The Conners Season 6’s Darlene & Ben Story Repeats A Worrying Roseanne Dynamic

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Conners season 6, episode 9.

Although The Conners has improved Darlene’s character since Roseanne, one worrying trait of hers still rears its head in season 6 of the sitcom spinoff. The Conners has a large cast of characters, but some of them are more pivotal than others. Even though DJ, Becky, and Darlene are all Roseanne and Dan’s children, DJ was dropped from the spinoff before season 5 began because of how few of the show’s stories centered around his character. Although The Conners season 7 may change this when she graduates from studying Psychology, Becky gets fewer season 6 storylines than Darlene.

Some of season 6’s best moments have focused on Becky, such as the emotional moment when she explained to her daughter Beverly-Rose that her first love Mark died when they were still young. This was the first time The Conners addressed this real-life Roseanne tragedy and the moment proved that Becky could potentially be the show’s lead character. Despite this, Darlene has always been the child that Roseanne’s spinoff centered on. This can sometimes be a problem for the series when she asks too much of her father, as seen in season 6, episode 8, “Manifesting, Marriage Testing, and Cheeseballs.”

The Conner Season 6 Brought Back Darlene’s Reliance On Dan

The Roseanne Character Convinced Her Father To Work Late

This outing saw Darlene’s husband, Ben, decide that he would keep his hardware store open later so he could get a leg up on the corporate competition. Since Darlene’s cafeteria worker job meant that she worked morning shifts, the couple were soon barely seeing each other. Darlene guilt-tripped Dan into working late shifts at the hardware store, driving a wedge between Dan and his wife Louise. Louise’s The Conners season 6 role isn’t well-defined, but she always made it clear that she didn’t want to be a surrogate mother or grandmother to Dan’s adult children or their kids.

Since Louise and Dan had argued over him prioritizing his children’s needs over his marriage numerous times before, it was pretty egregious when Darlene tried to get him to fix her sex life. She asked Dan to cover for Ben so that she and Ben could have more intimate time together, which seemed like something her father shouldn’t be concerned with in the first place. Although Louise did give this idea her blessing, the entire subplot served to underline an unfortunate reality. For a long time, Darlene has relied way too much on her parents, and it hasn’t helped anyone involved.

Darlene’s Reliance On Her Parents Dates Back To Roseanne

Roseanne’s Later Seasons Saw Darlene Lean On Their Help

Although Darlene leaning on Dan’s assistance might seem like a bad The Conners season 6 story trend, this issue predates the spinoff entirely. In later seasons of Roseanne, Darlene’s younger self became heavily reliant on her parents when she was dating David Healy. David’s terrible home life made his staying at the Conners’s house understandable, but Darlene ended up moving out and leaving her parents to effectively raise her ex-boyfriend before the couple reunited. This behavior continued in Roseanne’s revival, where Darlene expected her parents to care for her kids while also understandably objecting to Rosenne’s discipline methods.

Darlene and Dan’s Dynamic Can Be Sweet In The Conners

Season 6’s Premiere Gave The Father/Daughter Duo A Poignant Subplot

Although Darlene’s reliance on her parents has a long history, it is not without its sweet moments. In The Conners season 6, episode 1, “The Publisher Cops Show Pilot,” Darlene confronted Dan when he boasted about her past achievements to a former classmate of hers. Darlene presumed Dan was bringing these events up since he was embarrassed by her current job. Instead, Dan proved he is one of the most pivotal characters in The Conners when he pointed out that he wasn’t embarrassed by Darlene’s current work, but proud of all the sacrifices she made to support her kids.

Why The Conners Struggles With Darlene and Dan

The Spinoff’s History Doesn’t Help Their Dynamic

This sentiment was sweet, but it didn’t make Darlene’s discomfiting boundary-crossing in “Manifesting, Marriage Testing, and Cheeseballs” any more justifiable. This awkwardness was inevitable since the pair’s unbalanced relationship is written into the spinoff’s creative DNA. The reason that Darlene and Dan’s relationship feels so weird is that they are both the main characters of The Conners and the show never decided which one of them should be the primary protagonist. When Roseanne was canceled in 2018, producers originally considered a Darlene-centric spinoff before making The Conners. The series never stopped treating Darlene as its heroine, but Dan vied for the main role.

The Conners still struggles with using both Dan and Darlene as its main characters, resulting in storylines like the 70-year-old man building Darlene a house for free. This is a weird dynamic that makes sense since, if Darlene was less intensely close with her father, the show would be following two separate plots at any given time. Similarly, Jackie’s The Conners storylines provide some of the show’s funniest moments, so it is easy for viewers to forget that Jackie seemingly spends more time with Dan and his children than she does with her husband Neville.

The Conners Season 6’s Darlene/Dan Stories Hurt A Pivotal Relationship

Dan’s Wife Louise Understandably Wants Some of His Time

Darlene asked her father to take extra shifts at work so she could get time with Ben, when Louise already told Dan they don’t spend enough time together. This seems like trouble brewing. Louise’s issues with Dan’s relationship with his children make sense since she consistently tells him she needs him to make more time for their relationship. Only one episode earlier, in “Toilet Hacks and The Management Track,” Louise convinced Dan to stop giving DIY classes because he was burning himself out. However, his precious free time was quickly taken away by Darlene’s attempts to paper over relationship troubles.

Ever since Roseanne’s revival brought the Conners back to TV screens and killed off the show’s heroine, Dan and Darlene have been the two most important characters in the series. This has resulted in an odd, sometimes uncomfortably close relationship between the two since the series needs them to hang out constantly to focus on both of its main characters simultaneously. Now, Louise’s complaints about Dan ignoring her have proven fair and a serious fight could break out between the couple. If it does, it will be because The Conners never worked out how to balance Roseanne‘s main characters.