Tara Knowles


Dr. Tara Grace Knowles-Teller is a fictional character on the FX drama Sons of Anarchy, played by Maggie Siff.

Biography

Tara is a native of Charming, California. She mentions her heritage is half-Irish. Her mother died when Tara was nine and, according to ATF Agent Stahl, Tara had a "drunk daddy", whom Tara described as a "bit of a packrat". Tara was Jax Teller's high-school sweetheart, and during that 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. She left town when Jax was 19, in order to get away from small-town life and the influence of the club. According to his mother Gemma, this broke Jax's heart.
After leaving Charming, Tara moved in with a cousin of her father's, who lived in San Diego, studied at UC San Diego, and graduated with honors. She then attended medical school in Chicago where she was at the top of her class, then she completed an internship at Chicago Presbyterian.
While in Chicago, Tara dated ATF agent Joshua Kohn, and got pregnant, and 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 10 years.

Season 1

Tara works as a Pediatric resident at the local hospital, St. Thomas. It is there that she tends to Jax's gravely ill infant son Abel during Abel's hospitalization.
Tara lives in her childhood home, which she inherited from 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 based primarily on their mutual concern for gravely ill Abel. Her psychotic ex-boyfriend Agent Kohn comes to Charming under the pretext of investigating SAMCRO, but is really there because he wants to resume his relationship with Tara. 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 him in the gut and calls Jax for help.
When Jax arrives he is furious about the attack and shoots Agent Kohn in the head. 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 a continuous loop.
Following the killing of Kohn, Jax and Tara seem to settle into a largely healthy and positive romantic relationship. Tara spends more time with Jax at the clubhouse, plays nice with Gemma, and works to heal wounded club associate Cameron Hayes.
The Jax-Tara relationship soon seems to disintegrate after his ex-wife Wendy Case returns from rehab. In the penultimate season-one episode "The Sleep of Babies", Tara is seen sleeping alone while Jax and Wendy make love. In the final episode of the first season, "The Revelator", Tara tells Jax that she has arranged to return to Chicago as she does not believe she is cut out for life in Charming. This angers Jax, and he storms off. At the end of the episode Tara is seen to have changed her mind, and she turns up at Donna's funeral, where she and Jax share a kiss.

Season 2

Tara officially becomes Jax's "old lady" and is integrated into the club's world. After Gemma is raped and abused, 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. Tara's help with Gemma combined with her efforts at raising Abel begins to heal the rift between Tara and Gemma. Tara's connection with Jax and SAMCRO, on the other hand, causes problems for her at work. When Gemma accidentally breaks Tara's nose after being startled, Margaret Murphy assumes that Jax is responsible and warns Tara about the possible repercussions of being associated with SAMCRO. 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 an insurance issue. 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 consulting her. However, unlike 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 when other women in the club defer to her, and that she shouldn't "take any shit" from anyone. Later, Tara confronts Margaret. The altercation turns violent and Tara then chokes and punches her. She 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 immediately agrees to do so.
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 tells 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 3

Tara is still saddened by the loss of Abel. As time goes by, Jax continues to push her away with increasing vehemence. She feels Jax is pushing her away because he blames her for not preventing Abel's kidnapping. She visits a fugitive Gemma and helps her kill Gemma's father's caretaker. Tig helps the two of them cover it up. Tara later reveals to Gemma that she is six weeks pregnant.
After Jax leaves Tara, she catches him with CaraCara porn star, Ima. Tara then starts packing her things at Jax's house. He apologizes for what she saw earlier, but she feels he wanted her to see it, because he wants her gone and knew it was the one thing that would drive her away. She expresses that she thinks he is doing this because he hates her for what happened to Abel. Jax says that it is to protect her, but Tara doesn't believe him. When Jax goes after her, she is already pulling out of the driveway. As Tara leaves Jax's house it is shown that the recently ousted Calaveras MC leader, Hector Salazar, has been secretly stalking her and Jax.
Tara considers having an abortion, as she believes Jax is not ready for another child. Gemma tries to convince Tara to wait until Jax gets back from Belfast 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 police custody so Gemma can go with Clay and Jax to Belfast.
Lyla asks Tara if she knows of any clinics that conduct abortions. When 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 problems with Opie. He won't open up to her in fear of what might happen. Lyla also feels the baby is an inconvenience because she wants to continue working as a porn star. After the conversation, Tara schedules an abortion for herself, as well. Later, Tara reveals to Margaret Murphy that she is going to have an abortion; Margaret agrees it is a good idea and offers to drive Tara to the clinic. On the way, Salazar stages a car accident and abducts Margaret and Tara.
While Tara and Margaret are being held by Salazar, he becomes upset when his hostage demands aren't met and threatens to kill Margaret. Tara tries to persuade him not to and when he doesn't listen to her, she causes a distraction. She attacks Salazar's girlfriend and tries to get away. Salazar kicks her hard in the stomach. He goes to kick her a second time but stops when Tara tells him that she is pregnant.
When Tara gets a chance to go to the bathroom, she breaks off a piece of a mirror to use as a weapon. When Salazar's girlfriend breaks into the bathroom, Tara cuts her neck and almost escapes with Margaret, but Salazar stops them. After a stand off, Tara tells him his girlfriend is in the bathroom bleeding badly. She says she will keep his girlfriend alive if he lets Margaret go. When Salazar's girlfriend dies in the car, he throws Tara against 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 he plans to kill her while Jax watches and then kill Jax. As Jax enters the office, Salazar is about to kill Tara, but Jacob Hale stabs him instead. Jax wrestles the gun from Salazar, 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 the doctor for an ultrasound to make sure the baby was not harmed. 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. Tara sees Abel and happily holds him and welcomes him back home. In the season finale, Tara has become more involved with the club. She drives Jimmy O back to the garage in the trunk after SAMCRO buys him from the Russians. Jax makes sure that she wears a bulletproof vest to ensure 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, thus ending season 3.
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 is a little over 8 weeks pregnant. However, in a special feature "appisode" - 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 is rebuked and told not to investigate further and that the past was "dead and buried". In another special "appisode" - which bridges the gap between seasons; Tara and Gemma visit Jax in prison. Tara has just given birth to baby Thomas, and she brings the baby to meet Jax for the first time. Jax is overjoyed. He apologizes for missing the delivery and promises he wouldn't miss anything important ever again.