Megan Morrison: The Most Compelling Thing About Her Character Arc – And What Her Very Last Line To Kyle Means To Abuse Survivors

Getting to write about the broken marriage between Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise in my previous post, as well as the significance of Holmes leaving the marriage, heavily reminded me of a show I previously watched, which is The Arrangement. It was a show created by Jonathan Abraham and released by E! network. It starred Josh Henderson and Christine Evangelista as Kyle West and Megan Morrison respectively. Megan is first introduced as an unknown actress who, after a successful audition, is plucked from obscurity and offered a secret contract to be the fiancée to Kyle West, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Kyle is one of the hottest actors in Hollywood, and the most prominent public face of the Institute of the Higher Mind (IHM).

Megan, desperate to find success in her career aspirations, auditions to play the female lead in a high-profile film opposite Kyle. She meets Terence Anderson, the leader of the Institute of the Higher Mind, a self-help organization. Anderson offers her the title “arrangement”, which entails a contract offering her $10 million if she marries Kyle. And if this premise happens to sound familiar to you, it’s because it is, especially if you read my previous post on Katie Holmes’ marriage to Tom Cruise and how their union came to be.

Just as a refresher, in the 2000’s, Tom Cruise became more and more involved with the Church of Scientology after initially joining in the 80’s when he was 24 years old. Following his breakup with fellow actress Penelope Cruz after 3 years together, getting him a girlfriend became an audition process. It was one that Holmes passed with flying colours. Her age, 24 at the time that she and Cruise got together, and with them having a 16 year age gap, made her the perfect candidate to be the next Mrs. Tom Cruise.

In the series, Megan and Kyle are roughly the same age. They met an audition for Kyle’s next film where he was intended to be the leading man. Megan auditioned to be his main love interest in the movie. She didn’t get the part, but her presence was enough to get Kyle’s attention and interest in her. He starts wooing her, getting her attention and love by showing her a world she hadn’t experienced before; like travelling around the world. Paparazzi soon caught them leaving their romantic boat ride and it’s everything you could ever imagine; much like the media frenzy Katie Holmes went through when she first got together with Tom Cruise.

Every romance has its own moments of joy, fear, pain, sadness, and complexity. The first of these came when Megan encountered Kyle’s ex-fiancée, Lisbeth, who left him at the altar. To add to the drama, cameras were there to witness the entire ordeal unfold. Lisbeth later did a radio interview where she admitted that she was still very much in love with Kyle. Megan listened to it, but it didn’t seem to phase her. Thereafter, Megan’s nude photos were leaked on the internet for the entire world to see, and a few days later, the photos that Megan and Kyle took together leaked as well, which caused even more media frenzy.

Kyle was a major advocate for The Institute Of The Higher Mind, and it was a world that he was eager to introduce Megan to and for her be a part of. Cameras snapped Megan attending her first Institute class, so it seemed like this was the exact moment when things started to get pretty serious for the couple. And they did. Megan and Kyle soon moved in together. Things looked fairly good for the couple, at least by the public’s perception. Soon after, though, rumours started swirling of trouble in paradise for the two. Nevertheless, they both attended the premiere of Kyle’s film, The Kill Plan, together. Kyle stunned in a navy blue suit, while Megan channeled classic Hollywood glam in a beautiful red gown. She looked like a fairytale princess; an arm candy for her prince-charming.

Things turned more complicated for the couple’s fandom as more rumours of a breakup started circulating when they noticed that Megan hadn’t posted anything about Kyle in a while and as they weren’t publicly seen by paparazzi. Megan soon resurfaced and everything seemed to be going back to normal. That was until she revealed her true motives to her best friend, Shaun. Megan said to her, ‘I went through hell to get back to Kyle and become part of the Institute and now I’m here and I need you. Because I’m gonna burn the whole thing down.’ During the show’s original run, Christine Evangelista was asked in an interview with TVLine what this twist meant for her character and her relationships with Kyle and Shaun. Particularly, these two questions were asked and these were her answers:

Megan reveals her plan to Shaun, who is her friend. But Shaun’s also bought into IHM and is working for them now. Will Megan regret telling her the truth?

We’ll see. I’m very interested to see how that will play out. Shaun knew the secret all along. She knew what happened to Megan. Shaun knew about the brother. Shaun knows about the contract, too. And Shaun has proven herself to be a good friend, an honest friend and a very loyal friend. She’s an interesting player and will perhaps help her in Season 2 or not. Most of Megan’s friends have obviously been tested throughout the season, and only a few people have been able to remain true. Hopefully, she’s one of them, but I don’t know.

What does this turn mean for Megan’s relationship with Kyle? Does she want to take him down, too?

