Tara Thornton



"Pam will go all 'As your maker I command you' on me, which is a card I'm surprised you guys don't play more often."

- Tara

Tara Mae Thornton has been Sookie Stackhouse's best friend since childhood. Tara is the daughter of Lettie Mae Thornton, the cousin of Lafayette Reynolds and the Progeny of Pam. Tara is a strong-willed person who has had to deal with a multitude of abuses in her life. She was made a vampire as a last resort to save her life after she took a bullet.

Personality
According to Alan Ball, Tara is the smartest person in Bon Temps, but her cynical nature, born of her abusive background, has made her extremely blunt and often confrontational with others. She is however, fiercely protective of her loved ones (including her best friend Sookie) to a fault, often hating those whom she sees could cause harm to them, including vampires.

Before Season 1
Tara's home life has been less than perfect. As a child, she would often stay at Sookie's grandmother's house in order to escape her abusive, alcoholic mother, Lettie Mae. As an adult, Tara finds herself taking care of drunken Lettie Mae on a regular basis.

Season 1
Tara first appeared working at a local store dealing with a customer and that was the first example of her cynical manners to other people. Later that was confirmed by Sookie who told her that she could stay on a job if she could keep her mouth shut. Tara also shows some kind of attraction towards Jason and a strong protection for her childhood friend Sookie who recently met Bill who is a vampire and that alerts her. That same night Tara eventually got a job at Merlotte's for helping them. The next night she kept company to Sookie when Bill came to the house after gran's request to meet him and learn more about the history of Bon Temps.

She still has an affection for Jason who is unaware of this but still Tara doesn't express it openly. The next day after closing the bar Tara and Sam had a conversation about their life, which ended with them having sex after Tara's suggest which Sam accpeted after she told him it would be something friendly. The following morning on her return to home her drunken mother threw an empty bottle of whiskey on her head and that made her leave the house once and for all to go stay with Lafayette Reynolds. However she soon discovered that her cousin owned hidden cameras.



When she learnt Jason was kept by police for the murders of local women she rushed to save him making up a story and convinced the cops to leave him free. The same night on the bar she finds an erected Jason to the fridge and then decides to help him cure taking him to a hospital. Afterwards in the car she remembers the days when the two were young and how Jason was protective and brave. Following the next night she attended Descendants of the Glorious Dead meeting where Jason expressed his love for her, something which she didn't believed. That was later confirmed when she found an ecstatic Jason having sex with a girl on the backyard of Merlotte's bar.

The next day and after gran's death Tara comforts Sookie and eventually throws out of the room the enraged Jason who accuses his sister. On the funeral she meets with her mother again who asks for money because of an exorcism she wants to do. Tara leaves her cold and returns to the motel. However the next morning she visits her mother and she is further convinced to give her money for the ritual noticing the bad situation in which Lettie Mae is. The following night, both of them visit the Miss Jeanette, the woman who will help Tara's mother. Shortly afterwards Miss Jeannette tells Tara she also has a demon inside her, even more powerful than the one of Lettie Mae. Tara leaves indifferent showing no belief. Next day she has an even more change in her attitute towards others and having confrontations with her close friends and cousin Lafayette. Thus she decides to meet Miss Jeanette and ask her about any detail on her demon. Somehow she is not fully convinced for this and leaves. She later meets Sam and tells him about the demon. Eventually she finds the money she needed hidden on envelope. She declined this offer by Sam but later on accepted. After the job she visits Miss Jeanette. On the process of the ritual she sees an image of her own self as kid with black void eyes. Jeanette tells her that this is her sick soul and must kill it with the knife. Tara does so and the blood is covered in blood. Thus she believes that was a true ritual and she feels comfort. The next morning she visits her mother to tell her everything is fine. Both of them start a new beginning. Later, while on the road with a dizzy Lettie Mae, she stops at a local pharmacy to buy her mother some medicine. There she meets a disguised Jeanette something that proved all the ritual fake. That enraged Tara and later on that night she again lost control by drinking and confronting with Sam. She leaves with the car, desperate and while drinking she saw a woman with a pig. Trying to avoid her she crushed on a tree.

Later on she is arrested by Kenya for driving while drunk. Later, her mother denies any help as this would not help her at all. Tara is frustrated and tells Lettie Mae to leave. While on the cage, Kenya informs Tara that a lady paid the bail to get her free. That woman is named Maryann and is some kind of social worker and offers help to people like her. Tara with no option accepts Maryann's offer and goes to her home. The next morning she takes breakfast with Maryann and asks her about her job and why she does this. She eventually meets Eggs Talley shorlty afterwards. The same night, upon learning Sookie was attacked by Rene, goes to see her and comfort her. She also meets with Sam and tells him that she like him worths a lot and leaves with Maryann. Later that night at Merlotte's she with Sookie and Andy discover the dead body of Miss Jeanette on Andy's car

Season 2

 * See: "Tara Season 2"

Season 3

 * See: "Tara Season 3"

Season 4

 * See: "Tara Season 4"

Season 5

 * See: "Tara Season 5"

Powers and Abilities
Tara, like her cousin Lafayette, has been said to have some magical potential; as displayed in Season 4 while spell casting. While having an "exorcism", Miss Jeanette drugged Tara with a harmless hallucinogenic that made her see a younger version of herself with blacked out eyes. This characteristic is also shown in humans that were under the spell of the Maenad Maryann Forrester; who later stated that even though the exorcism was fake, Tara summoned her none the less.

Tara has shown numerous times to be a skilled fighter. After leaving Marlotte's drunk, Tara finds two men and in a fit of anger she punches one of the men. He falls straight to the ground and as he gets up, Franklin Mott throws him against a car door and holds the other man while Tara repeatedly punches him. Later, Tara and Sookie fight and defeat a werewolf in order to escape Russell Edgington's mansion. After finding out Bill Compton almost drained Sookie dry, she kicks Bill out of the truck and into the sunlight. In the beginning of season 4, Tara has become a professional cage fighter in New Orleans. In 2009 Tara returned to Bon Temps to visit after hearing her best friend Sookie had returned alive. While home, she joined her cousin Lafayette and his boyfriend Jesus, a "brujo" to a coven meeting. After a series of a events, such as helping to raise a dead bird and coven leader Marnie getting willingly possessed by Antonia, gave a drunk Tara a vision. She showed her getting raped by a vampire. Antonia then proceeded to ask Tara to enlist a group of witches to perform a day-walking spell.Tara took part of this. Later on after being entrapped in the Moon Goddess Emporium by Marnie, Holly Cleary convinced Tara to cast a spell to free them from the Emporium. The spell was a success but alas Marnie caught them and teleported them back inside the shop.

Throughout most of season 4 Tara is seen sporting a revolver pistol loaded with wooden bullets. She seems to be a skilled marksman as seen in the battle of the graveyard where she successfully shot and killed a speeding Vampire that was coming from behind.

Tara now possesses the normal powers and weaknesses of a vampire. She has superhuman strength, speed, senses, healing, agility and reflexes. She is much weaker than her elders like Pam and Eric. Tara has been seen to have a high level of self control for a vampire of her age.

Quotes

 * Tara: Don't you feel sorry for yellin' at that snoopy old bitch. She's been stickin' her nose where it don't belong for years.
 * Tara: It's been a while Since I been attacked by a vampire. And Guess what? It still Sucks!!
 * Tara: I'd like to drag her in a cage and beat her ass good.