Bruce Helford, one of the executive producers for Roseanne and its spinoff The Conners, says the next episode will lead Mark Conner-Healy down a dark path. After ABC canceled Roseanne season 10, it retooled the series to follow Roseanne Conner's family after her death. The Conners season 4 began airing in September 2021, but it went on a month-long winter hiatus in December. On January 5, it returned with new episodes.
When the Conner family returned to television in 2018, The Conners introduced a whole new generation of Conners to the screen. One of the younger Conners is Darlene's son Mark (Ames McNamara), a creative and energetic boy, who is starting high school at a competitive magnet school in The Conners season 4. While Mark has encountered conflicts in previous seasons both at home and at school, he is usually shown to be determined to overcome those problems. Because of the school's challenging academics, The Conners season 3, episode 18, "Cheating, Revelations, and a Box of Doll Heads" introduces Mark's magnet school as another problem he is determined to overcome, but the next upcoming episode, "Spills, Pills and The Midnight Lasagna", hints that Mark's troubles aren't over.
Executive producers Bruce Helford and Dave Caplan shared with ET what's next for The Conners in the second half of season 4. During the discussion, Helford reveals that Mark turns to drugs in the next episode when he finds himself struggling to keep up with his competitive school. Helford explains further that Mark will face more problems now as a teenager and hints that there may be trouble with his boyfriend, but he promises the character will have "great arcs for the rest of the season". Read Helford's comments to ET, below:
"Like most Conner adolescents, he takes a turn,” Helford says, explaining that Mark turns to pills after he finds himself struggling to keep up at his magnet school.
“That leads us into a few different things,” Helford says. “You know, he has a boyfriend now. And there’s a lot of adolescent problems that he hasn’t shown signs of yet that are now coming to roost.” He adds, “We have great arcs for the rest of the season for him.”
Roseanne often showed its characters struggling and was loved for its honest portrayal of an American family, so ABC wants to continue that style with The Conners. In that vein, The Conners does not shy away from the family's struggle with addiction. In season 1 it was revealed that Roseanne died from an opioid overdose, but Roseanne's addiction carried through all four seasons of the show. The Conners season 3 showed Becky's experience with addiction, and season 4, episode 2, "Education, Corruption, Damnation" has Becky and Darlene discuss their feelings on the topic. Perhaps now it will be explored with Mark.
Helford’s teasing words don’t describe what Mark’s encounter with pills is, so right now there is only speculation. It's difficult to think of Mark going "toward the dark side", as Helford puts it, since he's such a cheerful character, but The Conners is well-practiced in handling difficult subjects with light humor. After three seasons, it’s certain that Mark will face whatever situations he is in with the determination so central to his character.
Source: ET