Tara Thornton

Tara Thornton is Sookie’s childhood friend and Lafayette’s cousin. When we first meet her, she’s a tough-talking, angry young woman. As we get to know her throughout the six seasons of True Blood, we begin to see the reasons why she is so angry and resentful. We also watch her go through a few transformations and we are treated to a softer, more caring side of Tara.

In the first season we see that Tara lives with her mother who is an abusive drunk. Tara’s home time is spent cleaning up after Lettie Mae and avoiding empty bottles being thrown at her head.

Tara has trouble holding down jobs because of her mouth, which she can’t seem to keep shut when dealing with ignorant customers. Sam Merlotte finally hires her at his bar.

Tara has a soft spot for Sookie’s brother, Jason, but she knows his reputation with women and though she tries, he can’t seem to see her as anything other than his little sister’s friend.

After Tara’s mother undergoes an exorcism, Tara believes she is cured of her alcoholism. While that may be true, Lettie Mae kicks Tara out of the house after Tara is arrested on a DUI charge. She is bailed out by Maryann and goes to live with her. Through Maryann, Tara meets “Eggs” Benedict Talley. Feeling more and more uncomfortable with Maryann, Tara moves in with Sookie just before Sookie leaves for Dallas to help with vampire affairs.

Unable to resist Maryann’s ‘persuasion’, Tara invites her and Eggs to live with her in Sookie’s house. Tara and Eggs fall deeply in love but that comes to an abrupt end when Jason kills Eggs when he sees him attack Andy while under a hypnotic trance from Maryann.

In season three, Tara is kidnapped and raped by the crazy vampire, Franklin Mott, who was sent to Bon Temps by Russell Edgington in search of information on Sookie. Franklin intends on turning Tara vampire and making her his bride for all eternity, but he is ultimately killed by Jason.

In this season Tara learns that Jason killed Eggs, Sam is a shape-shifter and Lettie Mae is having an affair with her pastor. Having had enough, Tara leaves Bon Temps.

Season 4 takes place about a year after the end of the last season and we see a made-over Tara, who has changed her name to Toni and is living with her lover, Naomi. She is a cage fighter living in New Orleans and she has apparently left behind all traces of who she once was. She eventually returns to Bon Temps very much changed. She has left behind her anger and seems to accept what she sees in the small town among old friends and family. She’s tougher and calmer and she even seems happier.

At the end of season 4, Tara takes a bullet intended for Sookie by Debbie Pelt. Season 5 opens with Sookie and Lafayette pleading with Pam to turn Tara vampire so they can keep their friend/cousin with them. A selfish move on their part since Tara has no love for vampires, thanks to Franklin and others.

Pam is successful in turning Tara, but Tara is not grateful in the least and attacks Sookie. As the season progresses Tara slowly comes to terms with who she is now and with the help of Pam and Jessica, she comes to accept and even like her new life. She develops a strong affection for her maker and Pam and Tara become lovers.

Tara finally forgives Sookie and Lafayette and teams up with them at the end of the season to rescue Pam and others being held at the Authority HQ.

In season 6 Pam and Tara are running Fangtasia when the place is overrun with a SWAT team sent by the governor of Louisiana, Burrell. They take Pam into custody and she is transported to a camp where awful experiments are being done on vampires. Tara teams up with Eric to go in and find a way to get all the vampires out.

In the camp, Tara begins to teach Willa, Eric’s new child, how to glamour and later the two team up to protect Jason when he is thrown in with the female vampires.

When we last see Tara it has been several months since she and the other vampires were freed from the camp. Pam has gone off in search of Eric, and Sam and Bill have devised a way to keep humans safe from the Hep V- infected vampires that are on the loose and headed for Bon Temps. They plan to pair each human with a vampire: the vampire protects their human in exchange for untainted feedings. Lettie Mae offers herself to Tara in an attempt to erase all the hurt and abuse she had put her daughter through her entire life.