'll be midnight and you'll have watched four and the alarm will be at seven.

One night isn't the month. The list from chapter 1 shows a month of ones and twos with a four in it, and last year the four was every night. What happened is that the door swung the wrong way for one evening, usually because the setting had reverted or the number wasn't said, and the habit did what it does when the arrangement has a gap in it.

Check the setting tonight. Updates turn autoplay back on more often than you'd think, and a countdown appearing where there wasn't one is the first sign. Two minutes, off again.

Work out which cliff got through. Was it a series with a harder cliff than usual? Then the remote goes across the room for that one. Was it the number not said, because you sat down without thinking? Then the number gets written on the list before the first episode for a fortnight. Was it a partner who wanted more and you went along? Then chapter 24's conversation at a different hour.

And be fair about what a four is. It's a night's sleep short, and a Tuesday that's flat, and that's the whole of it. Last year that was every night and it had no name. Now it's a thing that happened once, that you noticed at midnight, that has a cause you can find and fix in two minutes, and a Tuesday you'll get back on Wednesday.

No streaks. Don't count nights without an overrun. Count the mornings that weren't flat, and let one midnight be one bad Tuesday in a month of ordinary ones. The morning is the measure. The evening will look after itself once the door swings your way.