The Arrangement made between Kyle and Megan may have seemed far fetched to the audience, but this week shows that both parties are actually much more suited to their situation than anyone would have expected. The shows has made Kyle’s connection to his Scientology-esque Institute as one of its core elements, making it seem like the Institute needs Kyle more than he needs it. It’s such an important part of his life that his mentor Terence decides that it’s time Megan was introduced to the Institute of the Higher Mind. What comes out of that is the disturbing realization that both Megan and Kyle are very comfortable creating their narrative to please others, despite their claims to want to live honest lives.
Megan has been very happy just being Kyle’s girl and rehearsing for her play. These things are very small and intimate, a very different situation than revealing her soul to a group of strangers in an Institute session. Megan’s the type of person to reveal herself through her work, not through self-actualization. Kyle only asks that she go to the introductory course at the Institute, so for him, she does.
For someone who claims to have revealed his own innermost self, Kyle has been hiding one massive secret. He’s built his life around his story of the orphan who lived on the streets of L.A. and rose above to be a movie star. That story only works if he is actually an orphan, which he is not. Kyle’s father is alive, barely dying now, and no one knows he also has a half-sister. Terence and Deanna worked very hard to cover up these facts, and have to continue to do so, making sure that Kyle stays focused on his movie. Everything that is happening with his Dad is manifesting in his writing, which is why he keeps rewriting already good scenes. It is only by seeing disowning his father one last time before he dies that Kyle can pull off a riveting performance in the movie. Kyle can cry on Megan’s shoulder, but whether or not he can tell her the truth is up in the air.
While Kyle works through the complex idea of redemption, Megan takes a break. She’s proud to have had some creative influence over the play, that her director actually listens to her. Even though signing up for the play was a risk, it’s nice that Megan has put herself in an environment where she is taken seriously. Her mind spins out when her director kisses her. We’d like to think it was just in the heat of the moment, but Megan looks terrified to realize there is something there, and does everything she can to shut her emotions down. To add to the chaos in Megan’s mind, she finds out her new friend from the Institute course is actually an undercover journalist. After seeing how personal the participants get, Megan chooses to rat out her new friend in order to protect her people’s privacy. Terence wasn’t expecting that when he sent his mole in to set Megan up.
There’s a lot of things that are unexpected about Megan. At first we believed Kyle was the one with all of the secrets hiding behind a persona of self-realization. It is actually Megan who is a skilled actor in front of and behind the camera. She skillfully reveals a deep dark secret about having miscarried a child during her session at the Institute, a story she stole from one of her castmates. In Megan’s own words she has a switch in herself that she can just turn on and off when needed.
So how much of Megan is real?
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