Recover consciousness in advance to reach a climax (4,2,1,4)
I believe the answer is:
come to a head
'reach a climax' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'recover consciousness in advance' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'recover' could be 'cometo' (I've seen this before) and 'cometo' is present in the answer.
'advance' could be 'head' (head is a kind of advance) and 'head' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'a' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for come to a head that I've seen before include "Reach a climax" , "arrive in critical condition" , "Reach a critical stage" , "arrive at a crisis" , "Reach crisis point" .)