‘The Conners’ Finale Closes the Book on ‘Roseanne’ — How Did the Series End?

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Conners Season 7, Episodes 5 & 6.]

The Conners bid viewers adieu in the series finale of ABC‘s Roseanne spinoff, and it was a tearful endeavour as the TV family said goodbye for the last time.

Delivered in two parts, the finale kicked off with Dan (John Goodman) preparing for the deposition that could win him and his family big bucks for the wrongful death of matriarch Roseanne (Roseanne Barr). Meanwhile, Mark (Ames McNamara) is presented with the opportunity to join a cybersecurity training program with a promise of employment.  The catch? It’s in New York City.

Darlene (Sara Gilbert) isn’t a big fan of this idea, especially when Mark tells his mother he doesn’t plan to attend college, leaving the duo on opposing sides of the argument. Meanwhile, Becky (Lecy Goranson) and Tyler (Sean Astin) decide to combine their funds and struggle to decide what they’ll spend their money on. He wants a house, but she’s determined to own a new vehicle. Ultimately, she does what she wants, but it’s a meaningful moment for someone who has struggled to get where she’s at, and Tyler doesn’t hold it against her.

As for Dan’s new wife, Louise (Katey Sagal), she’s having a hard time deciding where her place is in their marriage as he focuses on Roseanne with the ongoing case against the opioid companies. And Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) prepares for her physical tests to rejoin the police force, leading to some comical moments.

Disney / Christopher Willard

When Mark is gearing up to leave, it’s a heart-to-heart from Dan that sways Darlene to send off her son with warmth and hope, explaining that she had always envisioned him going to college, but that she respects his choice to leave. As that first farewell delivered an emotional punch, the second half of the episode made way for even more tear-inducing moments as Dan stepped into the deposition with Louise by his side.

During the discussion with representatives for the opioid company alongside lawyers, Dan gives an impassioned speech about Roseanne, fighting for her honor after her fatal overdose. His words about Roseanne being the love of his life raise concerns for Louise, though, who worries once again where her place is in his life, but Dan reassures her that she’s the love he needs right now.

Meanwhile, Becky and Harris (Emma Kenney) worry that Darlene may stray from her husband Ben (Jay R. Ferguson) as he continues to focus on work. Darelene does connect with Chad (Seth Green) over drinks, but when he propositions her, she ejects herself from the situation, leading her to have an important discussion with Ben about fidelity and how she’s not going to go anywhere but with him.

Later on, Dan receives a check settling his case, but it isn’t a win, meaning the money is merely for any inconveniences Dan experienced. Deciding it was a perfect opportunity to visit Roseanne, the whole family gathers at her graveside to open the envelope, only to discover a check for a mere seven hundred dollars.

Disney / Christopher Willard

While it’s not the payday they were hoping for, Dan can’t help but laugh along with his family over the irony of it all. During the gathering graveside, Jackie reveals she passed her tests and is back on the police force, leading to a fun celebration back at the Conner house. It’s there that the family enjoys food and drinks before parting ways, pair by pair departing the home with tearful goodbyes because it’s the final goodbye. The last minutes are played out with clips from the original Roseanne, an ode to the fans who have stuck around all these decades.

Speaking to executive producers Bruce Helford, Dave Caplan, and Bruce Rasmussen, the creatives offer an insider perspective of the series finale below.

Goodbye to Mark

While it was tough saying goodbye to Mark in an episode earlier than the rest of the cast, Helford points out, “Ames had to go back to Harvard.” Caplan adds, “He literally had to go to college.” In other words, Mark may not have decided to take the collegiate route for his future, but star McNamara did, leading to an earlier departure than the rest of his costars. Still, Caplan adds, “So much of Mark getting into college as the hope for the next generation of Conners was a thread we played through a lot of seasons and a lot of stories. So it really did deserve its own episode rather than being kind of pushed in with a lot of other things that we needed to wrap up, and we were happy to give that thing the room that we thought it deserved.”

Louise’s Deposition Blues & Roseanne’s Farewell

Disney / Christopher Willard

It was important to the writers to highlight Louise’s mixed feelings about Roseanne’s case and Dan’s commentary about his first wife. “She’s always going to be wanting to know what her place is in Dan’s life, and if it gets shaken a little bit, we want to see that it comes out at the end,” Caplan notes. Thankfully, the couple are able to sort out their feelings before the final curtain, but the story about the deposition and wanting to pursue justice stems directly from a Supreme Court ruling that overturned the immunity of the opioid manufacturers. “That was not just about Roseanne, but Roseanne kind of represents all of the working-class families who never felt they got justice because they never got their turn at bat,” Helford says.

That Small Payout

According to the EPs, the small settlement check Dan receives is influenced by real-life cases. “I did a lot of research on how they figured out how much paying there was,” Rasmussen says of the plotline delivering Dan and family a mere seven hundred dollars. “It was built off of reality,” Caplan echoes. “But we also thought it was symbolic of the fact that the working class is never going to beat the corporate rich in our country, and we might want to start coming to grips with that fact.”

That Teary Final Scene

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No fake tears were detected on set in the final moments of that last episode as Helford puts it, “The floodgates started opening during the graveyard scene, and that’s when everybody started to get emotional and started to realize, ‘Holy s**t, this is it.’ And then we did not want to end with the audience feeling sad or bad. So we went back to the house, and then when Laurie said goodbye, and she said goodbye for real…”

“We didn’t expect any of that to happen,” Rasmussen reveals. “Maybe we should have known that when they walked away from that couch for the last time, that we were going to get what we got,” Caplan admits. Ultimately, what fans are seeing onscreen is fully genuine as Helford reveals, “We decided to air the real reaction.”

Those Roseanne Clips

In the episode’s final moments, clips of the characters from Roseanne play, but why were they included, and how did those clips make the final cut? “The idea was to show the scope of the show. It was 37 years of those people being together, 15 years of them actually performing those characters. And for people who either didn’t remember or would love to see them again, we thought that it would be interesting to have them be able to compare them side by side in the episode,” Helford explains. It’s a show about family and “to give a scope to the size of the legacy,” was a goal Helford says.

“Dan’s line when he says, ‘If we have each other, that’s all we need…’ I wrote that line, and I kept saying to these guys, I think it’s too sappy. And I just couldn’t think of anything better,” Rasmussen says. “I just couldn’t think of a better line.”

What did you think of The Conners series finale? Let us know in the comments section below.