While Darlene struggled throughout both Roseanne’s original run and its spinoff, The Conners season 6 premiere saw the show finally address her complicated story. Darlene had a hard time during Roseanne’s nine seasons, but the sitcom made it seem like she was destined for great things. Darlene was smart, savvy, and a great support to her family and her love interest, David Healy, who came from an abusive home. As such, it was an unwelcome shock when Roseanne’s series finale revealed that David ended up with Becky, not Darlene. Roseanne’s revival retconned this, but not the way viewers expected.
Before Roseanne was killed off and Roseanne’s heroes became The Conners’ cast of characters, the season 10 revival revealed that Darlene and David broke up after having two children together. To make matters worse, the series clarified that Darlene was still very much living on the poverty line, as was the rest of her family. When Roseanne was killed off and the revival was retooled into The Conners, Darlene’s professional life became even more of a struggle. The magazine she worked out closed down, she was fired from Wellman’s Plastics, and she eventually became an over-qualified lunch lady.
What Darlene & Dan’s Conversation In The Conners Season 6, Episode 1 Means
Darlene and Dan finally addressed the Roseanne heroine’s hard life
Dan & Darlene from The Conners season 6 intro and Roseanna from season 10 introCustom Image by Sam MacLennan
In The Conners season 6, episode 1, “The Publisher Cops Show Pilot,” Darlene encountered an old colleague while on a road trip into the city with her father, Dan. When Dan began boasting about Darlene’s old magazine job, Darlene was convinced that Dan was embarrassed by her current situation. However, when she confronted him about this, her father insisted that he was proud of her choices and that she was the one dismissing her achievements. While The Conners season 7 might improve Darlene’s circumstances, Dan noted that it was Darlene’s decision to sacrifice for her family that shaped her life.
Dan argued that Darlene was a success since her work had paid off by helping her children, her sister Becky, and even Dan himself through some tough times. While this was a tough truth for Darlene to hear, it did revisit a recurring theme that has cropped up throughout both Roseanne and The Conners throughout the years. In both shows, members of the central family had to sacrifice lucrative opportunities to help support their loved ones, thus unavoidably continuing a cycle of generational poverty. These are heavy, dark themes, and The Conners season 6 premiere made an admirable stand at handling them.
The Conners Season 6 Has Justified Retconning Darlene’s Roseanne Ending
Darlene lost out on her promising Roseanne ending for good reason
She did seem destined for bigger things at the end of the original show but, as Dan pointed out, Darlene consistently chose to prioritize helping her family and children over herself. While The Conners added Ben to its cast early on, thus providing Darlene with better support, the show’s decision to reveal that David and Darlene were never able to salvage their relationship was telling. Many sitcoms provide their central couples with comforting happy endings despite how unrealistic they might be, but The Conners treated Darlene just as harshly as Roseanne treated its heroine.
Like Roseanne, Darlene is a committed mother who has always done everything she can for her children. However, Roseanne rarely gave its heroine a lucky break (until its roundly reviled final season opened with an unlikely lottery win). As such, it makes sense that Darlene’s marriage to David didn’t work out and The Conners retconned the couple’s happy ending decades after Roseanne’s original finale had done the same. Both the original sitcom and its spinoff display a refreshingly honest approach to depicting working-class life, and David and Darlene’s inability to make their relationship work made sense in this context.
How The Conners’ Season 6 Premiere Sets Up Darlene’s Recovery
Harris and Mark succeeding means that Darlene can focus on herself
Emma Kenney’s Harris and Sara Gilbert’s Darlene sit on a bed together talking in The Conners season 2
As Dan noted when he told Darlene she wasn’t a failure, Mark will not be in college forever. Meanwhile, the episode’s main plot saw Darlene’s older daughter, Harris, take over The Lunchbox, meaning she will likely be less dependent on her mother going forward. Darlene’s attempts to provide for her children and help out her family have taken a lot out of her and cost her dearly in her professional life. However, although Mark was absent from The Conners season 6 premiere, he is now the only member of the family who is completely reliant on her.
As Mark grows up and becomes employed, Darlene will be able to spend more time on her own personal and professional life. Not only that, but she has great support in the form of Ben, who provides a more solid and stable base than David could. Darlene’s life could take a turn for the better in season 6, although this will only happen if she takes Dan’s point to heart. Her father meant it when he said that The Conners heroine had nothing to be ashamed of, as Roseanne’s spinoff proves she is always working to help her family.
