Raphael is fine! Don’t worry. He’s not sick or anything.

Regarding why he’s not been on the show, well, I’m not privy to the in and outs of the actors’ contracts, but if I had to take a guess, I would say he has a contract that guarantees him 13 episodes (which I think is the minimum to be considered a series regular) and that’s why you haven’t seen him as much as the others. If I’m not mistaken, he has been in 5 episodes so far (6, actually, if we count “Skin Deep”, for which he filmed scenes that were cut).

For any Vampire Diaries fans, I think it’s the same kind of contract that people like Michael Trevino and Katerina Graham have on that show. And I think Matt Czuchry on Gilmore Girls also had this type of contract.

It’s possible that offering him a series regular contract was the only way they could get him, and be sure that he was always available (for example, Connor Paolo was only credited as a guest star on Gossip Girl, which left him contractually free to leave that show once he had a better offer). I believe that it also means that they have to pay him for 13 episodes, even if they don’t use him.

Basically, the only people you should count on being in EVERY episode are Ginnifer, Jennifer and Lana. The others are all gonna miss some episodes.