In Darlene’s “Take This Job and Shove It Twice” story, she was called on to lie about the pollution that Wellman Plastics was causing in Lanford after getting a promotion to a public relations job. When Darlene couldn’t handle this ethically, the company’s owner threatened to fire her. Darlene instead quit when she was unable to get her old job back and unable to convince the owner to fire her. The decision cost her dearly but, like Darlene standing up for Harris instead of siding with her snobby, conservative new neighbors, the plot allowed her to prove that her morals meant more to her than any job despite her financial struggles.

With a house under construction and a child on the way to college, this was the worst possible time for Darlene to lose her job. However, The Conners season 5 didn’t simply hand her a triumphant “I quit” scene. Instead, the “Take This Job and Shove It Twice” episode spent a lot of screen time weighing the ethical choice between leaving a job that was bad for one’s soul versus keeping a role that provided for one’s future and family but came at a high moral price. It was a heavy plot line that still found time for laughs as The Conners made Darlene its new Roseanne and forced her to choose between money and morals, as her mother did before her.