'The Conners' Puts Viewers Face-to-Face with Raw Truths

Photo: ABC

by Aprille Hanson-Spivey
I wasn’t expecting to tear up during the Sept. 29 episode “Education, Corruption and Damnation,” but “The Conners” has a way of tapping into the deepest human emotions, while also somehow making you laugh moments later. It’s a real testament not only to the veteran cast, but the writers. 

Roseanne Barr’s early exit from the reboot after her controversial and racist comments has not impacted it the way I thought it would. Again, a testament to the whole team. Something I’ve found refreshing is that the show has continuously weaved in the death of Roseanne Conner from an accidental opioid overdose -- her character has not been forgotten or brushed aside. 

In a recent storyline arc, her daughter Darlene’s (Sara Gilbert) life is more of a mess than usual. The character has dealt with brutal blows in recent years from the death of her mother, the stress of a promotion, constant financial woes, the loss of a close friend and the intense desire to find a moment to relax, even if that means jeopardizing her relationship by hopping a plane to Hawaii with a male coworker she barely knows. She doesn’t get on that plane of course, but it puts what seems to be an irreversible strain on her relationship with Ben (Jay R. Ferguson). The problems have piled up and practically buried her. So, despite being an atheist, she visits a psychic who cannot give her a proper palm reading. There’s too much of a cloud around her aura and the psychic believes it’s due to her lack of faith, spirituality. 

Darlene struggles so much with this news, she gets on her knees and prays to God. It’s a powerful moment because you see someone so broken reaching out to the creator, even if she doesn’t quite know what that means. 

Even though Darlene blames Roseanne a bit for her skepticism, her father Dan Conner (John Goodman) is quick to point out their mother was a believer and plucks out her Bible from the “Bible drawer” in the kitchen. It’s a good moment of comic relief when Darlene just assumes this is fate and it’s a sign, with Dan explaining that the Bible emerging from the Bible drawer that’s been there for years is hardly a sign. Her sister Becky (Lecy Goranson) introduces her to Pastor Phil (Jason Alexander) at her AA meeting who struggled in his own path of sin before becoming a preacher. He’s down to earth, relatable and, at least for this episode and I hope in the future, completely genuine. She decides to go to his church service with Becky and brings along Roseanne’s Bible. 

It’s when the congregation is asked to turn to Isaiah that Darlene runs out of the church. In Roseanne’s Bible is a letter she wrote to God, begging to take away her pain and her addiction. If he just took away the pain, everything would be better. 

My body froze as the scene unfolded. I’d wondered how many times my own mother had shared the same words with God. After a lifelong struggle with Lupus, she herself struggled with opioid addiction that the doctors continuously and recklessly prescribed. Her death in 2012 could be attributed to Lupus and irreversible damage of opioids on her body. 

I felt a deep connection with Darlene in her moment of intense sorrow. She was angry at God. I was angry at God. As a Catholic, I was devastated that my pleading prayers weren’t enough to save my mother. In the years since, I’ve learned that God is not a genie -- something Becky points out to Darlene in a way that isn’t chastising her for her feelings -- and that free will and evil exists. Ultimately, God did take my mother’s pain away, just not in the way I had hoped. 

But it’s important as the country continues to grapple with an opioid crisis to have episodes like this on television. It’s putting viewers face to face with raw truths that could save someone’s life. 

I’m interested to see Darlene’s journey of spirituality and faith unfold because I think it’s something a lot of people can relate to. It wasn’t a perfect, rosy picture of someone’s life immediately turning around once they found God. It was messy, and God is not afraid of messy. 
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I hope the character can find peace and that the struggle can impact even one viewer to take a look at their own life and find a new path because it’s never too late.

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