go back to square one

“Again, we’ve got that globalized, connected network,” Cline notes, “and if that crashes we’re pretty much sunk, at least in the short term. We’ll go back to square one, probably back before the age of steam. We might find ourselves living back in the Middle Ages.”

When no precise motive could be found and no real evidence or murder weapon materialised, the authorities had to go back to square one.

“Or are we going to suddenly pull the emergency stop in the next month or two and go back to square one again?”

"Now they're talking about releasing the water and we're going to have to go back to square one again. It's unbearable."

If he couldn’t find an apartment by the end of this month, he would go back to square one in his search for affordable housing.