How ‘Sullivan’s Crossing’ Season 4 addresses Scott Patterson’s exit — Chad Michael Murray says it ‘stays totally true to itself’

Spoilers for “Sullivan’s Crossing” Season 4, Episode 1 included

Sullivan’s Crossing fans were thrown for a loop when it was announced that Scott Patterson, who played Harry “Sully” Sullivan, wouldn’t be returning to the Canadian show for Season 4. In the season premiere we see Maggie, played by Morgan Kohan, has stepped into the position of running Crossing after Sully went to Ireland to be with Helen (Kate Vernon), just as she planned to continue her career as a doctor by opening her own general practice at the end of Season 3.

“Her whole world at the beginning of the season is not what she anticipated,” Kohan told Yahoo Canada in Toronto. “She’s just kind of settled in with Cal, … and then it’s really thrust on her that now, you’re taking over the Crossing, and you are fully involved, while the rest of your life is kind of thrown up in the air again. … And part of her support system is now gone too.”

Kohan’s costar, Chad Michael Murray, who plays Cal, has seen a number of casting shifts throughout his career and has experience continuing a project after similar changes.

“It does happen. And there are various, different things that transpire. You just never know. And so it’s one of those situations where you go, OK well, just look at the show, what is the show? Where does it sit? And how do you hold it up and keep it true to itself? And that’s all on the text and the storytelling,” Murray said.

“There’s no question in my mind that we did that. The show stays totally true to itself, and Sully is still a big part of it. … He still exists in this world, and there’s still that relationship. And he built the Crossing, so it’s always going to be there, and that’s kind of the foundation that the show is built on.”

Why Marcus Rosner’s Liam is still at the Crossing

As Murray highlighted, one way to move forward with a casting change is to introduce new characters with new stories to explore in the show.

Most notably, after Liam (Marcus Rosner) arrived at the end of Season 3, revealing that he’s Maggie’s husband, he’s still at the Crossing. He tells Maggie he’s moving to Europe, but even though she said she had the marriage annulled, the European Travel Commission still lists them as married, and he needs a copy of the annulment papers before he can get his visa.

While Maggie has to get her hands on those papers as soon as possible, her history with Liam has come back to her, quickly, with the premiere starting with Maggie dreaming about having an intimate moment with Liam. That’s paired with a number of flashbacks to Maggie and Liam’s time together, including the circumstances surrounding their marriage.

“Marcus Rosner is such a sweet, wonderful, kind, magical human being, so having him involved in the show has just been wonderful,” Kohan said. “So I’m really excited for the audience to fall in love with him too, and kind of get very confused, up in a tizzy.”

“We get to see Maggie in a different light. We do see her freer, lighter, looser as a younger person. … So I love the flashbacks, and it gave me a lot of insight into her as well.”

And as you’d likely expect in this scenario, Cal is feeling a little insecure by Liam being around, including when Liam recommends they have a woodchopping competition in front of Lola’s (Amalia Williamson) group from the Timberlake Youth Centre

“I don’t know how you wouldn’t in that scenario, I think it’s pretty evident that … a little bit of jealousy would percolate, even though that’s not necessarily something that is in Cal DNA,” Murray said. “I think that when you get into [that] position, it would at least make you uncomfortable.”

“Especially when it’s freaking Marcus Rosner, and you’re like, look at that jaw. Look at those muscles!”

More new characters to watch

But Rosner is just one of the new additions to the cast. Jonathan Silverman, who famously starred in Weekend at Bernie’s, joins the show as a disgruntled guest at the Crossing.

We also have Colby Frost, who plays a character named Ben, who we meet with Lola’s Youth Centre group. We see him sticking up for his younger sister, who was being bullied on the hike. And as we see in the season premiere, it seems that Cal sees some of himself in Ben.

“I love the worlds that we’re opening up with the new characters,” Murray said. “I’m excited for everyone to see their stories and see how they fit in this world, because it’s a cool little puzzle.”