'The Conners' EPs Tease Season 6 Spoilers

'The Conners'

Buckle up, Conners fans. Season 6 of the ABC sitcom is "an emotional rollercoaster," according to executive producer Bruce Helford. "There's plenty of laughs, but there's also going to definitely be some tears this year," he teased to Parade.

The comedy starring John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson, Emma Kenney, Ames McNamara, Jay R. Ferguson and Katey Segal returns for its sixth season Feb. 7. Discussing the new season with Parade, executive producer Dave Caplan said, "I think the Conners are still working hard to get their little piece of the American dream and even though they end up with obstacles, they just don't give up. They support each other and they go for it and they're still going for it."

Related: Everything to Know About Season 6 of The Conners

While Helford told TVLine last year that Season 6 could possibly be the show's last, he admitted to Parade—with five episodes shot at the time—that they "don't know yet."

"I'll say fifty-fifty, if I'm a betting man. But we certainly have plenty to say," Helford shared. "We love doing it."

Apart from there being more stories to tell, he noted, "This is a body of work and a group of people who should stay together as long as possible."

If Season 6 is the show’s last, Caplan added, they “have an idea” for how the series will end. "We ain't going quietly, that's for sure."

Continue reading to find out what The Conners EPs teased about the new season, including minor character-by-character spoilers.

Mark Healy

Season 5 ended with Mark graduating high-school and Season 6 will pick up with him at college, where his mother Darlene is still working as a lunch lady to get him a tuition discount. How will that play out in the weeks again?

“With him at school, it's going to raise some issues,” Helford told Parade. “Having your mother be the lunch lady at your college is a situation, [to say the] least.”

Caplan further revealed that Darlene “can't stop being a mom to her kid at school and he wants his independence. So they have to come to a new understanding and how they do that, I hope will be a nice surprise.”

Darlene Conner

While Mark is dealing with the potential humiliation of having his mom scooping mashed potatoes at his school, Darlene is struggling with an identity crisis (remember, she gave up a managerial position to help her son).

“[Darlene] perceives herself to be an intellectual and a writer, and now her son's friends see her as a lunch lady,” Helford told Parade. In Season 6, we’ll see “how that affects her, her own sense of self,” including a storyline that deals directly with that struggle.

While there will be some “grinning and bearing it,” he added, “there are moments of dissatisfaction.”

Caplan added: “I think one of the things we find is that, we see people make big sacrifices like she's made for Mark, but then what happens the next week and the week after? After everybody's said, ‘Way to go. What a selfless person you are,’ how does she live with the decision she's made? Because she's capable of so much more than she's doing.”

Ben Olinsky

Like his wife, Ben has struggled over the years with professional disappointment, and whether he’ll ever find his way back to a satisfying career path is an outstanding question. “That was the topic of discussion today in the writers' room,” Caplan said. “Like a lot of people who need to work for a living, it's like, How do you pay your bills and still try to follow your dreams? And Ben's going to be faced with that too.”

Helford further teased: “His desire to be a writer, to continue the path that he was on will definitely come up, but in an unexpected way, we hope.”

David Healy

In the world of The Conners, David turned out to be a deadbeat dad, which is a tough pill for some OG Roseanne fans to swallow, even if the character development tracks. Is it possible Johnny Galecki, who plays David, will be back to redeem himself?

“It's very hard. Johnny has a full schedule and we love him and he loves us and he knows he's always welcome and we have occasional conversations, but it hasn't worked out to where we could actually find the time,” Helford told Parade. “And of course, we have to explain his absence, so we have. We want that void to be filled with information because he can't just disappear and not comment on it. And so we do comment on it. But the tale has yet to be told whether he can be available and anything could work out like that. We'd love to have him. I think he'd love to be here, but it hasn't worked out yet.”

Becky Conner

Becky hasn’t been lucky in love over the years, but it seemed by the end of Season 5 that she may have finally met a good man in Tyler (played by Sean Astin). Will she finally get her happily-ever-after in Season 6?

“Everybody has gotten their season of a good relationship and this is Becky's,” Helford said. “A lot of it is the chemistry with the actors, because we've had her date some guys and I think we're always on the lookout for somebody for her that really is gonna be a match, who we want to dig into and talk about and explore the stories behind, and until Sean, it hadn't really happened. We always kind of felt, ‘Okay, this is gonna be a finite relationship.’ With Sean playing Tyler, it's great. They have great fun, they crack each other up. It's really fun to watch them interact. He's finally her long lost love.”

Caplan added that, “from a character perspective, Becky's had to walk over hot coals to get where she is today as a person, and she might finally be in the place where she knows what she wants from a relationship and can make one work. Doesn't mean there aren't still challenges... There's still insecurities and there's still having a relationship when you're a single mom, more or less. But she's earned the right to be happy and it's fun seeing her try to get there.”

Does Dan approve of her new boyfriend?

“He does like him because Tyler's got a good job,” Caplan confirmed. “And so as long as Dan doesn't have to pay for the pizzas, he's happy.”

Dan and Louise

Dan and Louise are in a good place in their marriage, but Louise is “looking for a purpose.” How will that play out this season?

“We have something interesting happening with her that she's going to start pursuing,” Helford told Parade. “Unexpected, but it still has to do with music. And so we're looking forward to doing that.”

Meantime, Dan is going to “do some catching up,” financially speaking. “It ain't the lottery by far, but he's got enough going on where maybe there's a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel and the question is, Can someone who's been behind for so long ever truly enjoy and feel safe or secure? And that's one of the things that Dan is going to be dealing with.”

Harris Healy

Harris has been foundering for a while now. College didn’t work out for her. Walmart didn’t work out for her. But Season 6 moves her character onto a more stable path.

“It will become apparent in the first episode that she's finding a new direction that will kind of transition her into adulthood,” Helford told Parade. “We are gonna see a turn for her in a positive direction.”

Caplan added, “She's got an opportunity coming that would require a huge commitment and we're gonna watch as she tries to step up and make that commitment.”

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Jackie and Neville

Jackie and Neville hit a rough patch in Season 5 when Neville found out that Jackie lied about loaning Dan money. According to Helford, the two “have not quite buried the hatchet about that incident last year, so that's going to raise its head again.”

Caplan added, “There are some big events happening at the Lunch Box that are gonna change the way that Jackie looks at her life a little bit. And that of course is going to affect Neville and her marriage. And as those things play out, Jackie's gonna have to think about what she wants out of life. And so there's some big changes coming for her. Potentially really good changes if she can navigate the landscape. But just as everything seems settled for her, it becomes unsettled again.”

Beverly Harris

One question on fans’ minds is whether Bev might die in Season 6, as last season saw her suffering from dementia.

“Everybody's been speculating about what's going to happen to Bev, their mother,” Helford told Parade, confirming that Estelle Parsons had already shot two episodes of the season thus far. “We're not gonna say where that's going, but I don't think anyone expects it.”

So, does she die? “Well, we're not saying that it's happening,” Caplan said.

“It's a natural course of conversation,” Helford added. “Estelle is 96 years old. What's amazing is she's still doing, like, off Broadway. She's phenomenal…I've never seen anything quite like it.”

Caplan further described Parsons coming to tape as “still a really special moment,” explaining that she “challenges Laurie [Metcalf] in the scenes that Laurie has with her. I think we have someplace where the Bev-Jackie relationship goes that'll be a nice surprise to the viewers.”

The Conners will premiere Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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