reset button

Noun

1. A button that resets something.
2. A plot device that interrupts continuity in works of fiction, by returning characters and situations to the status quo they held before certain changes were introduced.
   • But after a year of sagging ratings, Dallas hit the reset button, by having Pam wake up to see Bobby, very much alive, lathering up in their shower. The entire 1985–86 season, including Bobby's death, had been a bad...
   • Voyager the show ambles and meanders just like Voyager the ship, hypothetically exploring new territory but actually doomed to retreads and consequence-free episodic storytelling (heavy on what fans came to call “the...