That is a very, very good question. Megan is at a point now where she either turns against him or she realizes that she wants to take him with her, and I’m not sure which direction it’s going to go in. I know that they genuinely love each other, and she wants to trust him, and perhaps she wants to help him in some way. Maybe a part of her plan is to get him out of the Institute? Or maybe it’s to take

He was part of the plot to kidnap her and put her in that facility.

Perhaps. That’s also a question, because he’s been brainwashed by them, too. He thinks he’s trying to do the right thing to help her. He knows that this is something that has affected her life, affected her relationships, and he wants her to get past it, also. The Institute is something that really helped him. The facility is something that he was a part of. So he looks at it like, “This could really help her.”

So, what does this all mean?

Vividly, I remember watching the very last scene of the series. Kyle and Megan are at home, where Kyle, fed up with his wife’s ways, tells her, ‘I blew my whole life up for you! I’m so done caring what you think. We’re going to follow the contract to the letter.’ To which Megan responded, ‘You think you can control me? Good luck.’ It was so mesmerizing to watch. It’s been years since I initially watched the show, but that particular scene was truly unforgettable; at least to me. I felt every single word of that last sentence. I even got the shivers. I wanted to see more, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

And Shaun…

Shaun decided to stay at the institution. She believed in what it stood for. She believed it could change lives; even save them. What’s more was that she fell in love with the institution’s leader, who made her a partner. It was a big step up from where she started. She happily accepted the new position, as well as the new love she’d gotten to experience. But before anything else, she did one last favour for Megan. It was a favour that could jeopardize everything for her future. That said her friendship with Megan was over. Nevertheless, just as Christine Evangelista said herself in her interview with TVLine, Shaun remained one of the only people Megan could trust and count on.

The Arrangement was cancelled by E! network after two seasons and a 20-episode run. It was canceled because its ratings declined significantly during the second season. After a strong first season, the show’s viewership dropped by double digits in season two, leading E! to conclude it was not sustainable. 

• Decreasing viewership: Ratings for the second season fell by about 38% compared to the first season. 
  
• Network decision: As a result of the declining viewership, the network decided not to move forward with the series after its second season. 
  
• End of the series: The final episode of the second season, which aired on May 13, 2018, became the series finale. 

To add to it, the creator-showrunner of the series Mark Schwahn was fired during its run after sexual harassment allegations. Initially, when it first started airing, it was a breakout when it debuted in March 2017, averaging 1.3 million total viewers and 725,000 in the 18-49 demo in Live+3, and ranking as the year’s second-biggest scripted cable drama launch with young women (women 18-34). Its ratings slipped by double digits in Season 2, as did the ratings for its companion The Royals. 

I was actually saddened when I found out the series wouldn’t get to countries. I wanted to see more of Megan’s story unfold. I wanted to see her be the strong woman that she is… without Shaun by her side as her sidekick. For the entirety of the show’s run, Megan relied on Shaun’s help and guidance for practically everything. Shaun was more than a friend. She was Megan’s muse. She meant more to Megan than any other person in her life, and to lose her to the institution and what it stood for, what Megan tried to destroy, was heartbreaking.

Following the season 1 finale, Jonathan Abrahams said this in an interview with EW: ‘For me, selling people on the relationship was crucial. If you didn’t really buy in and get emotionally attached to those two, then everything that happens to them has less impact. It was intentional to start meshing everything more toward the end of the season. It was always part of my plan to kind of slow burn Terence (the institution’s leader) and the Institute as the big bad. A lot of [the show] is exploration of relationships and intimacy and you really have to give that weight. There’s plenty of time for Terence to be evil. We got to it, hopefully, at exactly the right time. I would describe the finale as an exploration of self under extreme circumstances. Most of the time, when it comes to relationships, we put the cart before the horse. We focus on this other person — what they have and what they don’t have — and then you realize, ‘I haven’t done any of this work on myself.’ In a broadly thematic way, it seems very appropriate — after this period of time being with somebody, suddenly you’re examining your own stuff. In this case, Megan isn’t necessarily doing it by choice, but it seems like an appropriate pit stop along the way.’

I strongly disagree…

While it’s true that season 1 was about Megan finding her sense of self and identity as she joined Kyle’s world in the institution, she did so with Shaun by her side. We also learned about Megan’s past before she met Kyle and how Shaun supported her through that time in her life. Time and time again, Megan relied on Shaun. The more time passed, the more she relied on Shaun. And let’s just say, the things she asked Shaun to help her with weren’t small. They were ones that could cost Shaun her career as a lawyer.

By the second season, Shaun had reached the end of her rope helping Megan. ‘I could be fired, even disbarred for what I’m doing,’ Shaun said. ‘Do you not want to help me?’ Megan asked, to which Shaun replied, ‘Help you what? What’s even the plan here, Megan? Go to the police? The press? What’s your next move?’ Megan couldn’t answer her, but instead asked, ‘Why are you grilling me like this, Shaun? I thought you were on my side?’ Shaun answered, ‘I am. I just…I think I need to take a step back.’ Shocked, Megan asked, ‘Wow. So you’re choosing IHM? Terence?’ Finally, Shaun said, ‘No, I’m choosing me.’

