'United States of Tara': An alter pattern emerging?

Whodunnit?  The family begins an investigation into which alter earned Tara her first restraining order by defacing the mural on ex-best friend Tiffany's wall.  Marshall and Kate watch the home videos Tara and her alters make while Tara and Max listen to Dr. Ocean diagnose the latest altercation.  Not only is a real friend a threat to the alters, it appears one of them wanted to be out in the world.  "Now my alters have alters," Tara says sarcastically. 

"Most women don't have a clue to how much (aggression) they're carrying," Dr. Ocean explains.  Minutes later, as Tara and Max discuss the graffiti, Max appears to disregard Tara's belief that someone else did the crime.  And just like that, it appears Tara stuffs her frustrating and aggression and T comes out to deal.  Can we start to detect a pattern in what triggers different alters? 

Charmaine and Max head out on a road trip to track down T, and Max keeps working on the clues.  When he asks Charmaine about Tara's roommate at boarding school, in the hope that someone might have been around "whenever whatever happened, happened," Charmaine can't quite recall the unusually tall roommate's name.  She does recall, however, that though Tara went to prep school, Charmaine went the public route.  "Don't know what I did wrong," she says with jealousy?  Anger?  Aggression?  "You didn't do anything wrong," Max tells her.  "Maybe."  Is Charmaine dropping a clue?  Was she involved in Tara's trauma?  Or is she, too, blocking something?  Or am I just trying too hard, hoping to see signs? 

What do you think?  What triggers the different alters to emerge? 

-- Rebecca Snavely

Photo: Showtime

Comments

[Dan B]

I think the mural was defaced by another alter whom we haven't seen yet. At the end of the previous episode, Alice asks God to bless all the family members and the other alters, before shuddering slightly as she starts to ask for someone else to be blessed.

[Hanne]

I actually believe the mural was defaced by Tara's sister, not one of the alters.

[OKAKAY]

I agree with Dan B. I think we're going to see another alter come out in the near future. Alice's shudder was a dead give away! There's someone in there that she doesn't want to address by name, but feels the need to bless...because she's Alice and that's what Alice does. I bet Buck will be the one to let the cat out of the bag or at least drop another hint!

[Sarah G.]

I don't know if anyone else caught this connection but Marshall wet the bed in the second episode. They said he hadn't done it in years. And then we see that Tara's fourth alter peed on her father. So there might be a something there. I don't think the new alter is going to be a great as come people think. The new alter seems a bit demented to me.

[Volleyballrebecca]

i agree with sarah g...tara's new alter seems a little scary!! i think the new alter is the one who defaced tara's mural...and we caught a glimpse of him/her peeing on tara's father! mayb the new alter is very, very angry, and mayb he/she only comes out at night- defacing the mural and peeing on the father both happened in the middle of the night___the strange thing is that max neglected to tell tara...mayb he just doesn't want to upset her???

i think that this is an awesome new show and i can't wait to see what happens with the fourth alter in the future =)