Tig Trager
Alexander "Tig" Trager is a fictional character on the FX television series Sons of Anarchy, played by Kim Coates.[1] He is the Vice President and former Sergeant-at-Arms of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club's Charming, California charter and is the clubs most violent member. During the first four seasons of the show, he wore the "Sgt. at Arms" patch on his cut and after season seven, he wears the "V. President" patch. He is extremely loyal to Clay Morrow, the club's President, Clay's wife Gemma, and the club itself. He has at times had a strained relationship with then Vice President, Jax Teller, arising from his use of violence in situations which may not call for it.
| Alexander "Tig" Trager | |
|---|---|
 | |
| First appearance | "Pilot" (2008) |
| Last appearance | "Papa's Goods" (2014) |
| Created by | Kurt Sutter |
| Portrayed by | Kim Coates |
| In-universe information | |
| Nicknames |
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| Title |
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| Occupation | Sgt. Arms SAMCRO Mechanic Former U.S. Marine |
| Children | Dawn Trager (deceased) Fawn Trager |
| Nationality | American |
Biography
Not much is mentioned about Trager's past, but it is likely that he is a native of Charming and that he has served time in prison. It is explained in a behind-the-scenes video from Season One that he was a U.S. Marine.[2] He is in his late 40s or early 50s and was the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club's Mother Charter, the responsibilities of which include: to ensure proper employment, defense, and enforcement of club rules, charter bylaws, and charter decrees, and imposition of penalties for violations thereof are observed, executed, and fulfilled. His "day job" is working as a mechanic at the Teller-Morrow Automotive Repair shop, and he is often used by the gang to carry out killings. He has two daughters, named Dawn and Fawn, whom he sees a couple of times each year.[3] He suffers from acute pediophobia, a fear of dolls, which Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter actually has. In the Season One episode "Old Bones", he explicitly says that he is a necrophiliac, and describes to Clay what he likes about it, while at the morgue. It remains unclear whether Tig was being serious, or simply used the opportunity to enhance his reputation for embracing the gruesome and the macabre. Several times he is hinted to have a proclivity for other paraphilias. Despite a perhaps depraved love of violence, Tig also shows sensitivity when it comes to women, children, and animals, taking revenge against those who exploit them. In season 5, Tig becomes a pet owner after rescuing an American Pit Bull Terrier who lost her fight, from being shot. Tig is frequently employed in situations where the use of violence is needed. Far from shying away, Tig actually seems to enjoy and covet his position as an enforcer, relishing the art of dirty fighting and the use of sudden, vicious, and often extreme violence. A trademark tactic is for him to bite off a piece of flesh from a rival during a fight..
Season 1
Sons of Anarchy finds their weapon storage warehouse being burned down. When they arrived at the scene, police were already investigating. Gun parts and the corpses of two illegal immigrants were found inside. Later that night, all of the charter's members attend a meeting ("Church"), where they are informed that it was the Mayans, a rival MC, who destroyed the warehouse and that they are now storing the guns in San Leandro. They decide they will ride out to San Leandro the next night and steal the weapons back. Clay, Jax, Chibs and Tig all go to the industrial storage warehouse in San Leandro and locate the guns but are interrupted by four men who turn up in a car outside. Clay and Tig take care of the men, three of whom are Mayans. The other man, Whistler, is a member of the Nordics. Whistler tries to shoot Jax in the back, but the bullets hit Jax's vest. Jax shoots back and kills Whistler. The group then take the weapons, bomb the warehouse, and flee.[4]
When they arrive back in Charming, Tig comes forth and tells Clay that the bodies of two women found at the warehouse were Mexican prostitutes, that he had been having sex with them and allowed them to stay in the warehouse as they had nowhere else to go, and that his DNA is in the police database. Clay orders Tig and Bobby Munson, the club's Treasurer, to get rid of the bodies by any means necessary. The pair then retrieve the corpses from the police site and burn them in a furnace at the local morgue. Unexpectedly, Tig says a heartfelt prayer over their bodies.[5]
When local businessman Elliot Oswald went to the Sons of Anarchy and asked them to find the man who raped his 13-year-old daughter, they quickly agreed. When the gang find that the man is one of the carnies from the nearby traveling carnival, they go there, retrieve the rapist, torture and murder him. Tig proved to be a capable fighter during the brawl with the carnies, and showed off his psychotic side by biting a man's ear off.[6]
