‘The Conners’ Guts Fans With Tragic Plot Twist

The Conners and Roseanne do not shy away from tearing out the hearts of fans in between laughs throughout their respective runs. A prime example happened earlier in the season with the return of Estelle Parsons for another appearance, only to reveal her character was dealing with dementia. And that was the Thanksgiving episode!

Season five of the show wasn’t finished, though. With the 16th episode of the season, the show tore apart another character, this time one of the newer additions to the Conner family.

In a prior episode, it was revealed that Darlene’s daughter, Harris, was pregnant. It seemed like a wonderful surprise for the show and a treat for the family despite years of rough landings. But as the latest episode reveals, nothing good lasts forever.

As the latest The Conners reveals, Harris has suffered a miscarriage after suffering some pain she thought was just bad stomach cramps. But as the show has done plenty of times in the past, the reaction from Harris is unexpected.

“I mean, I wasn’t planning to have a baby before I got pregnant,” Harris tells Jackie and her family after the bad news. “And even though I decided to keep it, I guess I should be kind of relieved, right?”

This turns out to be a little dicey once Darlene opens her mouth and the true drama rears itself. “Of course you would think that,” Harris tells Darlene in response to the mother’s claim that things worked out for the best. “You didn’t want me to have the baby to begin with, so I bet you’re really relieved.”

“No matter what you think, I would never, ever want you to go through something like this,” Darlene eventually tells her daughter. “There is not one bit of this that makes me happy. That was going to be my grandkid…ou were just starting to wrap your head around keeping [the baby], and getting excited about being a mom, then suddenly that’s taken away.”

Darlene is also quick to shut down Harris’ feelings that it was her fault that the miscarriage happened. “Just the fact that you feel like you didn’t do enough means that, one day, you’re going to be a great mom,” Darlene says.

Despite its controversial origin, The Conners does manage to keep the spirit of Roseanne alive. The Conners airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.