United States of Tara/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Crowning Moment of Funny: Almost every Crowning Moment of Awesome qualifies as one.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Neil.
  • Growing the Beard: Season 3 featured much more Character Development than the previous two seasons combined. It's a shame we will never know where that will go.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Buck. After Max stormed off due to the anger that Buck started a relationship with a woman, Tara transitioned to Buck from the stress. And the first thing he did was break down into tears in a bathroom stall.
    • Hell, all of the alters become this in season 3, after spending 20 years of Tara's life and the last 2 seasons being the defining burden keeping her from a normal life, we see the sympathetic sides of them... just in time to watch them die.
  • The Scrappy: There are a number of fans who hate Charmaine.
    • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: In season 3 Charmaine became a mother and finally matured by the end.
      • This is especially evident when she turns to her mother and defends Tara, finally acknowledging that Tara's disease is very real, and that she has no real control over her alters.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The second season shoved aside virtually all of the alters from the first season but Buck.
  • Tear Jerker: "Crunchy Ice" in its entirety. Bryce apparently kills off all of the other alters while driving the rest of the family nuts. Everyone begins to question whether sticking around for Tara is the best option and if she should be put in a home. More than one "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight is attempted, but each fail horribly. When Tara resurfaces, Bryce had left her relationship with her entire family, especially Marshall, in shambles. At the end of the episode Tara attempts suicide.
    • The end of Abundance. Alice believing she was pregnant was treated as a silly annoyance that Max and the others simply humor her with. But it stops being funny once she has an emotional breakdown after she believes she has had a miscarriage, as Max tries in vain to console her.
    • When Marshall watches the tape of Lionel saying what he would do in ten years. When the camera pans to Marshall's face and he is in grief-stricken tears, it's heartbreaking.
    • In season 3, each of the alters deaths, and their final moments. Half the season was devoted to showing the alters working with Tara and becoming a family of close friends helping her life instead of stealing it. We finally no longer saw them as dangers. And then we watch them die, as Tara is powerless to protect them. Each of their final last words to whoever is there, even if comical, is incredibly emotional knowing that this is their final goodbyes before knowingly walking to their death. Alice's midsentence murder while trying to console Marshall was what finally tipped him over the edge.
  • Too Good to Last: Although it did last much longer than others that fit in this trope.
  • The Woobie: Tara and Marshall are very easy to feel sympathy for with their respective mental health and romantic struggles. In the second season, Pammy the bartender could also qualify, being a single mother and a Love Interest for Buck who's oblivious to his status as an alter.
    • And recently Pammy found out and couldn't accept that Buck was an alter and that Tara was the real deal. She burst into tears saying that Buck will punish Tara for hurting her since he promised he would never let anyone do so.
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