When we first Megan, she was a struggling actress who became entangled in a secretive Hollywood arrangement after meeting superstar Kyle West. Initially a waitress, she was offered a lucrative, pre-arranged marriage contract with Kyle, a member of the powerful Institute of the Higher Mind (IHM). Her character is defined by the internal conflict between her desire for a genuine relationship, the luxury of Hollywood fame, and the suspicion that she was being controlled by Kyle and the IHM.  To break things down more thoroughly:

• A struggling actress: Megan started the series as an unknown actress working as a waitress. She was given a chance at a lead role opposite Kyle West, which kicked off their romance and her entry into a new world. 

• Entangled in an arrangement: After a whirlwind romance, Megan was offered a $10 million marriage contract to marry Kyle. This was presented as an “arrangement” orchestrated by Kyle’s powerful and secretive self-help organization, the IHM. 

• Internal conflict: Megan struggled to navigate the complexities of her new life, torn between her growing feelings for Kyle, the potential for career success, and the suspicion that her new life wasn’t what it seemed. 

• A hidden past: As the series progressed, it was revealed that Megan had a mysterious past she is trying to keep hidden, which added another layer to the unfolding drama and her motivations. 

Megan was perfect. By that, I mean she was the perfect candidate to be Kyle’s new wife and the newest member of the IHM… or so it seemed. Where she was in her life at the time that Terrence later eyes on her made her the perfect candidate – or victim, more like. What Terence didn’t know was that Megan was a much stronger woman than she seemed. Unbeknownst to Terence, Megan had a dark past, and it began to unfold itself when she and Kyle went to her hometown in New York for her friend’s wedding.

Triggered by the visit home which caused her to consistently revisit traumatic memories of the past, and after a major meltdown at the reception, Megan eventually revealed to Kyle that her older stepbrother Evan sexually assaulted her when she was 11 years old. She then told him he passed away several years earlier after getting involved with the wrong crowd. The revelation helped the couple get closer with one another. Initially, she thought told Kyle that her stepbrother died in an accident after getting involved with the wrong crowd. But what was more surprising was that Megan didn’t just survive childhood sexual trauma at the hands of her stepbrother, but she also murdered him when he tried to abuse her again.

Killing her stepbrother was, aside from it being self-defence as she was being attacked by him, a moment of passion for Megan. Years after what he’d done to her, she confronted him, and he attacked her again. She fought back, and in the process, he died. It was an overkill. As I watched the scene unfold, I could just feel how mad Megan was at that moment. I could feel her fear; her anger; her passion; her cries; her every word; her every move; every single one of them. As a viewer, it wasn’t that I felt I was with her. On the contrary, I felt that I WAS her. I resonated with her at that moment even more than I ever did before because, as a survivor of sexual trauma myself, I knew I would’ve done the same exact thing.

In the aftermath of the events that followed, Megan ran from the scene and later lied about the circumstances to Kyle, claiming she had no idea he was dead until she was informed by others. She blocked everything out; all her memories of the events that had happened to her. She tried to live a life that was normalizing and free of her demons. She didn’t feel guilty. She felt free. And she wanted to finally live and have the life that she deserved. She wanted to have a career, fall in love, be happy…for once.

And she did exactly that. Megan really did fall in love with Kyle. She really did want to have a future with him and have her happily-ever-after with him. That wasn’t a lie. The IHM, however, was standing in the way between them. In a way, it was the third ‘person’ in their relationship, and what hurt Megan more than ever was the fear that Kyle would always choose the institution over her. What ended up happening by the end of the series’ run was much, much worse. Not only did Megan lose her husband to the institution, but she lost her best friend as well.

Nevertheless, no matter how difficult things got for her, no matter who underestimated her, and no matter stood in her way, Megan was always stronger than ever before. She wasn’t going to allow anyone in her life to control her anymore. She wasn’t going to allow anyone to manipulate her or tell her what to do. That was exactly what her last ever sentence to Kyle was so significant. That one singular moment was absolutely, downright magnificent. It was unforgettable.

Megan meant more to me than anyone else I saw on-screen. She helped me go from the victim mentality to a survivor mindset. She taught me to be strong, empowered, ambitious, resilient, and liberated. She taught me that no matter how alone or lonely I got, I had no other choice but to fight for myself. I had to keep pushing. I had to continue moving forward. I had to feeling sorry for myself and get back to work; work on myself and my power. I had to continue reminding myself that I’ve always been much stronger than what people made myself out to be. And that in itself was the most important lesson Megan Morrison taught me.