The Conners season 2: Katey Sagal is officially returning for major stint — and 'she's not giving up on Dan'

It’s now official: Katey Sagal has closed a deal to return The Conners in Season 2 — and she’s poised to make another play for John Goodman’s widower Dan.

The Married With Children is reprising her Season 1 guest-star role of Louise, a former high school friend of Dan and Roseanne’s who left Lanford to pursue a career in music. Now back in town and tending bar at Casa Bonita, Louise pursued Dan in last season’s 8th episode, but her advances were rebuffed. Given the length of Sagal’s return — she is set to appear in 10 of Season 2’s 19 episodes — it stands to reason that Louise will have more luck the second time around.

“We’re taking it slow,” showrunner Bruce Helford says of a potential Dan-Louise romance. “She wants a relationship. She wants romance. She is not giving up. But Dan is still having difficulty. He’s struggling with whether he’d be betraying [Roseanne] if he does move toward someone else. And can he ever find that feeling with anybody else?”

Last January, on the eve of the Roseanne spinoff’s Season 1 finale, star and EP Sara Gilbert gushed about Sagal’s “amazing” performance, adding that she would “love to have her back” in a then-potential Season 2.

The Conners‘ second season debuts Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 8/7c. Sagal’s comeback will kick off in Episode 3.