Trevor Donovan aka Teddy on 90210 will not be returning as a regular for season 4. Instead he will have roughly a 5-episode arc before he says goodbye. And to my surprise, I’m actually upset.

In season 2, I downright hated Teddy. He further tore apart my hopes of ever seeing a Silver / Dixon reunion, I thought Trevor Donovan was a highly unbelievable actor and there’s something about watching a then 30-year-old pretending to be a high school student that’s a bit unnerving.

Everything changed in season three.

Well, not at first. When it came out that one of the 90210 males would be, well, coming out, the last character I wanted it to be was Teddy. Not because I thought it would be out of line for his womanizing character for anything like that, but because Trevor wouldn’t be able to pull it off. And I was so wrong. And it was unfair that all of the cute guys (minus Liam) went to Teddy.

Out of all the main storylines in season three: Naomi & Mr. Cannon, Naomi & Max, the horrid Adrianna-Navid-Silver triangle and Liam & Annie, Teddy’s journey to acceptance was by far the best (and this is coming from an extreme Lannie fan). The way it was written and portrayed was perfectly done. I actually preferred Teddy’s storyline over Kurt’s on Glee. It wasn’t pushed in your face, rushed or overdone and it proved that *shocker* 90210 can be great when it wants to. Here’s a nice recap video.

But what I think really made the story work was the chemistry between Trevor & Kyle Riabko who played Ian and later Freddie Smith who played Marco. In the episode “Best Lei’d Plans” when Teddy finally confesses that he likes Ian, I was actually giddy. And the subsequent episodes were just as good. Teddy & Ian’s break-up was upsetting because Ian’s actions were completely out of character and was obviously just a means to let Kyle pursue his pilot. And watching Teddy cry literally broke my heart. Luckily, while I liked their relationship less, the 90210 team still struck gold with Marco & Teddy.

So, au revoir, Teddy. I never thought I’d say this, but Teddy Montgomery, you will be missed.