Has 'CEG' Said Goodbye To Greg For Good?

Characters come and go in TV shows. That's just the way it is. However, there's usually a bit of build-up when such an exit occurs. Well, that didn't really happen when Greg Serrano (Santino Fontana) made his final appearance on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend in the fourth episode of this season. Just when we were getting to know more about who Greg is beyond his love for Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom), such as his battle with alcoholism, he up and moved out of West Covina to Atlanta to get his long-awaited degree from Emory University. So is there any hope that Greg will return to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend , or should we just continue to play "Settle for Me" on repeat?

Unfortunately, it's going to have to be the latter for now, kids. Fontana confirmed to Vulture in November that he was leaving Crazy Ex-Girlfriend after only signing a one-year contract with the show "because of what I thought would be best for my family and my life [in New York].

To make matters worse for Greg fans, Fontana shared with Vulture that in between the time that filming ended on Season 1 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and the series got the green light from The CW for Season 2, the actor picked up other obligations:

“There was a lot of time where we didn’t know if the show would be coming back,” he explained. “In that interim I had some opportunities both with films and theater and writing that presented themselves, and I had no idea what was going to happen. Also keep in mind, I didn’t know my future with the show regardless, and I didn’t know if the show would be coming back. So when we did get picked up, I was in a really tricky spot because I had a bunch of things that I already committed to, and I couldn’t in good conscience back out of them. It was a really tough decision, and it had a lot to do with my family and my base in New York.”

However, both Bloom and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's showrunner and co-creator Aline Brosh McKenna told TVLine that they were planning to get rid of the love triangle this season anyway. I guess Fontana just made it a little easier for the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creative team to say goodbye to Greg with his departure.

But just because an actor leaves a show doesn't mean he's gone from it forever. In a subsequent interview with Vulture in November, Fontana didn't totally rule out the possibility of his return to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend in the future. With the power of editing, who knows. [The "We Tapped That Ass" song] was the last scene for me," he said. "Beyond that, I haven’t heard from the writers or my people, but I’ve been busy, too, so I don’t know if that means I’m gone. I’m assuming I won’t be back this season, but I don’t know, that’s really not to me to say, or in the future."

Brosh McKenna also echoed that sentiment in an interview with Vulture, but she said that "it doesn't look like" Greg will return to the show this season. “It’s definitely something we’re open to. Greg the character doesn’t disappear down the line — he’s still a part of their life," she said. "It’s not something that’s part of the immediate plan of [Rebecca's] arc, but never say never.”

As you count down the mentions of Josh Chan until Greg (hopefully) returns to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, you will be able to catch Fontana on the big screen. He'll be appearing in the upcoming movies Impossible Monsters and Galileo , according to Entertainment Weekly. It's unclear if we'll get to hear Fontana's beautiful voice in either of those projects, but if you happen to be in New York in February, you can catch Fontana performing at The Appel Room at Lincoln Center on Feb. 18, 2017.

But if you can't hear the smooth stylings of Fontana in person, you can always listen the many hilariously sorrowful songs he performed during his time on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, from "I Could If I Wanted To" to "I Gave You a UTI" to his final solo, "It Was a S*** Show." Of course, you can also listen to Fontana in his pre-Crazy Ex-Girlfriend pursuits, such as lending his voice to Hans in Frozen and being the dreamiest of Prince Charmings in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway. Basically, what I'm saying is that I don't think this will be the last we see — or hear — of Fontana.

Images: Scott Everett White/The CW; Giphy