How The Conners Season 5 Fixed Mark’s Storyline By Making It Darker

Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Conners season 5, episode 17.

While The Conners season 5 might have largely ignored Mark so far, the Roseanne spinoff revived the character’s most promising plot with a sad twist. Mark has a somewhat thankless role in The Conners. As Darlene’s smart, sensitive son, Mark is a font of sardonic one-liners, inheriting his mother’s hilarious sarcastic steak. However, Mark does not share the rebellious nature that the rest of the Roseanne spinoff’s ensemble has and, as such, Mark is often lost in the mix as louder, wilder characters dominate the storylines of most episodes.

While Harris getting pregnant gave The Conners season 5 a dramatic, dark storyline to focus on, the most exciting thing that Mark has done in season 5 is ace his driving test. Mark’s earlier arc in The Conners season 4, however, proved that the character has depth and edge. In that darker outing, Mark’s resentment of his working-class situation led him to take some extreme measures to ensure that he would escape the titular family’s generational cycle of poverty. Fortunately, The Conners season 5, episode 17, “The Contra Hearings and The Midnight Gambler,” brought back this storyline.

Related: The Conners’ 6 Retcons That Don’t Make Sense

The Conners Brought Back Mark’s Dark Side

After The Conners season 5 acknowledged Harris’ miscarriage, the Roseanne spinoff has returned its focus to Mark’s long-forgotten attempts to secure a college scholarship by playing the contrabassoon. Since late in The Connors season 4, Mark has tried his best at the contrabassoon, but ultimately still lost his orchestra seat to another player. His music teacher could tell Mark did not truly care about music, and instead wanted to exploit a loophole for a college scholarship opportunity. However, Mark only tried for a music scholarship because he was caught using a riskier scheme to pay his way into college – a dark tactic he will likely now return to.

Instead of telling Darlene the bad news, Mark immediately lied to his mother and claimed he got the seat. While Harris saw that something was up, Mark was quick to rely on self-sufficiency over trusting his family with the bad news. The Harris and Darlene reunion means that Mark’s sister might reveal the truth to his mother, but Harris’ rebellious side and fondness for Mark might encourage her to keep his secret. This is not necessarily a good thing, since the last time Mark was secretly trying to find a backdoor route into a prestigious college, he ended up bending school rules, risking expulsion, and even abusing prescription pills.

Mark’s Conners Season 5 Story Never Added Up

Even though The Conners is a heightened, broad sitcom filled with larger-than-life characters, the show still holds on to Roseanne’s elements of working class realism. Neither the current sitcom or its predecessor could be called grounded, but The Conners addresses working class issues in a way few family sitcoms attempt, which made Mark’s season 4 story a jarring misstep. A student cannot begin playing an instrument in their final year of high school and become sufficiently talented within 1 year to earn a full-ride musical scholarship. This is particularly true of a prohibitively expensive instrument like the contrabassoon, which cost upwards of $20,000.

Why Mark Needed A Sadder Conners Season 5 Story

Mark’s strongest plot in The Conners season 4 saw him abusing prescription ADHD meds so that he could find the time to write admission essays for other students, thus earning himself a college fund. It was bleak, believable, and the sort of scheme a working class kid trying to find a way into college might indeed pursue. The Conners season 5 needs more of this. Classic Roseanne episodes often saw Roseanne’s kids try out risky, morally questionable ways to make money and earn themselves a future, and The Conners should not sugar-coat this reality.

Related: The Conners Proves Roseanne’s Influence Can Be Problematic

While The Conners is first and foremost a fun sitcom, the show also chronicles a multi-generational family’s attempts to stay above the poverty line. Mark’s season 4 efforts to make money, while admittedly amoral, showed that the character could use his initiative and intelligence to make his way into college. His unlikely contrabassoon-playing venture did not develop this arc and, as a result, gave the supporting character little to do and nowhere to go. It is promising to see that The Conners season 5 will explore more of Mark’s darker side as the Roseanne spinoff continues.

More: The Conners Season 5 Subtly Acknowledges A Major Character Problem