Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The Conners season 7, episodes 5 and 6, "Exercise Bands, Money Plans, and Faraway Land" and "The Truck Stops Here."

While The Conners’ large cast of characters gave the series too many story options.

Wisely, The Conners season 7 centered most of its plots on the core family and found a way to bring back the memory of Roseanne that didn’t feel jarring or distasteful. Inspired by real-life cases of families receiving compensation from pharmaceutical companies after their loved ones lost their lives to addiction, Jackie convinced the family to take the manufacturers of the painkillers that killed Roseanne to court. Since Roseanne's death started The Conners, it was fitting for the series finale to end by focusing on the same tragedy.

What Happened To The Conners' Lawsuit About Roseanne's Death

Dan’s Deposition Didn’t Win His Case in The Conners Season 7 Ending

In the penultimate episode, “Exercise Bands, Money Plans, and Faraway Lands,” Mark exited the series on a surprisingly positive note. Instead of Jackie reporting his illegal job as an email hacker, she helped him get an interview with a legitimate cybersecurity firm. Mark immediately received a job offer and the opportunity to move to New York, leading to a tearful goodbye in the episode’s closing scene. This means the finale itself, “The Truck Stops Here,” could focus on Dan’s court case against the pharmaceutical company.

Dan tried his best at the deposition and Jean’s replacement helped him along, but the pharmaceutical company didn’t it any liability in Roseanne’s death.

Things immediately went awry when The Conners season 7’s best new character, Jane Lynch’s lawyer Jean, wasn’t present. Dan tried his best at the deposition and Jean’s replacement helped him along, but the pharmaceutical company didn’t it any liability in Roseanne’s death. The check they gave Dan was merely $700 for transport expenses and, crushingly, he found this out only after assembling the family at Roseanne’s grave to dramatically open it. As strange as it may sound, the Goliath of unfeeling big business beating the eponymous working-class middle-American family felt like a surprisingly fitting end for the show.

Throughout Roseanne’s original run, its 2017 revival, and The Conners, the Conners have been a hard-working, proud family whose efforts barely keep them above the poverty line. The Conners season 7 finale stayed true to the show’s spirit when Dan lost his case, with the sitcom refusing to sugarcoat the harsh reality that ordinary civilians rarely win against massive wealthy corporations. The daily struggle to fight against this injustice and to simply put food on the table continues for the Conner family, although some of them found stability by the finale’s ending.

Becky & Darlene Both Got Their Happy Endings

Ben and Darlene Fixed Their Marriage In The Finale

Since The Conners season 7 episode 4 centered Becky’s story, her happy ending was guaranteed by the beginning of “Exercise Bands, Money Plans, and Faraway Lands.” She and Tyler set up a t so they could put their money to better use and start saving for their future together, but ran into a snag when Becky wanted to buy herself a new truck. Since it meant a lot to her, and she was accustomed to getting by with less, Tyler understood and Becky made the comparatively lavish purchase.

Meanwhile, Darlene ended her friendship with Seth Green’s charismatic but downbeat barfly Chad when she realized she was effectively having an affair by spending every night drinking with him. She confronted Ben about his absence and he promised to be more present to her in the future, with the couple reconciling in the finale. Strangely, The Conners season 7 ignored Darlene's best potential ending which could have seen her start working at Ben’s magazine with him.

As noted in a 2018 VanityFair article, Darlene always harbored ambitions of becoming a writer but put this dream on pause to have children. She could have returned to this in season 7 now that Mark and Harris were both largely financially independent and Ben was running a magazine, but the thought seemingly never occurred to any of the show’s characters.

Jackie Returns To The Police Force

Jackie ed Her All-Important Physical

While Becky and Darlene’s happy relationships carried some poignant weight, Jackie’s series finale fate was pure comedy as usual. Laurie Metcalf’s consistently funny comic relief character ed the physical required to re the police force so, despite Jackie’s advanced age in The Conners season 7, she was a police officer once again by the finale. This felt like a fun full-circle moment for the heroine since she last worked as a cop in Roseanne’s original run. Since then, she found happiness and married Neville, making her return to the force a well-earned win for the lovable, unhinged heroine.

How The Conners Finally Determined Louise's Role In The Family

Louise and Dan Addressed Roseanne’s Memory In Season 7's Ending

For years, The Conners has struggled with defining the role Katey Sagal’s Louise plays in the spinoff. Sagal’s character became Dan’s new love interest back in season 2, around a year after Roseanne's death. Although the pair got married in season 4, Louise was always adamant about never becoming Roseanne’s replacement. She refused to be a mother figure to Dan’s adult children and often chided him for spending more time and energy on them than he devoted to their marriage.

Dan reassured Louise that she and Roseanne were both the loves of his life, saying that his life started all over when she entered it.

As such, it was tough for Louise to hear Dan describe Roseanne as “The love of my life” during his deposition. However, when the pair returned home, Dan reassured Louise when he used the same phrase to describe her, saying that his life started all over when she entered it. Louise’s role in The Conners season 7 finally feels like it makes sense thanks to this comment, as she is neither a replacement for Roseanne nor a superfluous side character, but rather a valued love interest in her own right.

The Conners Ending Stayed True To Roseanne's Legacy

The Family Visited Roseanne’s Grave in The Conners Season 7 Ending

The Conners series finale remained true to the spirit of Roseanne as the titular family kept fighting the working-class fight, and the show made the link to its predecessor explicit when the finale scenes saw them visit her grave. One by one, the Conner family made their peace with the loss of Roseanne, culminating in John Goodman’s Dan leaving her grave with a devastating final goodbye. The Conners season 7 finale ended with a series of clips from Roseanne’s original run, as well as Dan quietly saying good night to the audience at home.

Source: TVLine

VanityFair

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