Why Grandma Bev Wasn't In The Conners Series Finale

Contains spoilers for "The Conners" Season 7, Episode 6 — "The Truck Stops Here"

The series finale of "The Conners" proves to be a sentimental but sarcasm-laden affair — a fitting goodbye for a family that loves each other but could never resist a good put-down. One of the masters of those barbed one-liners was Estelle Parsons' Beverly Harris, who is completely missing from the sitcom's final episode. Why didn't she return? It seems that her absence was caused by two issues — Parsons' advancing age and the fact that the show's producers felt that she'd already been given a solid goodbye in an earlier episode.

She does at least get a reference during "The Truck Stops Here," when the family gathers at Roseanne's (Roseanne Barr) graveside. As each member takes time to speak out loud to the deceased Conner matriarch, Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) admits during her turn that she "doesn't know where mom is." 

That's true, since Bev left the series during Season 6's "Moms and Rats" and hasn't been seen since. Executive producer and showrunner Bruce Helford explained to Deadline, "It was too much to ask her to come out for the sixth episode. It's a lot. She is 97. She's a phenomenal presence. I like the idea that she's never going to stop being out there, wandering the country on the rail." He compared Bev to a crew member on the legendary Flying Dutchman, a ship fated to eternally travel the seas. One thing that won't be eternal? Jackie and Bev's enmity. 

One ugly detail about Bev's parenting style is that Jackie and Roseanne were both scarred by their childhoods with an abusive father and nitpicking, critical mother — none more so than the perpetually single Jackie, who copes with nonstop criticism from her mom throughout both "Roseanne" and "The Conners." It's an issue longtime series fans have had with the writing, and "The Conners" throws a new wrinkle into the plot when Bev starts forgetting things. 

But Beverly and Jackie manage to settle their long-fractious relationship in "Moms and Rats." By the time Beverly is diagnosed with dementia and Jackie hires a home-care nurse to look after her, her mother barely knows who she is, which has made her kinder. Jackie decides to go with her mom on a trip to Chicago in "Moms and Rats," and they manage to heal a lot of old wounds and have fun together for the first time in years. But Bev slips away, panicking Jackie until she finds Bev at the train station. She announces to Jackie that she's choosing to live the rest of her life on a "grand adventure" — traveling the country solo and escaping the elder care world. 

While this might be a worrying notion, as Bev's memory issues have had quite the impact on her life, Jackie later explains that she's tracking her mom via a phone app and will be able to get to her should anything bad happen. It's a fitting send-off for a wild character who has some major flaws — but still loves her children and grandchildren, warts and all.