Meg Cummings Evans was a fictional character and the main protagonist of the American soap opera Sunset Beach. She was portrayed by Susan Ward during the show's entire run, from January 6 1997 to December 31 1999. Sydney Penny temporarily assumed the role from September 8 to November 4 1999 while Ward was filming The In Crowd.

Character's Background

After leaving her fiancé Tim at the altar, Meg Cummings flew to a mysterious town on the coast of California, to find a man she had been chatting with over the Internet. Without any knowledge as to who that person might be, Meg slowly got to know the residents of the town, people who had helped her when she fell off a pier after trying to catch a girl that stole her backpack. She took a job at a local bar owned by Ben Evans, a lonely widower, and she soon realized Ben was actually her Internet soul mate. The two began to fall in love, but things didn't go as smooth when Ben's neighbor Annie Douglas decided to keep Ben for herself, and she stopped at nothing to achieve that. Meg also learned her ex-fiancé Tim followed her to Sunset Beach, and she had no idea that he helped Annie mess with her love life.

In one of their crazy attempts to break the couple, Annie and Tim had lured Meg to cave that later caved in, without realizing that Ben had followed Meg. The couple made love for the first time, but Meg had no idea Ben was delirious, thinking that he's making love to his ex-wife Maria, who had died three years ago. Annie's plot revealed that Ben had no memory of making love to Meg, and a hurt Meg had decided to return to Kansas. Ben refused to give up and he convinced Meg to return to him. Annie still didn't stop with her schemes, and Meg became more confused about Ben's behavior.

While spending the holidays on a private island, Meg and her friends were attacked by a mysterious murderer. The murderer was revealed to be Ben, but once the terror was over, it turned out that Ben was being impersonated by his twin brother Derek, who held Ben captive in an abandoned warehouse. Meg had no idea she was being scammed until she found a picture of Ben and Derek together. In a final showdown, Derek was presumed dead, and Meg and Ben resumed their happiness. However, the moment was proven short-lived, when Ben's presumed-dead wife Maria turned up alive at their wedding.

Meg tried to hold on to her love, but Ben was struggling to decide between the two women he loved. When she finally had enough, Meg broke up with Ben and found comfort in her close friend Casey, who had recently broken up with her sister Sara. Meg and Casey eventually broke up, realizing that they are better off as friends. Meg was extremely surprised when Ben wanted to resume their relationship while pretending to be in love with Maria, and she didn't realize that Derek took over Ben's identity, once again. Once Derek was finally murdered, Meg and Ben were free to get married.

References