Maureen Darlington (Sorority Surrogate)

Maureen Darlington (Mimi Kuzyk) is the villainess of the 2014 Lifetime film Sorority Surrogate (alternately titled A Surrogate's Terror) (airdate March 22, 2014).

History[]

Maureen was a former congresswoman, as well as the wife of Edward Darlington and mother to Jameson Darlington. She also was the work partner of Charlie Harding, who (unbeknownst to Maureen) employed unethical means of helping her in her election campaign, including murdering Edward. As revealed by Jameson later, Maureen was an absentee mother to him, allowing for nannies and boarding schools to raise him. Following her husband's death, Maureen became involved with and eventually married Charlie. Maureen was also revealed to have had disapproval of Jameson's wife Sara.

Events[]

After learning from Sara that she had inherited her sister's infertility, Maureen was increasingly insensitive towards her, calling her infertility a "defect" and subtly offering to pay her to divorce Jameson, which she greatly refused. Maureen also greatly objected to the couple hiring a surrogate to carry their baby. Fed up with his mother's attitude toward his wife and her constant meddling through his life, Jameson finally decided to cut ties with Maureen permanently. After revealing her concerns regarding her son to Charlie, the true main villain of the movie, Charlie hired his former partner Walter to sabotage Sara's car to cause her to crash. But his plan also killed Jameson, who was in Sara's car when she crashed and died along with him.

Heartbroken by her son's death, Maureen resolved that she would be a part of her future grandchild's life. She went to meet with Jameson and Sara's surrogate, college student (and main protagonist) Valerie Vont, and was shocked to learn that the child would be given into the custody of Sara's sister Stacie Holts. After failing to legally gain custody, Charlie framed Stacie's husband Bob for drug use, thus causing him and Stacie to be unworthy guardians and allowing custody to be given to Maureen. The villainess also falsely reported Valerie's sorority house as having bedbugs to convince her to move into her lavish home. Valerie agreed, despite the protests of her boyfriend Kyle. But once she moved in, Valerie finally noticed Maureen's overprotective nature, controlling what she ate, encouraging her not to use her cell phone (citing the radiation was harmful to the baby), and even changing her doctor for her. During a viewing of her ultrasound, Maureen stopped Valerie from looking at it, saying it was best for her not to get attached.

Late one night, after witnessing Charlie arguing with Walter (who was demanding full payment for his murder of Sara and Jameson), Valerie broke into the office of the house and found the documents revealing Maureen's deceptions in gaining custody of her grandchild. Charlie and Maureen caught her, and the evil Maureen had Charlie handcuff Valerie in a small bedroom of the house, saying she was going to keep her there until they figured out what to do. When Kyle and Valerie's friend Su came to check on her, Maureen claimed Valerie had left the house the previous night due to doubts of continuing her surrogacy. Realizing that they would catch on her to her lies and return, Maureen told Charlie to take Valerie to his isolated farmhouse while she went to get supplies. But during her absence, Valerie fought back against Charlie and fled to the barn, where Charlie was confronted by the gun wielding Walter. Maureen arrived soon after Charlie had killed Walter and was holding Valerie at gunpoint. Charlie tried to convince Maureen to let him kill Valerie due to being a witness, but Maureen refused to let him kill her while she was carrying her grandchild. Charlie then revealed his past crimes for Maureen, upsetting her as she adamantly denied having wanted Charlie to kill anyone for her. While Charlie was distracted, Maureen pulled out her own gun and shot her evil lover dead. She then pointed the gun at Valerie, upset and unstable at the belief that she was responsible for losing everyone she loved. Valerie was able to talk Maureen into dropping her weapon just as Kyle and Su (along with Valerie's brother Gunnar) arrived to save her. Maureen was presumably arrested offscreen.