‘Sons of Anarchy’ Maggie Siff Talks About the Death of Tara Knowles
The "Sons of Anarchy" Season 6 finale is one of the most heartbreaking episodes of the series. Playing Jax "true north" Dr. Tara Knowles Teller, Maggie Siff breaks down as she wrapped up the last episode of the show's season 6 as she learned the hard way the decision she made of going against SAMCRO.
Like any mother who will protect her son at any cost, Gemma played by Katy Sagal assumed that Tara ratted on Jax so she drowned her in the kitchen sink. Aside from drowning her, she repeatedly stabbed her in the back of the head till she can no longer escape her death.
"The show is an epic tragedy and a tragic love story," says "Sons of Anarchy" creator Kurt Sutter who also plays Otto in the hit TV show. "The tragedy of Gemma not having that piece of information is heartbreaking. But it's also not an inorganic death; it doesn't just come out of left field. It happened, one could argue, because Tara, once again, made the mistake of trusting love in this world. Had she just followed through and gone into witness protection and given up Jax, she would have been in custody. None of that would have happened."
Tara has been a moral compass for Jax who happens to be the president of SAMCRO and just like any character she was also corrupted by circumstance. The shooting the last scene of the season was the most exhausting according to Maggie because everywhere she turns she is knocked down from one difficult scene after another.
Her character as Tara Knowles is always been a 'stand-by-your-man" kind of gal but in the last season of SoA Tara decided to take her fate into her own hands to protect herself and her offspring. But fans of the show have a strong reaction to her decision to go against the club when she is supposed to be standing by Jax.
Here's an excerpt of Maggie Siff's interview with TVLine about playing Tara Knowles in FX's "Sons of Anarchy."
One of the episode's most powerful moments came opposite Wendy, when Tara declares, "Everything I did is right." Is she genuine in her resolve to stand by the choices she's made?
Standing firm with Wendy and standing firm within herself are two different things. When she says, 'Everything I did is right,' I think she's talking about her intent to protect her children and to do whatever she felt that she had to do. The plan has backfired and she wishes she could go back and recalibrate, but fundamentally she believes that desperate times call for desperate measures.
This week's showdown between Tara and Gemma was just as intense as the physical fight two weeks ago, only in quieter fashion. What was going through her head when Gemma threatened her? Does she believe there's some truth there?
She thinks it's possible that what Gemma is saying is true. One of the things I like about the episode is that... she doesn't really see Jax or make contact with him the entire episode; she doesn't entirely know where she stands with him so there's this quivering uncertainty. In a way, her fate is in his hands and now in the hands of the club, so there's the X factor of Jax, the X factor of Gemma - who's very dangerous in Tara's mind - and then there's the X factor of the club. She feels like she's in danger, but she doesn't know from which corner it's going to come and until she really has a chance to assess where things stand between her and Jax, she really doesn't know.
Talk about Tara's "What happened to me?" revelation. It was haunting to see her brandishing a gun while blaming Jax for what's become of her.
One of the reasons I liked the presence of that scene in the middle of this episode is because Jax and Tara have been holding each other at bay all season long; she hasn't wanted to know what he's doing. She hasn't wanted to get close to the reality that he might be being unfaithful because all of that means that she gets into really personal territory, that heartspace, and they've both been avoiding that vulnerable and emotional place. This just rips off the band-aid, so in the middle of all of this you see this purely visceral, possessive reaction to seeing your person with somebody else. And the fact that that is still alive and potent reveals something about the truth of where they actually sit with each other. They're exposed to each other for the first time all season.