‘The Conners’: Roseanne ‘Returns’ With Message for Dan in New Preview

The Conners is getting a message from the grave in the newest teaser for Tuesday’s brand new episode. In a new preview that can be viewed on TVLine, Conner family matriarch Roseanne Conner, formerly played by Roseanne Barr, “returns” to send Dan Conner (John Goodman) a cryptic message regarding his relationship with Louise (Katey Sagal). Dan had recently broken things off with Louise, and in the clip he admits the rash decision had to do with guilt he is experiencing over his late wife.

“I miss her…Every time I think about the things I’d be doing with [Louise] — going to concerts, ballgames…anything fun — I feel guilty because I was supposed to be doing that with your mom,” he admits, confirming that he is concerned Roseanne would be angry about his budding relationship. “Oh, no, no, no… she made it very clear that if she went first she wanted me to be miserable for the rest of my life.”

Just as Becky admits “that does sound like her,” she and Dan receive a chilling sign from beyond the grave as a can, nowhere near either of the characters, mysteriously falls from a shelf. Dan obviously takes this as a sign and as of confirmation of his beliefs, pointedly looking at Becky and stating, “she’s here” as he nods his head.

As fans of the series will remember, the family matriarch suddenly died of an opioid overdose during the Season 1 finale. Initially, the family thought Roseanne had died of a heart attack, but eventually they discovered via an autopsy report that it was actually an overdose. She had developed an addiction after being prescribed pain medication after her knee surgery.

The decision to write off the character came after Barr was swept up in controversy following a May 2018 tweet in which she equated former White House advisor Valerie Jarrett to the offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes.” In a statement released shortly after Barr’s comments, ABC said that the remarks were “abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with” the network’s values. Not long after, leading ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey announced that Roseanne had been cancelled. The spinoff series The Conners was later picked up with the entire cast minus Barr, who criticized how her character was written off the reboot.

In a joint statement from Barr and her good friend and podcast host Rabbi Shmluey, they said they “regret that ABC chose to cancel Roseanne by killing off the Roseanne Conner character.” The statement went on to say that “it was done through an opioid overdose lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy family show” and that “this was a choice the network did not have to make.”

New episodes of The Conners air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Previous episodes can be viewed on ABC.com. For more coverage, stay tuned to PopCulture.com.