Alters

The various personalities or 'Alters' of Tara.

Alice

Alice is a "June Cleaver-esque" housewife, who has been around for the longest time, dating back to Tara's childhood. She is extremely domineering, believing herself to be the 'true' personality rather than Tara and wanting permanent control of the body. Once she stated that she is the "keeper" for all of Tara's other alters. In episode 12 of season 1, when confronted by Dr. Holden, Alice says that Tara is weak, and that she needs her. She believes herself to be married to Max as well, and makes advances on him and wants to have a child. She likes Kate and Marshall but views them as Tara's children. She claims to have attended the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She abhors Gimme and seemed to be the only one who knew about his existence before everyone else did. Alice is a very devout Catholic, the only one of Tara's personalities, including Tara, who deals with religion. She prays every night for herself and all of the other alters, and (begrudgingly) Gimme. Both she and Tara cared a lot about the death of the Gregsons' neighbor. When Charmaine and Tara travel out of town to meet Mimi, it is instantaneously obvious that Alice was based on her.

Buck

Buck is a loud and profane troublemaker, characterized by Collette as "the aggressive protector type, a man's man". He explains his lack of a penis by claiming that it was blown off in the Vietnam War. Buck has a gun named Persephone and sometimes goes to the shooting range with Max and Marshall. Collette said that Buck is her favorite of the original four personalities "just because he's most challenging", though she has to "always be careful not to make him a stereotype." Unlike Tara and the other alters, Buck is left-handed. He is a heavy drinker and smoker. He wears large glasses and a trucker hat. 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.

T

T is a sixteen-year-old girl. She smokes pot and is wild and flirty. She is provocative in her mannerisms and style of dress. 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. Her unruly and selfish actions often disrupt Tara's life. 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.

Gimme

Gimme first appeared at the end of episode six of season one, but its existence was foreshadowed on multiple occasions before, mostly by Alice. It is first mentioned three episodes earlier, as Alice finds the word "Gimme" written on the bathroom wall. However, she instantly uses a hand towel to erase it thanks to her perfectionist behavior before transitioning back to Tara. Gimme is not so much of a human than an anamalistic expression of pure id. It is very destructive, and makes awful screams. Max was the first to see it, urinating on Tara's father in the middle of the night. 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. The third and most recent time Gimme has been shown is after Marshall's monologue where he goes off on Courtney. In the season three episode "Bryce Will Play" Gimme is killed by Bryce.

During the second season, two alters were introduced. They are:

Shoshana Schoenbaum

She appears as a stereotypical 1970s feminist, and speaks with a New York accent. She is the most psychologically profound alter. In the season three episode "Bryce Will Play" Shoshana is killed by Bryce.

Chicken

Chicken first appears in the second-to-last episode of season two and is a mental presentation of Tara's 5 year old self. In the season three episode "Chicken 'n' Corn" Alice tells Dr. Hatterras that Chicken is missing; Tara later tells him that Chicken has been killed.

During the third season, a new alter is introduced:

Bryce Craine

Bryce Craine is Tara's half-brother who molested her as a child. Dr. Hattarras describes him as a 14 year-old psychopath. Bryce's unnamed presence is first manifested in the season three premiere, when he types "you will not win" over and over on Tara's computer when Tara tries to write a term paper. Bryce kills Chicken, Shoshana and Gimme. The real Bryce has not appeared to date, although in season 3 Buck searches for him