The Conners brought back a familiar face from Roseanne for its second episode, bringing another turn in Darlene’s love life.
Originally billed as the third episode of the Roseanne-less spinoff series’ first season, “Tangled Up in Blue” aired the Tuesday following the season premiere and brought David Healy (Johnny Galecki) back for a special — and dramatic — appearance.
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The episode saw Darlene (Sara Gilbert) surprised after David arrives to a parent-teacher conference with his girlfriend Blue (Juliette Lewis), also announcing that they will be taking the kids, Harris (Emma Kenney) and Mark (Ames McNamara), for the upcoming weekend.
“Hold up. The kids are staying over? I never agreed to that,” Darlene says, which leaves an awkward pause in the conversation, motivating the teacher to exit the room.
“You said the kids could sleep over sometimes,” David says, breaking the ice.
“That’s just something you say like, ‘They’re your kids too,’” Darlene says. David says he wants to make up for lost time with his children, which convinces his ex to loosen the reins.
David comes back later in the episode and talks to Darlene about the progress of his relationship with Blue.
“Things seem like they’re going well with you and Blue,” Darlene says.
“Yeah, thank you for being so accepting of it,” David says.
“Oh yeah no problem. Um… did you tell her that we slept together like three months ago?” Darlene asks, bringing up their hookup from the Roseanne reboot season. David begs her not to bring that up with Blue, and despite agreeing that they had a good time together, David says he’s invested in his new relationship and that Blue might be his soulmate.
Despite being hurt, Darlene leaves the subject at that, and even opens herself up to a new relationship later that night.
The drama picks up the next morning, however, when David announces to Darlene that Harris had a boy over and they slept together while he was at work. Darlene arrives at his and Blue’s home and confronts Blue about not taking care of the kids properly after she announces that she knew what was going to happen before the boy arrived.
That night, after Darlene and Harris pick up a morning after pill, David apologizes for not being there, but insists that Darlene loosen up on Blue since she will be a part of the children’s lives.
“There’s one last thing,” Darlene says, choking up. “It’s clear that things are serious with you and Blue so… I think it’s time we get a divorce.”
“It makes sense,” David says sadly. “It’s going to be weird not being married to you.”
“Yeah, I would’ve thought it got weird when you started living with another woman but… it’ll be weird not being married to you too,” she adds. The conversation is interrupted by a text from Darlene’s new beau as David goes upstairs to talk to the kids.
What did you think of David’s return? Could he and Darlene find their way back to each other in the future? The Conners airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
