Crystal Returns to The Conners: What Did We Learn About the Legacy Roseanne Character?
An extended member of the Conner family just returned after a six-year absence.
Season 6, Episode 5 of the Roseanne spinoff welcomed back legacy cast member Natalie West as Roseanne and Dan’s longtime friend (and Dan’s eventual stepmother) Crystal Anderson, who was last seen midway through The Conners’ inaugural 2018 run. But before we get to what brought Crystal back after all these years, let’s recap where she’s been and what we already knew from previous episodes of Roseanne’s 2018 revival and its long-running offshoot.
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West was a series regular in Roseanne Seasons 3 and 4, and recurred before and after. Crystal appeared in a total of 59 episodes across Roseanne‘s 10 seasons.
In Roseanne Season 3, Crystal got involved with Dan’s deadbeat dad Ed (played by the late Ned Beatty). They eventually married and had two children, Ed Jr. and Angela. Crystal also had a son, Lonnie, from a previous marriage.
When West reprised Crystal in a pair of Season 10 episodes, she made no mention of Ed Sr. or their children. What’s more, her ring finger was naked. Had she and Ed divorced?
She then returned in The Conners’ October 2018 premiere to grieve Roseanne, along with Dan and the rest of the family. That was followed by an additional appearance later that season, at which point we learned that Crystal tired of retirement and returned to her service job at a local casino. That was the last we saw of her.
The following season, Dan found out — via the obituary page in the local paper — that Ed Sr. died. Father and son had not spoken in 20 years. Or so we were told.
Soon after, Dan reconnected with Ed Jr. (played by Noel Fisher). Jr. in passing mentioned a younger sister — that’d be Angela, who was just an infant in Roseanne Season 6 — but neither Dan nor Jr. acknowledged Crystal or Lonnie during that Season 2 arc.
