Tara Knowles

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Tara Knowles-Teller
First appearance "Pilot" (episode 1.01)
Last appearance "A Mother's Work" (episode 6.13) (Murdered by Gemma Teller Morrow, mistakenly thinking Tara ratted out SAMCRO)
Created by Kurt Sutter
Portrayed by Maggie Siff
Gender Female
Occupation Attending Surgeon at St. Thomas Hospital
Pediatric Surgery
Neonatal Surgery
Trauma Surgery
Title M.D.
Spouse(s) Jax Teller
Children Abel Teller (stepson)
Thomas Teller



Early life[edit]

Tara is a native of Charming, California. (She said her heritage was half-Irish.) Tara's mother died when she was nine years old. According to ATF Agent Stahl, she had a "drunk daddy", whom Tara described as a "bit of a packrat." She was Jax Teller's high-school girlfriend, and during this era she had a crow tattooed on her lower back representing her connection to SAMCRO. Tara was arrested in Jax's company at least three times in 1996. Tara left town when Jax was 19, trying to get away from small-town life and the influence of the club. According to his mother Gemma, this all but broke Jax's heart.


While in Chicago, Tara dated ATF agent Joshua Kohn, and got pregnant by him, but had an abortion at six weeks. Kohn became intimidating, violent and obsessive, so she took out a restraining order against him several months before she returned to Charming, after an absence of 11 years.

Season One[edit]

Tara works as a pediatric resident at the local hospital, St. Thomas. A capable physician, she often tends to Jax's gravely ill infant son Abel during the infant's hospitalization.

Tara lives in her childhood home, which was left to her by her father when he died. She also drives a Cutlass her father had parked in the garage under "two tons of old newspapers."

Tara's relationship with Jax upon her return to Charming is largely tentative, based primarily on their mutual concern for gravely ill Abel, until the psychotic ATF Agent Kohn comes to town. He is looking to continue his relationship with Tara on the pretext of investigating the Sons of Anarchy. Afraid for her life, Tara seeks Jax's help in driving off Kohn. Jax stabs Kohn's car on her behalf, beats him bloody in an altercation at Floyd's barber shop, and then escorts him out of town. When Kohn returns in the dead of night and attacks Tara in her home, she shoots Kohn in the gut and calls Jax for help.

The couple discuss the matter, Jax, angered by Kohn's abuse of Tara, shoots Kohn in the head, thereby putting a permanent end to his intimidation tactics and bullying. Tara and Jax then fall into each other's arms and make love while Kohn's iPod plays the Andy Williams song "Can't Get Used to Losing You" on repeat.



Season Two[edit]

Season two shows Tara officially becoming Jax's "old lady" and becoming integrated into the club's world. After Gemma is raped, she turns to Tara for medical help. Tara encourages Gemma to seek out counseling to deal with the psychological repercussions of the attack but Gemma is reluctant. However, Tara's help with Gemma along with her help raising Abel seems to help heal the rift between Tara and Gemma. Tara's connection with Jax and SAMCRO, on the other hand, causes problems for her at work. Gemma accidentally breaks Tara's nose after Tara startled her. One of the hospital administrators, Margaret Murphy, believes that Jax was responsible for the injury and warns Tara about the problems her association with Jax could cause her. Later, Margaret files a "hostile work environment" complaint against Tara after Gemma confronts the administrator about the hospital's desire to move Chibs to another facility because of his insurance situation. Chibs later falsely complains of head pain and is able to stay at the hospital. Margaret accuses Tara of coaching Chibs with his symptoms and has Tara's privileges suspended.

When Jax decides that he wanted to go nomad, Tara is upset that he made the decision without talking to her. However, unlike just about everyone else connected to the club, she feels like it might be the right decision given the tension between Jax and Clay.

