The Great Debate: Should Connie Get Married?

Because of the great response to the our post “The Great Debate: Should Jillison Be a Thing???” on our Jason Whittaker fansite (and all the fun we had had writing it) we decided to write more posts like it where we give our opinion on the most hotly debated topics within the Odyssey fandom!

Welcome to the Great Debate series!

In this second installment we will be discussing a very fascinating topic. One that has been debated for nearly twenty years (Ever since her breakup with Mitch)!

Should Connie get married?

First, a “quick” recap of Connie’s relationship history.

Connie’s first boyfriend was Jeff Lewis. They first met in the episode “First Love” and started dating soon after. It was clear from the start that they liked each other very much. However, Connie had to put an end to the relationship as Jeff wasn’t a Christian (That scene still gets us 😭).

Fast forward a few years later Connie met and fell in love with Robert “Mitch” Mitchell. Who could forget that scene in “Green Eyes and Yellow Tulips” when they first met ❤️. It was so sweet and Connie INSTANTLY fell head over heels for him! Their relationship would best be described as TUMULTUOUS! It would take us forever to give a detailed account of every single thing that happened but long story short she liked him but wasn’t sure she should date him since he worked for Novacom. They got together. Connie wasn’t sure she could trust him. She finally did. He supposedly died. She found out he wasn’t dead but was actually in the witness protection program. Connie got kidnapped. Mitch rescued her. Then he got kidnapped and had to be rescued. Mitch joined the FBI and moved to D.C. He was accepted into the International Law Enforcement Academy for two years of training but he had to move to Budapest. They got engaged but called off the wedding the night before as Connie felt that she wasn’t called to be the wife of an FBI agent. Connie went back to Odyssey. Mitch moved to Budapest, only to shockingly visit Odyssey a couple years later with a fiancee named Maureen (but we’re not going to talk about that). And that was the “short” recap of Connie and Mitch’s relationship.

Since then Connie has NOT dated anyone, and we mean ANYONE.

Some fans feel that Connie should remain single while others passionately campaign for her to find love.

We are MOST DEFINITELY on the side of Connie finding love again!

However, the writers and a great deal of AIO fans believe that she shouldn’t get married and provide a multitude of reasons why.

First, they believe that marriage would change her character. We agree marriage would change Connie as a person. Eugene certainly has changed since marrying Katrina. But changing and growing as a character isn’t a bad thing. In fact it’s one of the most rewarding things to see on any show. We’ve seen it many times on AIO. Just go listen to older episodes and you’ll see how differently Connie and Eugene interact. In earlier episodes it seemed as if these two were always bickering, which of course provided us with lots of wonderful comedic moments (Their banter in “A License to Drive” is so hysterical 😂). But as time passed they each grew in their faith and matured as people. Now, aside from a moment here or there, Eugene and Connie find themselves getting along wonderfully and are the best of friends.

Connie when she first arrived had a huge sense of curiosity that often could get her into trouble. She’s still curious but has learned to (mostly) control it and not let it get the best of her.

Eugene has grown so much as a person. In the beginning he pretty much didn’t give faith or Christianity a second thought and if given the choice would choose computers over people any day. Now he’s a devout Christian, an amazing husband, and the best father to Buck (And of course he still loves his computers).

These are just a few examples of characters who’ve grown and changed over the course of the show. Change is a good thing that should be embraced. Connie has been single for a while now (34 years as of this year. In real time not Odyssey time 😂). We’ve seen Connie be content in this period of her life. The writers have written MANY stories of her being an unmarried woman. It’s time to see her in a different role, to see another side of Connie. Connie ALREADY has changed and evolved as a person, without being in a relationship. She’s practically Jules’ mom at this point (we’re just saying if she can be a “parent” she can go on a date. Lol.) And all of us listeners have embraced this change. The writers have the perfect opportunity to allow us to see the next chapter in Connie’s life.

Another reason we’ve seen that Connie should stay single is that she‘s a perfect representation of Christians who choose to stay single and focus on their relationship with God, rather than be with someone. We agree that it’s important to show this on the show. There are many people who fill called to stay single and devote themselves to God, ministry, mission work, etc. However, we don’t believe that Connie is the right person to portray this calling. This is due to one very important reason. Connie wants to get married and has not shown at any time that she believes God’s calling her to stay single. In “Swept Away” Connie thanked Penny for grabbing her mom’s wedding dress. Penny replied that she knew Connie wanted to get married in that dress so she made sure to grab it. This PROVES that Connie wants to be with someone. That she doesn’t want to be single all her life. In addition, Connie’s actions go against the idea that she’s content to not be with someone. If she was fine being single why would she join E match up? Why would she say repeatedly say that she hopes to one day meet the man of her dreams. Why would Penny and her friends keep trying to set her up with men? Why would she even agree to Eugene to go on a blind date when she hates them more than staplers (and we all know how much she HATES staplers 😂. Also Connie agreed to this in a 2005 edition of Brio magazine). It has been made clear, without a shadow of a doubt, that Connie hopes to meet a God fearing man who will love and adore her all her life. And we hope she gets that soon.

Another reason why we support Connie getting a boyfriend is that we want to see another healthy (and romantic) relationship on the show. Recently, it just seems like a good deal of the relationships AIO chooses to focus on aren’t the greatest. In fact many of them, to be blunt, are toxic. For example, Buck and Jules (check out our lastest podcast episode if you want to hear us rant about that. Lol). We need a relationship that’s positive and healthy. Something we can look to and say that’s what we want, not point to and say that’s exactly what we don’t want to have. We need to see more examples of good Christian, especially romantic, relationships today. The writers have the chance to give us that, they should take it. After all Connie’s been through losing her mom, her father and all his issues, her failed relationships, the challenges of raising a teenager, she deserves to have some happiness and love in her life. Also she’s so great with kids. It would be an absolute CRIME if we didn’t get to see Connie as a mom.

Finally, there would be plenty of wonderful potential storylines if Connie got in a relationship/married. It would be so interesting to see how Connie would approach/act being in a relationship again. Would she be more apprehensive or try to take things slow due to her past heartbreaks? Would she try to move her new relationship along faster to make sure nothing would derail it or that she’d get her happily ever after? Imagine Connie’s boyfriend/fiancé/husband offering to give her hand behind the counter on a busy day. Connie could see him interact with the kids and start dreaming of their future/having kids of their own.<3 They could even start trying to smudge syrup or ice cream on the other. It would be the CUTEST thing. We don’t know if you can tell but we have lots of ideas 😉. Can you imagine Connie trying to plan her wedding again. She probably would be even more stressed as she’d try to make sure everything went according to plan. Whit also finally would be able to walk her down the aisle, something that needs to happen. Connie would probably be so relieved and happy after the ceremony was over and be over the moon to FINALLY be MARRIED. We’d definitely be ESTATIC. ❤️

Hopefully, the AIO team eventually comes to our side on this issue. In the meantime there’s always fanfiction (or our imagination 😆). Please feel free to comment and share your opinion on whether Connie should get married or not.

– Hannah and Elissa