Everyone knows that when it comes to keeping a steady job, one might not want to put a lot of effort into working at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital, as that place has a history of losing people. (Sometimes in worse ways than others.) And on top of the other big changes that are coming to Grey's Anatomy Season 14, it now looks like Dr. Leah Murphy will be absent once again, as Tessa Ferrer became the latest cast member to make an exit.
While it hasn't been made official at the time of this writing, it's being reported that Tessa Ferrer hasn't been around the set of Grey's Anatomy during the early production for Season 14. And according to TVLine, that will apparently become a permanent change, as no plans are in place to get Leah back into the storyline when Season 14 makes its big debut later this month.
In the scheme of things, this is perhaps one of the more acceptable casting shake-ups to hit Grey's Anatomy going into Season 14, since Tessa Ferrer's Dr. Leah Murphy hadn't exactly been the most permanent member of the Grey-Sloan staff in recent years. First introduced in Season 9 as a fling-starter with both Alex and Arizona (during her separation from Callie), Leah ended up getting booted by Webber, who basically said she wasn't cut out for surgery, and she was gone from the show after Season 10.
At least, until Ferrer surprisingly rejoined the show in Season 13, with the understanding that Leah was in redemption mode, having honed her surgical skills elsewhere. But even though the character returned to happy viewers, her presence apparently wasn't deemed necessary to stick around. That will probably be disappointing to those who wanted Leah and Arizona to develop a romantic relationship, especially after Eliza got canned. It'll be interesting to see how her absence is explained on the show, assuming the topic comes up.
Tessa Ferrer is the latest cast member whose absence in Season 14 has been made public. Season 13 was the first year since Season 2 that Sara Ramirez's Dr. Callie Torres wasn't around, and fans have already said their goodbyes to Jerrika Hinton, whose Stephanie Edwards went through some rough ordeals that led her to decide to seek a new life path outside the medical world. Marika Domii?czyk;s Eliza Minnick also won't be returning after getting fired in Season 13's finale. And Bridget Regan made an exit after being the original portrayer of Owen's thought-dead sister Megan Hunt, with Abigail Spencer taking that role over.
As far as new faces go, we'll get to meet Stefania Spampinato's Carina, the sister of one Andrew DeLuca, and she'll join the Grey-Sloan ranks as a controversy-friendly new doctor. We'll also get to see more from Matthew Morrison's skeezy Paul Stadler, who was finally introduced as Jo's abusive husband last season. And for those hoping for interesting returns, Kim Raver will reprise her role of the once-fired Teddy Altman, who is hopefully in a more comfortable place of mourning concerning her late husband Henry.
Grey's Anatomy will return to ABC's TGIT for Season 14 on Thursday, September 28, at 8:00 p.m. ET. (And it's a two-hour premiere, so make sure your evening is free.) To see when all the other new and returning shows are hitting primetime, check out our fall premiere schedule.
