Home for the Holidays

"Home for the Holidays"
Season 9: Episode 12(210 / 231 episodes)
Network	ABC-TV
Air date	December 17, 1996
Story by	Roseanne
Teleplay by	Lawrence Broch
Directed by	Mark K. Samuels
Episode Guide
Previous	Mothers and Other Strangers
Next	Say It Ain't So

Home For The Holidays was the 12th episode of Season 9 of Roseanne, also the 210th overall series episode. It was written by Lawrence Broch which derived from an original story by Roseanne, and was directed by Mark K. Samuels. It originally aired on ABC-TV on December 17, 1996.

Summary

Dan finally returns home, but he treats Roseanne coolly, and Jackie catches him on the phone flirting with his mother's nurse.

Plot

In-Depth

At the start of the episode, the entire family is busy preparing to pick up Dan from the airport. However, it's quickly discovered that Mark did not properly account for the change of time zones in California, which means Dan has been waiting for them at the airport for two hours.  Roseanne immediately punishes Mark for his stupidity by forcing him to stay behind at the house and "think about what he did" while rushing the rest of the family toward the waiting limo.  However, when she opens the door she finds that Dan has already arrived; he gives the entire family a stony look, then greets them affectionately. 

Roseanne and Dan later talk in their bedroom. Roseanne repeatedly states how much she missed him, since they have never been apart for such a long period of time during their marriage.  However, Dan is oddly distant, brushing aside her attempts to get closer to him. he is constantly making phone calls, ostensibly to check on his mother in the clinic. Dan manages to reconnect more successfully with his kids, as they set up the final preparations for Christmas Eve. He, DJ, and Mark haul in a new Christmas tree while Roseanne and Jackie bake Cookies. David looks after Andy and Jerry, and Darlene and Becky go shopping. Jackie teases her sister on how successful her "reunion" with Dan must have been, but Roseanne admits Dan is acting oddly aloof and she is concerned that he is still very worried about his mother.  Jackie's reassurances make Roseanne feel better enough to start mocking her sister again and when Dan is forced to shorten the tree (covering their new carpet with resin, bark bits, and fir needles) she seems to reconnect with him again.

Later on, the family strings up new decorations, although Roseanne insists on putting up their old secondhand ones as well, including a tinsel string of bottlecaps. Bev arrives and immediately begins criticizing everything, resulting in Roseanne banishing her to the kitchen (after a few choice taunts about her recent coming-out). She soon returns with Christmas cookies and promptly laments that Roseanne's redecoration removed the fireplace. Roseanne decides it is time for Bev and Becky to put the youngest children to bed, while David and Mark go to the garage to assemble some of the gifts for them.  As soon as she leaves, Dan, Darlene, and DJ rush over to steal some of the cookies to eat. When Becky joins them, Dan expresses his gratitude at being able to be back together with his kids again. All of them reciprocate, and Darlene lets him feel her baby kick. 

On Christmas morning, all the family is opening gaudy new gifts. Roseanne's final, symbolic gift to Dan is a silver platter, a lighter, and their former house mortgages, revealing her intention to keep their ancestral family home. Dan is moved by this gesture. He immediately burns the paper, to the cheers of his family.  The various couples of the Conner-Healy-Harris clan and their children embrace and enjoy Christmas day together.

Later on, Dan is speaking to someone from California on the phone alone in the living room. Unnoticed by him, Jackie walks past through the kitchen to get something in the refrigerator. He expresses odd affection, saying he wishes he could have spent Christmas with them. Jackie cheerfully thought Dan was talking to his mother on the phone, but as it turns out, he was talking to an unknown woman as he wishes to spend time with her as he said he thanks her for “being so great” with his mother. Dan ends the phone call short as to make sure no one was watching him and gets up from his chair. As he hangs up and walks away, a panning shot of the adjacent kitchen room shows Jackie standing next to the fridge, closing her eyes and saying the words "Oh, my God.” Feeling appalled and devastated for Roseanne as she witnessed that Dan had an affair with another woman on his trip. Meanwhile, a delivery guy who is dressed up as Santa Claus comes up from the chimney and gets easily annoyed by the fact that Roseanne blocked off the fireplace. He angrily calls the Conner Residence phone and says that he came to the roof and announced his frustration and the least they can do is to drop him line. He says he’s going to drop the presents at the back door unless they changed it. After calling them, he angrily yells “Ho, ho, ho!” in an irritable manner.

Cast

Starring

• Roseanne as Roseanne Conner
• John Goodman as Dan Conner
• Laurie Metcalf as Jackie Harris
• Sara Gilbert as Darlene Conner
• Michael Fishman as D.J. Conner
• Sarah Chalke as Becky Conner

Also Starring

• Glenn Quinn as Mark Healy
• Johnny Galecki as David Healy
• Estelle Parsons as Beverly Harris

Guests

• Garrett & Kent Hazen as Andy Harris
• Cole Roberts as Jerry Conner
• Allan Stephan as Santa Claus

Trivia

• This episode features the return of Dan Conner (John Goodman), he last appeared in "Honor Thy Mother" after being absent for seven episodes.
• As Dan, DJ and Mark brings in a brand new Christmas tree to decorate, David is reading a Nutcracker storybook to Andy and Jerry as he reads a page about sugar plums which Dan name calls him to help them with the tree.
• In this episode, the family have money after winning the lottery and are about to go in a limousine to pick up Dan at the airport until he arrived home first after his trip to see his mother in California.
• At the end of the episode, a man dressed up as Santa Claus is on the chimney to delivered presents until he figures out that the fireplace is blocked off as he was supposed to bring the gifts. He calls the Conner Residence phone and tells his frustrations about the fireplace being blocked off in the chimney. It seems to be that this man was just a random delivery person or the Conner family hired him for Christmas. It would also seem that the guy quit his holiday delivery job for them after he learns that the fireplace was blocked.
• This is the first time Dan treats Roseanne in a distant way. In this episode, he avoids her as she attempts to reconnect with him after his trip, but he brushes her off. There are times where he’s upstairs to take a phone call when Jackie reassures Roseanne that everything is okay, but actually he was talking to another woman on the phone. The first time he excuses himself from Roseanne to take the phone call in the bathroom in their bedroom. The second he was upstairs when Roseanne presumed he worries for his mother as Jackie assures her. Finally, at the end of the episode, he is sitting in his chair in the living room talking to the woman on the phone while unaware that Jackie overheard his conversation as she thought he was talking to his mother on the phone and hides beside the refrigerator as Dan walks away and being shocked that Dan had an affair with another woman in California. It is presumed that Dan had feelings for his mother’s nurse instead of caring for Roseanne.
• While Dan was talking to his mother’s nurse, it is unknown why the phone on the other line was quiet. But it is assumed that the woman missed Dan very dearly and had an intimate relationship with him about their time together as Dan kept the phone calls to himself without anyone knowing about it. It is also assumed that this woman was thinking about him so much that she misses him and wants him back. Dan clearly wants to spend Christmas with her when he has feelings that made him distant to Roseanne. It is also assuming that the nurse had a young voice and is desperate to see Dan.