When a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent arrived in Charming and began investigating the club, they moved their weapons to Indian Hills, Nevada, where their brother club, the Devil's Tribe, is based. Tig and Juice Ortiz were stuck with the task of stealing a truck to transport the guns in. Juice drugged the guard dogs of the truck yard with crystal meth and then broke in. The drugs only made the dogs more fierce, however, and they pursued Tig aggressively as he made his way to the truck. When Juice wanted to shoot the dogs, Tig prevented their death by drugging them properly. When Tig and Juice arrived at the Devil's Tribe clubhouse, they were extremely disappointed that they had missed the party. Clay knew of Tig's fondness for women, however, and set him up with three women for sex. The next day, the Mayans attacked the clubhouse, and Tig and the others fought them off with a shotgun.[7]
Otto Delaney and a number of other imprisoned SAMCRO members have been protecting Chuck in Stockton prison. He is wanted by the Triads because he stole money from them, then informed on a number of their members when he was arrested. When Clay and Jax went to visit Otto in prison, he told them that if they protected Chuck when he was released, he would inform them where the Triads keep their money. They agreed and sent Bobby and Tig to pick him up from prison and bring him to the clubhouse. SAMCRO intended on waiting until the restaurant, where the money is stored, was closed until they raided it, but Chuck's frequent unconscious masturbating was unbearable for them and they decided to raid the restaurant straight away. However, just after they stole the money and some counterfeiting plates, the Triads turned up. Instead of starting a war, Clay decided to make a deal; SAMCRO handed over Chuck and the plates, and the Triads let them keep the stolen money. Meanwhile, Kyle Hobart, a disgraced former SAMCRO member, went to Jax and asked him if the Sons wanted in on his deal selling stolen car parts. Jax accepted and invited him to the clubhouse that night. This was a set-up, however, to punish him for not having his SOA tattoo removed after being disowned by the club. At the clubhouse, they tied him up and Tig carried out the task of removing the tattoo, using a blowtorch.[8]
Workmen working for the Water and Power Board near the highway dug up three skeletons, two of which were Mayans killed in the war of 1992. The other was Lowell Harland, Sr., a Teller-Morrow mechanic. He was killed for being a "junkie rat". To stop the bodies from being identified, Tig, Clay and Jax broke into the local morgue and were prepared to steal the bones. However, the corpses had already been identified. In the morgue, Tig told Clay that he has had sex with corpses.[9]
He, Bobby and Piney started a brawl at a local bar, in order to distract the police. This then gave Jax and Opie a chance to break into the police station and free Cherry, who had been arrested.[10]
After the clubhouse was raided and Bobby was arrested for the murder of Brenan Hefner, because Jax covered up the fact that Opie froze and the hit did not go off as planned, Tig and Clay suspected Opie of being the witness who identified him. It was another person who witnessed the hit because of Opie's mistake, but it would not have been possible for her to see this if the original plan had gone down. Clay and Tig met with Rosen, the club's attorney, who told them that ATF had details that only club members would know and to get more evidence ATF might wire him. When Opie turned up at the clubhouse, Tig checked his truck for bugs and found a microphone. He also found a recording device in his mobile phone. Both were planted by the ATF without Opie's knowledge. Clay and Tig then decided to kill him.
Tig and Clay met with Laroy, the leader of the One-Niners to make a deal. They agreed that SAMCRO would set up a meeting with the Mayans and sell them some guns, and after the Sons left, the Niners would take out the Mayans and keep the guns as payment. However, the Niners attacked during the deal and tried to kill both the SOA and the Mayans. During the shoot-out, Tig attempted to kill Opie by shooting him in the back of the head, but found himself unable to do so. Later that night, a celebration was held as Jax's baby son was released from the hospital. As Opie and his wife, Donna, left the party, they decided to switch cars. Opie took Donna's car to drive his children home, and Donna took Opie's pick-up truck. Believing Opie was driving, Tig followed the pick-up in an SUV (which he had stolen from a car park of a local bar) and shot Donna with a MAC-10. In order to make it look like a ghetto-style shooting, he removed his colors and wore a balaclava. He left his mobile phone with his bike and vest, so when Clay tried to phone him and tell him not to make the hit, after Wayne Unser informed him that Opie was not a snitch, he did not get the message.[11]
