Did Ricky leave Virgin River? (Did Grayson Gurnsey leave Virgin River?)

Season 3 of Virgin River was not the kindest to our poor, sweet Ricky. Regardless of what his intentions might have been, Ricky royally screwed things up in season 3 as his decision to keep secrets about his interest and decision to enlist in the Marines a secret from Lizzie led to a series of lies that ultimately led to the end of their relationship.

As the season ended, he was single, heartbroken, and questioning his decision to enlist — a combination that set up quite an emotional arc for the character in season 4.

In most of season 4, Ricky is still pining over Lizzie and is eager to mend fences in hopes of getting back together before he ships off for training. Unfortunately, things don’t quite go his way as Lizzie moved on and began seeing Denny.

While Lizzie and Ricky don’t end up together by the season’s end, they are on better terms and have patched things up just in time for him to head off to training. Ricky decides to stick with his decision to enlist and spends a good portion of the season coming to terms with that decision as he prepares to head off to training.

As the season ends, Ricky bids farewell to his grandma, Lizzie, and all of his friends in Virgin River as he catches a ride with Jack to the bus stop to catch his bus out to training. The moment was one that left many wondering whether Ricky would be leaving the show or if we’d see him again with the release of season 5.

What happened to Ricky on Virgin River?

Given Ricky was last seen leaving town to begin training as Virgin River season 4 came to an end, his future on the show was not looking promising heading into season 5. Sadly, that storyline was used to write the character off the show as Grayson Gurney did not return for season 5 and we do not see Ricky in any episode this season.

Fans began to have suspicions about Gurnsey leaving the show after he was conspicuously nowhere to be seen during the virtual table read for season 5. Gurnsey’s absence at the table read led many to believe that he would not be returning for season 5, but this was never confirmed by the show ahead of season 5’s release.

However, now that season 5 has been released, we can confirm that Ricky does not return and is not featured in any capacity across the season. While his name does come up, we sadly never get to see Ricky appear on camera.

With two holiday episodes still to come this year, we can hope that Ricky might make a surprise return to Virgin River for the holidays; however, given Gurnsey was not spotted on set during filming of the season, we’re doubtful that we’ll be seeing Ricky in those episodes either.

Virgin River season 5 is streaming now on Netflix.