The Conners season 2 premiere teases that David and Darlene are getting back together. After Roseanne Barr’s controversial exit following the highly successful Roseanne revival, many wondered if a series centered on the remaining members of the Conner clan had a chance to stick around on ABC’s prime time schedule. Those concerns were put to rest when The Conners debuted in 2018 to solid ratings, leading to a Conners season 2 renewal.
Of course, The Conners season 1’s main challenge was dealing with the departure of Barr, the series’ lead actor and one of its main creative voices. Ultimately, the show killed off Barr’s character, tying her death in with a prior storyline about Roseanne getting hooked on opioids. Much of season 1 dealt with the family trying to move on from the death, and it saw Dan (John Goodman), Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), Darlene (Sara Gilbert), Becky (Alicia Goranson) and D.J. (Michael Fishman) grappling with their own feelings while also taking on new personal travails. Now that The Conners season 2 has begun, the show is ready to move on from Roseanne and proceed with exploring the remaining characters as they deal with everything from pregnancy to romantic complications to the difficulties of raising kids.
The Conners season 2 premiere establishes what could be an on-going storyline as the show progresses into its second season. Season 1, of course, saw Darlene gaining a new love interest in Ben (Jay R. Ferguson), her boss at Lanford's tawdry scandal sheet "Lock Em Up", while also being briefly reunited with her long-absent ex-husband David (Johnny Galecki). But at season’s end, it was revealed that David had broken up with his new girlfriend Blue, opening the possibility of him and Darlene getting back together. In the season premiere appropriately titled “Preemies, Weed and Infidelity”, it's revealed that David and Darlene indeed have been seeing each other, even though Darlene is still together with Ben.
At the end of The Conners season 1, Ben had a chance to move his publication to Chicago, and he invited Darlene to make the move with him. We now find out that Darlene is working with Ben in Chicago but is commuting back to Lanford every day. When Darlene arrives home late one night, upsetting Dan who is sick of having to take on child-rearing duties, she confesses to Jackie that she’s actually been taking detours after work to see David. The ever love-lorn Jackie, who has plenty of experience with such matters, warns Darlene to be careful about getting involved in such a love-triangle. Ultimately, Galecki’s David himself doesn’t appear in the episode, though the final scene does see Darlene telling Jackie that David is hidden in her room, a development that suggests she could be ready to dump Ben and get back together with David full-time.
Whether David actually does make an extended return to The Conners depends on how involved Galecki is in season 2. The Big Bang Theory star did make a return for season 1, but his role was limited. In August 2019, Galecki actually teased that he would indeed be back for The Conners season 2 but seemed to indicate his role would be small, as he said he was coming back for a handful of stories. That makes it seem like Galecki isn't making a full return, and that David’s role in the story could wrap up quickly rather than present an ongoing issue throughout the season.
Ultimately, what may matter most is not David’s ongoing presence on The Conners but the effect Darlene’s fling with him has on her relationship with Ben. Season 1 seemed to suggest that Ben could become the show’s new Dan, a protective figure who also serves as a fun sparring partner for Darlene, but now it seems that his whole relationship with Darlene is in peril. It remains to be seen how things will play out on The Conners between Darlene, Ben, and David, but for right now, it seems a lot of complications are on the horizon.