Excitement’s been building ever since General Hospital‘s Rick Hearst revealed that he would soon be returning to the soap as Sonny’s half brother, Ric Lansing. Yet when the time came for both the actor and his alter ego to make their big debut, they were nowhere to be seen!

“Ric Lansing returns… today, August 19!” the actor had posted to Instagram. “Wonder who he runs into first?” he asked, along with a poll offering the following possibilities: Alexis, Elizabeth, Sonny or Molly. (For those who need their memories jogged, those folks would be — respectively — Ric’s babymama, his ex, his half-brother and his daughter.)

But as you can see in the recap for the episode in question, there was no sign of the much-missed character. In fact, the guy wasn’t so much as mentioned. That said, the episode did end with Laura finding someone unexpected (and unseen) in the room of her comatose daughter, Lulu. Might that have been the MIA attorney?

If Hearst’s Instagram poll is to be believed, that scenario seems unlikely. After all, neither Laura nor Lulu was listed as an option. Besides, at the moment we’re still wondering if Lulu is going to be recast or killed!

As everyone’s likely figured out by now, we’ll have to wait a bit longer for Rick and Ric to show up. As folks who’d tuned in for the return asked why he hadn’t shown up, the actor updated his Instagram account. “Sorry, all!” he wrote. “My bad. We shoot so much out of order that I had remembered the 19th as being my first air day.” As to when he’ll actually show up, Hearst would only tease the audience to “Stay tuned!”

Ironically, we did get a different character returning, and it was one we hadn’t anticipated: Parry Shen’s Brad hoped to land a job at the titular facility at which he once worked.