While The Conners season 6 might be the last outing for Roseanne’s spinoff, this is all the more reason for the series to give one of its leading ladies the send-off that she deserves. The Conners has a longer history than viewers might assume. Originally titled Roseanne, the working-class family sitcom debuted way back in 1988. Roseanne lasted for 9 seasons, telling the story of the Conner family and their struggles. In 2017, ABC revived Roseanne for a belated tenth season that retconned much of Roseanne season 9 while bringing back the entire original cast. This revival earned positive reviews and superb ratings but didn’t last long.
In 2018, Roseanne Barr was fired from Roseanne (subsequently retitled The Conners) due to racist tweets directed at Valerie Jarrett. This left showrunners in the unenviable position of trying to write a show that is essentially “Roseanne sans Roseanne.” What the creators came up with was The Conners, a family sitcom that focused on the surviving members of Roseanne’s family. While the first episode of The Conners confirmed that Roseanne died offscreen from an opioid overdose, the show regularly incorporates a range of Roseanne characters into its narrative. It’s from this pool of much-loved figures that The Conners should extract a meaningful season 6 send-off.
The Conners Season 5 Already Set Up Bev’s Death
Killing off Roseanne left The Conners with a lot of supporting characters who no longer had a clear role in the new series since Roseanne defined their original connection to the family. The Conners featured cameos from Roseanne cast members like Estelle Parsons as Bev – Roseanne and Jackie’s mother. However, with Roseanne gone, Jackie’s relationship with the cantankerous Bev was fundamentally altered. Throughout Roseanne’s original run, Roseanne and Bev would sometimes stop their fighting to gang up on Jackie. This meant Jackie was never close with Bev and made Bev’s appearances in The Conners darker than her earlier Roseanne role. However, The Conners season 5 fixed this.
In The Conners season 5, episode 8, “Of Missing Minds and Fries,” Jackie confronted her mother over years of abuse and mistreatment. However, after giving Bev a thorough dressing down, Jackie was horrified to realize that the aging Bev was suffering from dementia. Unlike most of The Conners season 5’s cameos, this guest appearance was a devastating and tragic one as Jackie came to terms with the fact that her mother’s mind was not what it used to be. No longer able to confront her mother over her history of abuse, Jackie decided to bury their longstanding beef after decades of feuding in the season’s most poignant scene. This heartfelt moment set the stage for a more final departure as The Conners draws to a close.
The Conners Owes Bev A Proper Death
Custom image of a frowning Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) and grinning Beverly (Estelle Parsons) in The Conners)
Now that Bev and Jackie have made peace, it makes sense for The Conners season 6 to kill off Roseanne’s mother. After she wasn’t seen at all in The Conners seasons 2—4, a proper death is the least that the Roseanne spinoff could do for this character, given her history in both the original show and its reboot. Bev was instrumental in the success of Roseanne during the ‘90s and remained a fan-favorite character even after Roseanne was killed off in 2018. As such, instead of The Conners prioritizing more celebrity cameos, season 6 of the spinoff should devote some substantial screen time to Bev’s final days and give the supporting star the send-off that she deserves.
Bev’s Death Fixes 2 Conners Storylines
While Jackie managed to settle her history with Bev before the character died, this is not the only lingering plot in which the character has a part to play. Bev’s financial situation has never been clear throughout both Roseanne and The Conners, with the sneaky character often hiding her investments from her children. Jackie was understandably outraged in The Conners season 2 when she discovered that her mother still owned the deed to The Lunchbox, a restaurant that Bev had once operated, even though Jackie was paying significant money to house her mother in a home. However, Mark’s college plotline could benefit from this sly hoarding in a surprising way.
The inheritance that Bev leaves behind after her death could allow Becky to move out of Darlene’s house and Mark to go to college. This, in turn, would mean that Darlene could quit her job as a cafeteria worker in Mark’s college and return to the managerial roles that she finds more personally satisfying. Mark could attend college without having to worry about how much this will be costing his family, and Becky could gain the independence from the eponymous family that she claims she has wanted for years. As her daughter Beverly-Rose gets older and Becky’s romance with Tyler blossoms, it makes sense that Becky would want more room for herself and her family.