Gemma lets Tara know that as Jax's "old lady", Tara has considerable prestige and respect in the club after other women in the club defer to her, and that she shouldn't "take any shit" from anyone. Later, Tara confronts Margaret after a verbal exchange and it gets ugly, with Tara choking her and punching her in the face. Tara tells Margaret, "I know where you live, I know where your kids go to school." and informs her that the cops are on SAMCRO's payroll and that the club runs Charming. Tara advises Margaret to keep her mouth shut and retract her complaint. Margaret, face bloody, quickly agrees.

In the season two finale, Tara attempts to convince Gemma to not get revenge on those that raped her but is unsuccessful. She is present at Jax's home when Cameron Hayes appears and is tied to a chair by him before he kidnaps Abel Teller. Tara is untied by Jax and is able to tell him what has happened to his son. Jax and the rest of the club unsuccessfully try to save Abel while Tara is later seen being consoled by Deputy David Hale.

Season Three[edit]

Tara is still saddened by the loss of Abel. As time goes by, Jax continues to push her away with increasing force. She feels Jax is pushing her away because he blames her for not stopping the kidnapping of baby Abel. While visiting Gemma when she was on the run, Tara helped Gemma kill her father's caregiver and Tig helped them cover it up. She later reveals to Gemma in the hospital that she is six weeks pregnant with Jax's child.

After Jax leaves Tara, she catches him with Cara Cara porn star, Ima. Later in the day Tara is at Jax's house packing. He apologizes for what she saw earlier, but she feels he wanted her to see it, because he wants her gone and he knew it was the one thing that would drive her away. She expresses that she thinks he is doing all this because he hates her for what happened to Abel. He says that it is to protect her and she still doesn't believe him as he is not very convincing. Jax starts to go after her, but she is already quickly pulling out of the driveway. When Tara leaves Jax's house it is shown that recently ousted Calaveras MC leader, Hector Salazar has been secretly stalking her and Jax.

The way Tara starts feeling and her anxiousness to keep the baby a secret from Jax permanently indicates she might be thinking about getting an abortion. She believes that he is not ready for another child. Gemma tries to convince Tara to wait until Jax gets back and look into Abel's eyes before she does anything. Gemma wants Tara to try to mend the relationship because Jax hasn't been thinking clearly since Abel's abduction. Tara ultimately helps Gemma escape custody so that she can accompany Clay and Jax to Belfast.

Lyla asks Tara if she knows of any clinics that conduct abortions. After she goes with Lyla to have the procedure, they have a conversation about why Lyla is having the abortion. It turns out Lyla is having the same problem with Opie that Tara is having with Jax. He won't open up to her in fear of what might happen. The baby is also an inconvenience to Lyla, because she doesn't want another baby, so that she can continue working as a porn star. After the conversation, Tara sets an appointment for herself to have an abortion as well. Later, Tara reveals to Margaret Murphy that she is going to have an abortion and Margaret agrees it is a good idea and offers to drive her to the clinic. On her way to get an abortion, there is a staged car accident where the two women are taken hostage by Hector Salazar and his girlfriend Louisa. Salazar found Tara's location through information from Jacob Hale, Jr., the corrupt businessman who is trying to become the mayor of Charming.

While Tara and Margaret were being held by Salazar,he becomes upset that his hostage demands aren't met, that he threatens to kill Margaret. Tara tries to persuade him not to and when he doesn't listen to her, she causes a distraction. She pulls Salazar's girlfriend and tries to get away. However, Salazar kicks her hard in the stomach and tries to do so again; stopped only because she exclaims that she is pregnant. After being assaulted, she continues to lie on the ground with a hand on her stomach.

When Tara gets a chance to go to the bathroom, she looks for something to use as a weapon. She breaks off a piece of a mirror. As Salazar's girlfriend breaks into the bathroom, Tara cuts her neck and almost escapes with Margaret just as Salazar arrives. After a stand off, Tara tells him that is girlfriend is in the bathroom bleeding badly. She says that she will keep his girlfriend alive if he lets Margaret go. After they leave the house Salazar's girlfriend dies in the car and Salazar grabs Tara, throws her on the car, and puts a gun to her head.

