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While The Conners season 5 took a while to reunite Harris and Darlene under one roof, fortunately, the Roseanne spinoff has finally set this right. Darlene and Harris have, at best, a rocky relationship in The Conners. Like her mother, Harris is a rebellious young adult who yearns for more independence and freedom, but Darlene often worries that her daughter will repeat the mistakes that she made and end up stuck in the same cycle of poverty that the family has been trapped in for generations. To be fair to Harris, her mother hasn’t helped avoid this fate.
While Darlene essentially became The Conners’ new Roseanne over the years following her mother’s sudden death, this hasn’t exactly done wonders for her relationship with Harris. Darlene and Roseanne had a fraught dynamic over the years, with the mother and daughter pairing failing to see eye to eye despite their similarities. If anything, it might have been the fact that Darlene and Roseanne were both so sardonic, sarcastic, and obstinate that made the duo unable to get along with each other. Unfortunately for Harris, Darlene’s daughter has also seemingly inherited Roseanne’s disposition judging by her many barbed comments and her dislike of authority figures.
Season 5 Needed Harris And Darlene Back Together
Conners-Darlene-Harris
However, while Darlene and Harris might struggle to stay civil, this is not a bad thing for The Conners. Becky’s cheery demeanor means that the Roseanne spinoff could end up short on emotionally charged conflict without them, so Darlene and Harris’s many battles give The Conners a tumultuous relationship that is worth exploring. While Darlene finds Harris frustrating, she really does want the best for her daughter, which is why it is surprising that it took from the season premiere until The Conners season 5, episode 16, “Hiding In and Moving Out,” for Harris to move back in with her irascible mother.
The mother/daughter pairing may give each other a hard time, but their dynamic is one of the more grounded and believable relationships in The Conners season 5. Darlene does care for Mark, but her less rebellious, more mellow son doesn’t cause much in the way of meaningful conflict. Similarly, while Dan’s dim view of abortion proves The Conners patriarch is always willing to wade into an argument, he no longer plays as pivotal a role in the lives of his adult children and grandchildren now that Darlene and Becky don’t live with him and Louise anymore. As such, The Conners season 5 truly needed Darlene and Harris reunited.
Dan and Louise’s Season 5 Plot Wasted Harris
Harris and Jackie talk in The Conners season 5
That said, the premise of Harris living with her grandfather and his second wife Louise seemed to set up plenty of inevitable drama at the start of The Conners season 5. Louise made it clear in season 4 that she was not about to be anyone’s mother or grandmother, and The Conners touched on an often-ignored issue by highlighting that Harris couldn’t afford to rent a room elsewhere. However, since Louise soon went on tour, the unlikely housemates never butted heads before Harris moved back in with her mother. The Conners season 5 wasted the storyline’s dramatic potential, proving that the Roseanne spinoff reuniting Harris and Darlene was wiser.
