Now that Roseanne retooling The Conners has revealed that Mark is struggling with an addiction, viewers are understandably curious about how this will affect the romance between his mother Darlene and her former boss Ben. Darlene and Ben have not had an easy time together on The Conners. Across the show’s four seasons, the couple has been dating, hooking up, broken up, (almost) engaged, and now seemingly reunited again.
However, The Conners seemingly bringing Ben and Darlene back together may not last long, judging by one major season 4 storyline. In The Conners “Spills, Pills and The Midnight Lasagna” (season 4, episode 10), it was revealed that Darlene’s precocious son Mark was addicted to ADHD medication and had been hiding this fact from his family for some time. The reality of dealing with this difficult issue may soon drive a wedge between Ben and Darlene again, particularly given how little Ben has been involved with Darlene’s home life until this point.
The revelation that Mark had been secretly taking Logan’s ADHD medication to cope with stress was a dark twist for The Conners, particularly when Roseanne's retooling killed off its former title star via a prescription pill overdose only a few seasons ago. However, given how little Mark has factored in season 4 so far and how much of The Conners’ overarching storylines have centered around his mother’s love life, fans are understandably wondering how this issue will affect the “will they, won’t they” romance of Ben and the sardonic Darlene. Ben has never been all that stable a presence in Mark’s life and is not much of a father figure, but the pressure of helping Darlene with her son’s issue could potentially bring the two closer than ever. However, Ben (like Darlene) has also been pretty historically self-interested, and may well bolt at the first sign of Darlene sharing this struggle.
Thus far, The Conners has not mentioned Mark’s father David, who could return to help parent the ambitious but troubled kid. However, The Conners pairing off Ben and Darlene at Dan and Louise’s wedding seemed to imply that the couple might have a future together despite their brutal breakup at the start of season 4. As such, bringing David back into the fold thanks to Mark’s addiction could complicate things between the two and jeopardize Ben and Darlene’s hopes of a happy reunion.
Ultimately, the question of how Mark’s addiction will affect Ben and Darlene depends on each character’s reactions to the issue. Ben could prove surprisingly supportive of Darlene’s choice to return Mark to public school and Darlene may be glad to get the help, but both characters have previously proven explosive enough to start a fight over less important issues. As such, there’s a good chance that, unlike Roseanne’s death improving Dan’s character on The Conners, Mark’s struggles won’t be good news for Ben and Darlene’s prospects on the Roseanne retooling.