Salazar takes Tara to Jacob Hale's office, where he takes Hale hostage as well. When he gives his list of demands, one of them is for Jax to come to Hale's office. Tara sees Salazar pull out a knife and he tells her that he plans to kill her while Jax watches and then kill Jax. As Jax enters the office, Salazar is about to kill Tara, but is stabbed by Jacob Hale. Jax wrestles the gun from Salazar and gives it to Tara and tells her to kill anyone who is not a cop. When the whole ordeal is over with Jax and Tara go to doctor for an ultrasound to make sure the baby was not harmed during Tara's abduction and captivity. The baby is healthy and Jax and Tara hear the heartbeat and see the baby on the ultrasound. Jax and Tara then go to Gemma's house where Gemma hugs her for her safe return from Salazar. When Tara sees Abel, she happily holds him and welcomes him back home. In the season finale, Tara has become more involved in the club. She drives Jimmy O. back to the garage with him in the trunk after SAMCRO buys him off the Russians. Jax makes sure that she wears a bulletproof vest to insure her safety in case something goes wrong. When Stahl tells the club about the deal Jax made with her, which was actually a trap by the club to kill Stahl and Jimmy, she runs and hugs him distraught and fearing that the club will kill him in prison. In the closing minute of the season 3 finale, Tara reads letters from John Teller to his mistress Maureen Ashby implying that Gemma and Clay would be responsible for his death should it happen. The close up shot of Tara's face transitions to Jax's face and that is the end of season 3.

Between Season 3 and Season 4[edit]

Bridge between end of Season 3 and beginning of Season 4: By the end of season 3 when Jax and the other Samcro members were hauled off to prison, Tara was a little over 8 weeks pregnant. However, in a special feature "appisode" (titled: Tara and Piney)- that took place day 85 of Jax's incarceration; a pregnant Tara is shown about 5 months along. In this appisode, Tara goes to Piney for information on John Teller's death but was rebuked and told not to investigate further and that the past was "dead and buried" . In another special "appisode" (titled: Second Son) - that bridges the gap between seasons; Tara and Gemma are visiting Jax in prison. Tara had just given birth to the newborn baby Thomas and he was brought to visitation so Jax could meet his son. Jax was beaming with pride and love for his son and Tara. He apologized for missing the delivery and promised he wouldn't miss anything important again.

Season 4[edit]


Season 6[edit]


When Eli leaves, stating he'll be outside, Tara calls for Wayne, assuming his truck outside meant he was in the house. Caught off guard, Gemma comes out of the laundry room and lunges for Tara, who cannot escape in time. Gemma hits her with an iron but doesn't knock her out. Tara struggles against Gemma's beating and her head is badly smashed on the sink, where Gemma then attempts to drown her. Tara struggles for several seconds before Gemma grabs a barbecue fork and stabs Tara multiple times in the back of the head (location of the visual cortex, causing immediate blindness) and her neck. Blood gushing out of the back of her head, Tara collapses and dies.

Lt. Roosevelt walks in on the scene and discovers Gemma sitting on the floor next to Tara's body, in obvious shock. Gemma is mumbling incoherently about how it had to be done because she was going to rat out the MC. Roosevelt tells her she didn't rat out the MC, and that Jax is giving himself up to protect her. Immediately after this, Juice walks in, sees the scene, shoots Lt. Roosevelt twice in the back and then comforts Gemma. After this he begins cleaning up the murder scene. Jax returns home later that evening. He sees Tara's legs on the kitchen floor, draws his gun, and then enters the kitchen, where he finds both Eli and Tara dead on the floor. Stunned, he drops his gun at Eli's feet and cradles Tara in his arms. He does not stand up after this. Patterson walks in and sees the horror of what has happened. Her eyes move from Lt. Roosevelt to Jax's gun and then to Jax, who is still cradling his dead wife. The last shot of the season is Jax crying out in anguish as Patterson looks on. The camera takes in the bodies and the gun in a sequence that suggests Patterson is ready to pin everything on Jax.

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