Ever since Ben and Darlene’s breakup, Ben’s role on The Conners has been unclear, but Jackie’s Lunchbox plot helped with this issue – and proved Ben’s storylines don’t need Darlene and Dan to work. The Conners season 4 has recently struggled with some of the titular family member’s subplots. The Conners doesn’t know what to do with Becky, as evidenced by her recent Professor Davis breakup, and the sitcom spinoff seems unsure on whether or not to recite Darlene with her daughter Harris.
However, one of the most jarring relationships on The Conners has been Ben’s connection to the entire eponymous family as a unit. As an individual character, Ben dated Darlene throughout The Conners seasons 1–3 and rejected her proposal in season 4, resulting in a bitter breakup. Since then, The Conners season 4 has been unclear on how to use the character’s connection to the Conners—although one subplot came a long way to fixing this.
Throughout The Conners season 4, it has been a little weird to see the man established as Dan’s co-worker and Darlene’s love interest involved in all facets of the titular family’s life since his breakup with Darlene. Ben’s presence in The Conners shooting episode, for example, seemed somewhat forced since he had no reason to be at home with the family. Equally well, his involvement with Darlene handling Mark’s ADHD medication addiction was odd, particularly when he didn’t intervene with Harris’s decision to move out of the family home. However, having him help Jackie with the Lunchbox proved he just wants to be part of the family and doesn’t only exist as Dan’s co-worker and Darlene’s potential romantic partner — making his earlier offer to co-sign a lease with Darlene more believable as a result.
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In “Gas Pump, House Dump and Stew Volcano” (season 4, episode 16), the typically unhinged Jackie attempted to turn Ben’s modest offer to film her commercial into a surreal magnum opus, inevitably earning his ire in the process. Cutting The Conners’ Dan and Darlene from the subplot meant that Ben was left to interact with one of the Conners clan members that he rarely encounters. This led to some funny moments as the pair clashed but, more importantly, allowed The Conners to establish that Ben really does want to help out the family whether or not he is dating Darlene.
Since it seems increasingly inevitable that the couple will reunite at some point, subplots like this are invaluable for the sitcom. Depicting Ben as someone who is part of the Conners family through good times and bad means that his relationship with Darlene will be re-established on stronger foundations once the couple reunites. However, this also means The Conners needs to stage Ben-centric subplots that don’t involve Dan or Darlene. Whether viewers will need to wait until The Conners season 5 for Ben and Darlene to reunite is not yet clear, but The Conners is laying the groundwork for this by involving Ben in all facets of the family’s life and not just attaching his plot lines to those of Dan and Darlene.
