Jason Ritter To Guest Star On Parenthood Later This Season

With Jason Ritter set to star opposite a different Gilmore Girl in Fox’s upcoming new drama Us & Them, the fate of Parenthood’s Sarah and Mark seemed pretty much sealed. Ritter’s Parenthood character exited the series last season, but apparently, we haven’t seen the last of him, as he’s set to guest star later this season.

EW says Jason Ritter will return to Parenthood to guest star in Episode 19 of the series’ fifth season. The site reports that Mark will bump into one of the characters on the show, “though not necessarily Sarah.” So who could it be? Maybe Drew? Mark was actually Drew’s teacher, in addition to being the kid’s mother’s boyfriend for a little while, so a run-in between those two could be interesting.

Sarah’s been living the single-life this season, and though Ray Romano’s Hank is still around — tied to the Bravermans mainly by the loose mentor/apprentice relationship he’s formed with Sarah’s nephew Max — it seems like Sarah’s in an in-between place romance-wise, which i actually kind of like. Maybe she’ll end up dating the guy in one of the apartments she’s managing. It seems like they’re setting that up to be something more relevant than just the occasional conversation between the two characters. But I also feel like the series must be keeping Hank around for a reason, beyond simply helping Max with photography, so I’m kind of hoping those two will eventually find their way back to one another. But I don’t hate the idea of Sarah exploring her options. Back on topic, it’ll be great to see Mark back, if only for an episode.

Episode 19 is a ways off, though, as we’re coming up on Episode 9, which is titled “Election Day” and airs next week. Here’s the preview:

So, is Kristina going to win? Or is she not going to win? That’s what I love about this show. It’s not set up so that every effort pays off in the end. Or at the very least, things don’t always work out as simply as winning and losing. If Kristina doesn’t win, this who arc won’t fall flat. It’ll take her to the next phase of her story, whatever it is. I think the same applies to what Victor is going through with his education. He worked so hard and in the end, he still has to go back to fourth grade, which sucks. But these are the kinds of challenges the Bravermans rise to best. And in the meantime, as much as I love Kristina for not going negative and for being too good a person to use his relationship with Amber against Bob Little, I sort of wished Heather had leaked it anyway. I hate that Kristina might lose this election because she took the high road.

Here’s the description for "Election Day":

Parenthood airs Thursday at 10:00 p.m. ET on NBC.