Tara Knowles

Key takeaways

Tara Knowles belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tara Knowles to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tara Knowles from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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 (either Feinberg Medical School at Northwestern University, according to her file in "Fun Town", or "Loyola Med" according to Agent Stahl in "Better Half") 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 have sex 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 have sex. 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 (a hospital administrator) 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

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tara Knowles

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tara Knowles claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tara Knowles before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tara Knowles ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tara Knowles

In research: Tara Knowles appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tara Knowles in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tara Knowles is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Deceased fictional characters, Fictional American people of Irish descent, Fictional characters from Chicago, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tara Knowles outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Tara Knowles in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tara Knowles means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tara Knowles out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tara Knowles in simple terms?

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

Why does Tara Knowles matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tara Knowles?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tara Knowles.