She is an extremely talented woman who would like to nurture her growth as an artist, but can't for balancing everything else in her life, including her job as a mural painter, her husband and two teenage children, and her dissociative identity disorder.
The series begins shortly after she made the decision to stop taking her medication, which allows her underlying vulnerabilities (her alters) to re-emerge.
In the final episode of season three Tara takes drastic measures and throws herself off a bridge, but survives and manages to kill her "abuser" alter.
Diablo Cody, one of the show's producers, has stated that Tara isn't being irresponsible by not taking the medication, but rather "wants a chance to try living with her condition, instead of smothering it with drugs" because it is "clear ... that she is not receiving proper treatment for her dissociative identity disorder".
Max's own father left him and his mother during his childhood due to her mental illness which may motivate his fierce commitment to his family and to supporting his wife through.
In the pilot episode, Tara transitions into teenage alter-ego T when she finds a prescription for the morning-after pill in Kate's backpack.
She briefly enters into a casual relationship with her manager, Gene, but grows uncomfortable with his advances and initiates a sexual harassment complaint against him.
She soon stopped, when she met a man named Zac (over the internet in a webcam chat), and started dating him, but she broke things off near the end of season 2.
She is eager to leave town and find a new, alters-free life elsewhere yet she is ultimately unable to abandon her mother in her unending personal crisis.
In season 3, she plans to teach English in Japan but abruptly changes career goals, taking a job as an airline stewardess instead.
Gilchrist has been praised for his portrayal,[5] and singled out as "the real breakout star ... [his] expressive, trusting face will definitely break your heart in some scenes".
She undergoes corrective surgery, and starts to bond with Buck, who takes care of her while she recovers, after Tara transitions because she cannot cope.
Neil is a short chubby ex-boyfriend and a friend of Max's, and Charmaine admits to Tara that she is still attracted to him, while also in love with her tall, fit, handsome fiancé, Nick, who subsequently leaves her at the altar.
Though it isn't shown as the series goes on, it is clear that she suffers from being a chronic liar, has a hard time being empathetic and sympathetic, and is boldly selfish.
As of the series premiere Tara was aware of three alters, Alice, Buck and T. By the end of the second season three additional personalities had been discovered, Gimme, Chicken, and Shoshana Schoenbaum.
Buck is loudly attracted to women, hitting on Kate's friends and claiming to have had sex with a waitress at the local bowling alley, who gave him crabs.
In season two he embarks on a love affair with Pammy, the bartender at the pub Tara, Max, Charmaine and Neil sometimes attend.
She relates well with Kate, providing her with the morning-after pill and frequently attempting to take her on shopping sprees with Tara's credit cards.
After a major hiatus (Alice said she resorted to Seattle and became a gutterpunk), T makes a brief and wild return in the penultimate episode of season two in order to confront Duane, Mimi's partner.
In season 3, T grows more volatile, getting into a physical fight with Kate and inducing Charmaine's labor by nearly hitting her with Tara's car.
The first time Gimme appeared in public was four episodes later at a spa trip — Tara mentioned before that being touched (except by Max) makes her uncomfortable.
A good example is when Max tentatively allows himself to be seen by Shoshana, Tara is portrayed as showing up to find her appointment stolen, and waits outside the closed door.
Bryce emerges in the episode "The Electrifying & Magnanimous Return of Beaverlamp" when he smashes a beer bottle and gouges Tara's arm with it.
Charmaine, still in her wedding dress, agrees to go out for drinks with Neil after noting that she will not be consuming alcohol due to being pregnant with their daughter.
When he finds out the baby isn't his, he agrees to stay with Charmaine when she explains that she does not want Neil involved in the child's life.
In episode 10, Kate files a sexual harassment claim against him, as he often makes inappropriate remarks and frequently finds excuses to touch the other teenage girls at the restaurant.
After seeing how controlling she is being, and with counsel from his friends, and accepting that he is gay in the first place, Marshall breaks up with Courtney, but he must say it multiple times before she finally gets it.
Lionel Trane (Michael J. Willett) is an expressive and abrasive gay teen who starts the school's LGBT advocacy group.
At first he is a DID skeptic, calling her a "delusional liar or an attention-seeking dramatist" in front of the class; however, after more observation he becomes fascinated with Tara as a subject, leading him to further explore the condition in hopes of writing a paper.
Don Hubbard (Kevin Symons), who was only seen once in the show when Buck had taken over, lived next door to the Gregsons before shooting himself at the start of season 2.