It Ain't Over Yet is a plotline device in Hollywood horror movies that depicts the plight of the main character.
You are familiar with the kind of thing. It looks like curtains for Chucky in Child's Play, but what is that? It looks over for The Shape in Halloween, but who is climbing off the floor in the background?
It looks like the end of Scott Brown as a footballer and all-round cartoon baddie, a title he has absolutely revelled in, as if he was an actor playing himself in the story of his own life. That is true in some ways. The 36-year-old has been a performer for all these years, a guy who puts on a mask whenever he puts his kit on.
You became aware of the difference between the two when you met the person. The athlete's chutzpah was domineering and intense at his peak, while the person's humility and humor was self-mocking.
He would say that it was good for a guy whose legs have gone, but that it was fuel to his fire.
The next phase beckons. He says he has every one of Brendan Rodgers training sessions from their time together at Celtic recorded in books in his house, and he hopes to one day become a management consultant.
Rodgers is such a fan of Brown, and Brown such a fan of Rodgers, that it's no surprise a reunion at Leicester City has been talked about so widely.
The manager championed Brown as a coach of the future and spoke about his resilience and intelligence as a footballer. He took Brown under his wing in 2016 when he became Celtic manager, and he might do the same thing again.
Brown's playing post mortem was written during that period. There is an incriminating item in the back catalogues of most people who comment about football in Scotland.
There was a major discussion about him on one of the Celtic supporters forums back in 2010 and the view was unsparing.
Not good enough.
Brown's days are numbered.
Never captain material.
Punt him.
He won nine league titles and six Scottish cups. He was pictured late at night on an Edinburgh street eating pizza in the League Cup final week. Come Sunday, cue another trophy. Brown did well in that final.
After Rangers ran over the top of him in the Scottish Cup semi-final, he was deemed to be a busted flush.
Brown thought the end was near. He was a frustrated figure under Ronny Deila and said that had it not been for Rodgers coming to the club, he would have retired that summer.
Brown sent fans of many clubs into a state of hyperventilation for some of the things he did on the field and who threatened to spontaneously combust when he committed the mortal offence of responding to some disgustingly personal abuse with a smile or wave.
Rival players threw a shape at him. He counted them in and then counted them out again.
There was a feeling that the fans who gave him volleys did so out of grudging respect and because they wouldn't have minded him, or a player like him, driving their team on.
When he moved to Aberdeen, he realized the truth. Rangers fans ranted at Brown almost as much as their fans did, but what happened when he went north? He won most of them over with his passion, even though his football wasn't as good as before.
They appreciated his commitment. They appreciated him sticking it to Rangers. He was known as "Brooner" by the Celtic people. One of their own.
At the start of the season, he was talking about his time with Celtic and Scotland, as he was about to embark on the double life of player-coach. You would think he was an interloper because of the way he spoke.
The competitive animal that made him such a force for so long in such a demanding environment as Celtic Park came through.
I was not one to run and get a strip from other players. I wouldn't speak to them in the tunnel, I wouldn't help them up off the floor if I foul them, and I wouldn't speak to them after the game. I used that as my way of getting through. No respect.
It was four or five at half-time in Barcelona and some of the players were trying to get Messi's strip, but it was a terrible chase.
Why would you want someone to give you a new strip? I lost the plot when I went in and looked at them. They did the same thing at the end of the game.
All those great players I played against, I never asked for a strip even though I wanted to. I never saw Messi running down the tunnel until they came looking for my strip.
He laughs when he thinks about the names his young boys are going to call him when they discover in later life that the family cupboard is bare and there is not a single shirt from any of the greats he has faced in football.
Brown has won everything there is to win in Scotland, has wound-up everyone worth winding up, and has gone back and wound them up again and again, just for the laugh.
He said with a smile that any airing of that stuff would damage his reputation as the baddest man in Scottish football. He had a caricature that he could live up to.
The footage of his touching hug with Glen Kamara after he was racially abused by Ondrej Kudela last year could be placed alongside him in the face of Diouf. There are two different pictures of the man.
Some people have plastic bags, but he has trophies. Neil Lennon is the only Scottish football man in the pantheon of most talked about Scottish football men over the last two decades. In terms of the wild extremes of emotions he evoked it was probably him and his former manager.
It is certain that a statement will be coming soon that he is officially retired as a player. There will be a new pantomime villain. Whoever you are, bring your A game. The bar has been set high.
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