Children
Megan Gordon
1989-1992
Written By: Lori L.
After a stunning discovery that as a teenager
she had married Roger Gordon, she was further stunned to learn that they
had had a child together. She soon realized that she already knew Roger's
two daughters and that one of them was her daughter as well. Sarah had
come to town as a firm, but kind and gentle therapist who helped Clint
deal with a temporary blindness. Sarah fell in love with Clint's brother,
Bo and Viki had a soft place in her heart for the young woman. Could it be
her? Sarah's sister, spoiled soap star Megan came to town with her show,
Fraternity Row. Megan had a huge ego, and she and Viki clashed from the
moment they met. Could it be her?
Viki discovered that her
father had hired Roger's father to help him build Eterna, the perfect
utopian society. Eterna was an underground city deep inside Llantano
Mountain. Together, along with Michael Grande and Leo Cromwell, they
searched for Eterna. Alone in Eterna, Roger confessed to Viki how they met
as teens and that they had made love. One day, the entrance to Eterna
exploded. Viki, seeing this and believing Roger had died, once again
turned into Niki Smith. Niki gave birth to Roger's daughter and Victor
hypnotized his daughter to forget both Roger and the child. Victor then
paid Roger to leave town with the baby. Viki had found her daughter, but
was shocked to realize that this young woman that she'd had such an
adversarial relationship with, Megan, was her daughter.
Viki and Megan soon
worked out their differences and developed a strong relationship, one of
love and respect.
After, Viki watched in
horror as Megan was asked to assume a dual role on Fraternity Row. She
would play her regular character, the straitlaced "Roxanne" and Roxanne's
very wild twin sister, "Ruby Bright." Viki immediately saw that there were
parallels to Ruby and Niki Smith and she was frightened for her daughter.
But Megan rose to the challenge, even winning an Outstanding Actress award
for the role.
After a brief fling with
Max Holden, Megan found her true love, Jake Harrision. After freeing
himself from a loveless marriage to Carlo Hesser's daughter Charlotte,
Jake and Megan were finally married. They had a beautiful ceremony at St.
James, where they planted a tree as a symbol of their union, on the lawn.
Megan Gordon
accepting her "Daisy Award" for Best Actress
Megan, the celebrity, and
the very independent Jake had their share of trouble as Jake fought to be
the financial support for their family. Jake took a high paying job that
took him far away from Llanview. Throughout their troubles, Megan leaned
on her mother.
Megan and Jake had a
storybook romance, and most stories end in tragedy. Soon, it was
discovered that Megan had contracted Lupus. Megan was determined not to
let the disease take control of her life. Jake was on the other side of
the world, and Megan was depressed at the thought of the debilitating
disease she was facing. Megan was hospitalized with kidney failure and
found herself befriending fellow lupus patient, Marty Saybrooke. Marty's
condition was different from Megan's, though serious it was controllable.
Megan's only chance for survival was now a kidney transplant, and Viki
decided to donate one of hers. The transplant didn't take and Larry
informed Viki that her daughter was dying. Viki was determined to keep her
daughter alive, at least until Jake could be located and brought home.
While her family sat by her bedside and gave her hope with stories of
their lives and loves, Andrew went to Jaba City to find Megan's husband.
Andrew himself loved Megan, but he set aside his own feelings, knowing
that Jake was the one thing Megan needed.
Megan knew that the end
was near and asked her mother to tell her about Jake, she wanted to die
hearing his name. Viki held her daughters hand and began to comply to her
wishes as the door to Megan's hospital room opened.
Jake took his
mother-in-law's place at Megan's side and they spent her last hours
together. Jake only left Megan's side to allow his wife and Andrew to
share a tearful good-bye. Jake, sensing that Megan wasn't going to hang on
much longer, scooped his wife up in his arms and took her to the window.
She looked out and saw the snow falling on the paper valentines hanging on
their wedding tree, which Jake had transplanted so she could see it.
Megan's heart was filled with love and a smile spread across her face as
she succumbed to the ravages of her illness and died in Jake's arms.
Viki had less time with
her eldest daughter than she's had with her other children, but they had
true bond of love. Megan continues to be a very real part of Viki's life.
Soap Opera
Weekly's 100 Most Memorable Moments, September 30, 1997
#84-Megan's
Death
Head Writer Michael Malone knew
why it would work – why, indeed, it was one of OLTL's great moment. “There
is no more poignant story,” he said a year after the episode aired, “than
the death of a young woman.” It has been every thus, from Juliet and
Madames Bovary and Butterfly; right down to La Dame aux Camellia. Megan
Gordon Harrison's death was foretold even before Malone began writing the
show. “It was the first thing that I ever talked to Linda Gottlieb, OLTL's
Executive Producer about.” Jessica Tuck was determined to leave the show,
so Gottlieb and Malone planned the grandest send-off of them all. Although
Tuck, herself, would have preferred AIDS, lupus was chosen as Megan's
illness, as it provided, in Malone's words, “many psychological symptoms
that give play for drama.” Megan went into the hospital for a kidney
transplant (Viki was the donor), but her body rejected the organ. To keep
her from slipping into a coma, friends and family gathered at her bedside,
recalling good times and bad from their – and the show's – history.
Ultimately, of course, all efforts failed, and on February 7, Megan
slipped from this vale of tears, cradled in the arms of her husband, Jake.
“Oh, I cried my eyes out,” Malone later said. “I cried reading the
scripts, I cried at the screening. Jessica Tuck did an extraordinary
job.”
