‘The Conners’: Is Johnny Galecki Becoming a Regular in Season 2?

What a long year it’s been for the Conner family, both on-screen and off. It hasn’t even been a year since the Roseanne revival returned to blockbuster ratings, and the show’s swift cancellation and replacement with the Roseanne Barr-less The Conners only happened 8 months ago. In the meantime, we got 9 episodes of Roseanne followed by 11 episodes of The Conners, a true TV saga that came to a close with the Conners season finale.

Even though it marks the end of a truly tumultuous year, The Conners finale sure doesn’t feel like the last chapter of the blue collar family’s story. The episode, “We Continue to Truck,” sets up a whole lot of plot that could easily propel The Conners into Season 2–and it might even set-up the full-time return of a major Roseanne character. Obviously there are spoilers ahead for the season finale!

A lot happens in the episode, but the development that will no doubt get longtime viewers excited has to be the surprise return of Johnny Galecki as David, Darlene’s high school sweetheart and ex-husband. He shows up at the exact worst time, too. Darlene’s spent the entire finale trying to tie up all her loose ends in Landford so she can move her kids to Chicago to be with her new boyfriend Ben (Jay R. Ferguson) and continue writing for the tabloid he runs. She gets the go ahead from Becky and Dan, and she even tells her kids. And then comes David.

It turns out that David has left Blue, his earthy new partner played by Juliette Lewis. He left her because she wants to have kids and David doesn’t. He already has kids, and he still loves Darlene. This doesn’t become the romantic reunion Darlavid/Davlene shippers have been waiting for; Darlene’s angry with him for dropping all of this on her and wrecking her plans and potentially a solid relationship with a new guy. She doesn’t give him an answer, but she makes it clear that she’s not happy with him.

Later, though, Darlene breaks the news to Ben: she’s staying in Landford. But she’s not staying for David; she tells Ben that she’s staying to take care of her dad–but didn’t Dan giver her his blessing? It’s pretty clear that while Darlene isn’t ready to break up with Ben (she says she still loves him and that she does want to move in with him, just not right now), she’s also not ready to shut the door on David now that he’s pushed it back open. What does this mean? Is there hope for David and Darlene to get back together? The season finale makes it seem like this love triangle will be a major part of Season 2, if the show comes back.

On that front, while ABC has not formally announced that The Conners is getting a second season, early reports indicate that it’s going to happen. At least Laurie Metcalf certainly thinks so. It wouldn’t be a surprise if The Conners does come back; while the show never hit the frankly absurd ratings heights of the Roseanne revival, the spinoff was a consistent performer for ABC in the fall and was one of its top-rated shows.

So, will Johnny Galecki be a regular on The Conners in Season 2? It is entirely likely! No doubt the main reason why Galecki, a major cast member of the original series, only appeared a handful of times in the revival series was his commitment to another sitcom, the massively popular Big Bang Theory. After starring in that show for 12 seasons, you could easily make the case for Galecki being the hands-down biggest TV success story of the entire Roseanne cast (no shade towards the always great Sarah Chalke, and Metcalf and John Goodman long ago transcended from TV stars to movie stars). With Big Bang Theory ending, it seems like a no-brainer for The Conners to add Galecki to the cast full-time for Season 2 now that he’s available. Plus you could easily see ABC wanting to add one of the most familiar faces on TV to The Conners for Season 2. The season finale certainly seems to leave that option open!

Stream The Conners on Hulu