Rosen met with SAMCRO and told them the ATF had put a warrant out for Opie's arrest, and he would most likely get convicted of Hefner's murder because of the witness. Tig went with Clay and Juice to meet with Vic Trammel and offered him money to reveal the witness's location. Trammell didn't know, however, so they went to Elliot Oswald. They again blackmailed him with the knife that Clay used to kill the rapist that had Oswald's fingerprints on it from earlier in the season, this time to get his friends in the US Attorney's office to tell him the witness's case number and location. While waiting for Oswald to return with the information, Tig told Clay why he couldn't kill Opie at the Mayan meeting. Clay then sent Chibs, Happy and Tig to kill the witness, who was at a safe house in San Joaquin. Two sheriffs and a female ATF agent were guarding the house, but the SoA members managed to knock them unconscious and break in. Tig initially had doubts about killing the witness when he saw that she was a teenage girl, and Happy volunteered to do it instead, but Tig eventually stepped up. However, just before he shot her, Jax came in and stopped him from doing it at gunpoint. Jax told Chibs and Happy to leave and threatened the witness into leaving the state. He then beat up Tig for killing Donna. Season One ended at Donna's funeral the next day, which was attended by Sons of Anarchy from all over the country. There, Jax, and the rest of SAMCRO stared at each other and it was plain to see the club was coming apart from inside.[12]
Season 2
In episode two, Tig is involved in a fight with a pornographer' bodyguards as the club becomes partners with Luann. The very end of the episode, the audience is specifically shown Tig watching Gemma intently. He adores Gemma and appears to perceive that there is something very wrong with her. Jax and Clay are preoccupied with their own problems and have not realized that a woman as strong as Gemma should not be so shocked and disturbed by (what she said was) a car crash. Gemma has told none of the SOA members that she was gang raped by the white separatist group L.O.A.N (League of American Nationalists) so that Clay and Jax would not do anything rash. The club members all seem to believe the car crash story, except for Tig who obviously suspects that someone did something terrible to her. He is caught by bounty hunters for a warrant for him in Oregon for assault and public nudity. He's later rescued by Jax, Chibs, Happy, Half Sack, and Piney.
Tig is shown to feel some remorse for mistakenly killing Opie's wife Donna. In one scene, he attempts to reach out emotionally and comfort Opie by telling him about a girlfriend he had lost years before.
He shows sympathy again later in the season 2, when the Triads offer to give Chuck Marstein back to SAMCRO, but Clay refuses. Knowing the Triads will just kill Chuck, Tig shows a sudden soft side and offers to help him and set him up as the bookkeeper at Luann's studio. Clay looks surprised, but lets it go.
In episode "Balm", Tig eats hallucinogenic mushrooms and is seen in a field crying and apologizing to a small Native American doll.
In the episode "Service", the audience sees Tig in his deepest depression yet: while he is at the Morrow house getting guns, Gemma comes out in a bathrobe after her shower and says hello. Tig gives her an affectionate hug and a kiss. Gemma goes to a closet to get her guns to donate, reaching up to a top shelf. Tig offers to get the box down for her, but accidentally knocks it to the ground. While he is on his knees to pick up the fallen boxes, Gemma makes advances towards him, which he returns. They briefly grope each other and kiss, but after seeing a picture of Jax and Tommy as children at the beach, Tig refuses to do anything that might hurt Gemma or her family, presumably out of loyalty to both Gemma and Clay. Later in the episode, he also reveals to Opie that it was he who killed Donna after Stahl set him up as a rat, and he lets Opie beat him up. Close to the end of "Service," Tig tells Clay that Gemma just needs to know her husband still wants her.
In the episode "The Culling", Tig is shown to have a bad relationship with a member of the Tacoma chapter of the Sons of Anarchy. During the big fight at the end of the episode, he again showed his crazy side when he bit a member of A.J. Weston's gang on the face.
Season 3
To start season three, Tig has accompanied Gemma while she is on the run from the law. He escorts her to her dementia-addled father's home. While there Tig has sex with the father's live-in caretaker, during which the man's dementia causes him to shoot Tig in the shoulder with a rifle, injuring but not killing him. Back in Charming, SAMCRO vote on whether or not to accept Happy and Kozik as members of SAMCRO. Everyone accepts Happy, but because of Tig's vote Kozik can't transfer. This results in a fight between Tig and Kozik. Despite their dislike for each other Tig and Kozik are able to work together, and they successfully kill a possible snitch as a favor for the Mayans MC. When Gemma escapes from police custody, Tig openly volunteers to not go to Belfast, so he can create a distraction for the police by having them chase him across county lines in a Teller-Morrow tow truck so that the rest of SAMCRO can get to the airport. Tig is caught and imprisoned for his stunt, but Tara bails him out of county jail. Wayne Unser tells Tig that his driver's license will be suspended for two years, which may be good for Kozik since a member can't vote if he can't ride for any reason. Clay and Jax are both in Belfast with most of SAMCRO trying to find Jax's son, so Tig is in charge since he is one of Clay's lieutenants. But he shows poor judgment when he leaves an untested prospect to protect one of the club's most loyal supporters, Lumpy. Kozik says, in the next episode, that one of them is going to end up killed with Tig in charge. Despite the hate between them they appear to grow closer.
