‘The Conners’ Season 1, Episode 9 ‘Rage Against The Machine’ Recap: Lawsuit

When pre-holiday drama reaches The Conners, they deal with it the usual day: masking everything with humor. Now, the holiday season may be over, but winter is still here. Along with winter comes sickness, disabling one from working. A father’s love decides to take over for his son’s work, but it does not end well.

In this week’s episode of The Conners, Dan Conner (John Goodman) takes over for his sick son, D.J. Conner’s (Michael Fishman) work shift. However, an accident happens at work, injuring Dan’s arm. Meanwhile, Jackie Harris (Laurie Metcalf) decides to become Becky Conner’s (Lecy Goranson) new certified life coach.

Health Insurance

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Since Dan does not work for the vending machine company that D.J. works in, they did not wish to cover Dan’s expenses when a vending machine falls on him, breaking his arm. When Dan and Darlene Conner (Sara Gilbert) with the company’s representative, Darlene dismisses their offer, thinking that the company is offering way too less than they could. Because of this, Darlene insults the representative who promptly sends them away.

However, Darlene comes up with a solution. She convinces Dan to hire Brian Foster (Peter Gallagher), a lawyer who would help them sue the company. Brian promises them that they would win amounting to six figures, keeping their hopes high. Unfortunately, Brian does not keep his promise. When he arrives in the Conner family home, he gives them the bad news: the company offers them an amount slightly large enough to pay for Dan’s bills as well as Brian’s fee, and D.J. gets to keep his job.

Eric McCandless/ABC

With that, Dan sends him away, knowing what he did to him and his family. Despite this, Dan remains faithful to his promise to send his grandson, Mark Conner-Healy (Ames McNamara) to art school. Also, they did have a little to spare, which made him happy.

Looking for Validation

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At work, Becky gets called out for flirting too much, so her boss decides to have her and her fellow employees have a seminar on this. While Becky thinks that it is a stupid idea, Jackie agrees with what Becky’s boss thinks, and even offers to be her life coach. However, when Jackie finds out that her No. 1 Competitor, Rita Silver, held the seminar, she becomes furious. Jackie decides to redeem her tarnished reputation by becoming Becky’s life coach.

Eric McCandless/ABC

Jackie starts coaching almost immediately, right after Becky’s shift. She proves to be effective since Becky starts thinking about her dream job. Also, Jackie helps her get a head start although she would have to keep her from distractions, like cute guys.

‘The Conners’ Season 1, Episode 9 ‘Rage Against The Machine’ Final Verdict

It is nice to see much focus on their separate lives with enough time to show their family life as well. Also, the show is as realistic as it is when depicting tricky life situations, like pursuing legal action against a company. Things may not always end well, but they always find a reason to be happy.

The Conners returns Tuesday, January 15th, with ‘Don’t Shoot the Piano Teacher’ at 8/9c on ABC.