Rebecca Eschliman <76072.2345@compuserve.com> asks:
> So what is the payoff for the author?
> What benefit outweighs the breaking of the
> storytelling/storyviewing dynamic?

It's basically a means to get the audience, which has been away
for a long time, to come back to resolve a hanging point and jump-start
them into the episodes. If it ends cleanly, apparently a lot of folks
in any series will just forget to tune in the following season.

jms