Kathleen O'Rourke

**Kathleen O'Rourke** aka **Tasha Simmons** (Anne Openshaw) is the hidden main villainess of the 2005 Lifetime movie *Captive Hearts*.

## History

Kathleen's backstory revealed she was the daughter of Owen O'Rourke and the sister of Sean O'Rourke, with the two men working together operating the corrupt Duplex Energy company in Chicago, which (among other things) had ties to the Irish mafia. Owen and Sean were eventually arrested for their crimes and were put on trial, with employee Larry Cora testifying against them. While Sean was ultimately sent to prison, Owen ultimately died of a heart attack he had while in police custody.

After Larry and his wife Elizabeth went into the witness protection program and changed their last name to Larry Sorenson, a vengeful Kathleen tracked him down and plotted to take her revenge on Larry for (in her mind) destroying her family. Kathleen started by taking on the alias Tasha Simmons and getting herself hired by MaxGen International, seducing her married boss Darren Maxwell into an illicit relationship and convincing him to hire Larry as an executive, luring him into her clutches. Kathleen had also previously met with Elizabeth during her pursuit of Larry, even buying some paintings from her.

## Events

Kathleen was first shown greeting Larry and introducing him to his new work environment, and it was while the two were at a Japanese restaurant to meet Darren for lunch that Kathleen's two male cohorts (one of whom was her lover) stormed into the restaurant and abducted Larry at gunpoint, with Kathleen being shot in the shoulder by her boyfriend as part of her plan to make herself appear uninvolved in the kidnapping. As per her instructions, Kathleen's henchmen kept Larry tied up in an isolated factory and sent out video demands for MaxGen to cease all business with Europe, threatening to kill Larry if the demand wasn't met in 12 hours.

The ransom demand made it appear that Larry's kidnappers were terrorists going after American stockholders, resulting in MaxGen's stock values suffering. Detective Jimmy Kelsoe and FBI agent Jade Marlo worked together in investigating Larry's abduction, learning through their investigation about Kathleen's affair with Maxwell. They also discovered the deceased body of plumber Ronnie Wilkins, who had been hired by the villainous trio to install listening devices in the Sorensons' house and was killed by Kathleen's goons after the job was done. Kelsoe and Marlo later went to speak with Kathleen in the hospital, only to find she had been checked out by Ronnie Wilkins, with the revelation leading the investigators to realize Kathleen was somehow involved in Larry's kidnapping.

Marlo later found Kathleen's real identity and went with Kelsoe to inform Maxwell, who revealed that it was Kathleen who pushed him into hiring Larry as part of her vengeful scheme, which included destroying MaxGen's stocks enough to where she could buy the company out for cheap under the phony August Financial Group name. In exchange for Marlo and Kelsoe telling the exchange commission they were investigating the scandal in the hopes of saving his company, Maxwell had MaxGen's stocks temporarily frozen and made a statement claiming he was giving in to Kathleen's demands, angering Kathleen when she learned the news, as she had planned to use the money she'd get from her MaxGen buyout to pay Sean's bail. Realizing her original plans were kiboshed, the evil Kathleen declared that now her only concern was getting revenge, stating that she intended to kill both Larry and Elizabeth to silence them and prevent them from damaging Sean's chance at an appeal.

Larry was later forced to call Elizabeth and lure to an isolated location, with Elizabeth sneaking away after leaving a note for the detectives about where she was. Upon arriving and coming face-to-face with Kathleen and her cohorts, with the villainess cruelly teasing Elizabeth about her intentions to kill Larry. When asked by Elizabeth for an explanation, Kathleen proclaimed that Larry was responsible for her father's death and brother's arrest before rejecting Elizabeth's pleas for mercy and ordered her lover to grab Elizabeth. A shoot-out ensued when Marlo and Kelsoe arrived, with Kathleen getting into a brawl with Elizabeth. After Marlo and Kelsoe took out Kathleen's henchmen, the pair held Kathleen at gunpoint as she pulled out a pistol, with Marlo shooting the weapon out of her hand before police arrived and placed her under arrest.