When Salazar kidnaps Tara and demands that the club kill Alveraz and give him $250,000, Kozik suggests they ask Alvarez to play dead for a day. Tig follows his play, because there was no other option. Alveraz agrees to play dead for a day, but they still need to get the money. When Stahl and Unser offer to help the club find Tara, Tig is less than willing to accept, because of law enforcement's dragging their feet to find Abel. But Tig accepts their help because they need the money to get Tara. When ATF gives the ransom money Tig, following orders from Salazar, puts it into a trash can in the park. Kids on bicycles see this and decide to steal it. Tig and one of the undercover ATF agents chase them down, Salazar spots the agent and drives on when he realizes law enforcement is there. Stahl blames Tig and Kozik tries to explain to her that Tig was only protecting the drop. Stahl still says it is Tig's fault things went wrong and Tig tries to attack her, but the SOA brothers stop him and calm him down. Knowing Jax and the rest of SAMCRO will be back soon, Tig has no other choice than to call Jax and tell him what happened. When the rest of the club gets back from Belfast they begin to look for Tara, and Tig and Kozik are seen acting friendly with each other.
After Tara is safe, the club sits down to discuss a new business opportunity with the IRA. The IRA are prepared to give the SOA more guns to sell in exchange for killing Jimmy O. But because the most of SAMCRO is going to have to go to prison for the federal gun charges during one of their attack on Zobelle, they have to vote to allow members to transfer. Since some members will have to be voted in after they are in jail, they need to vote one in right then and there and it has to be Kozik. Tig still can't find it in himself to get past their bad relationship.
Later, Tig and Kozik talk, and Tig tells Kozik to come back when he's in jail and let the new SAMCRO member vote him in. Kozik doesn't want that, feeling it is the wrong thing to do, but he does stay and helps SAMCRO finish things, which Tig appreciates. It is revealed that the root of conflict is a dog named Missy. In the season finale, Tig is at a big celebration breakfast at the clubhouse. The club is trying to find a way to get their hands on Jimmy. It is discovered that it will cost $2 million which the club does not have. Chuck gives the club boxes of counterfeit money. Tig is so happy about that he offers to lend Chuck his hand to masturbate. After the club gets $250,000 to mask the fake money, they get Jimmy from the Russians. But they go on a chase after the Russians realize the money is fake. After they take Jimmy back to the garage, ATF arrives and takes him into custody. It is then revealed that Jax has made a deal with Stahl. Tig shows great disgust to learn of the deal, and once the club is in a van to be taken to jail, Tig and the rest of SAMCRO give Jax a look of hatred and betrayal; but it is discovered that this was all an act and the deal was a trap orchestrated by the club to kill Stahl and Jimmy. When it is complete the club laughs out of happiness for the end result.
Season 4
Throughout season 4, Tig feels as if Clay doesn't trust him, as Clay never wants Tig by him on runs. In the episode "Call of Duty", after Tig sees Gemma beaten up at the hands of Clay, he turns in his Sergeant-at-Arms patch. He eventually confronts Clay with the fact that he has been shutting out the club and making decisions without their approval. Later on, Tig is shown in "Burnt and Purged Away" to have apparently given up on Clay and SAMCRO, refusing Clay's request for "another guy with a gun" with obvious indifference. However, that night when Clay is gunned down by Opie, the members are told it was done by two black men. Tig, feeling remorse for turning his back on his brother, takes responsibility for what happened and seeks Laroy (of the Niners) for retaliation. In a nervous frenzy, he runs down Laroy as he is having dinner outside of a restaurant. Tig misses Laroy, and instead hits Leroy's date (who happens to be the daughter of the most dangerous gangster in town, Damon Pope). Tig is then tailed by the Niners and Laroy, until the SOA meet up with him on the highway and escape. Tig is seen in the finale sitting at Clay's hospital bedside, as he continues to feel remorse for what happened. At the end of the finale, when Jax steps in as president of the club, Jax appoints Chibs as Sergeant-at-Arms. While Tig hoped to be reinstated as Sergeant-at-Arms, and is visibly upset by this, he accepts Jax's decision.
Season 5
While on an arms run for the IRA, the club is intercepted by a group of rogue Niners. The truck is flipped over and ends up being unsalvageable, but luckily the guns are saved, as is Phil, who was driving. Tig and the rest of SAMCRO delay retaliation in favor of meeting with Pope, as arranged by their contacts in the Galindo Cartel.
The night after the meet with Pope's associate (and after being reassured that any beef between the gang and SAMCRO was settled) Tig gets a phone call about his daughter Dawn. He is informed that she was stopped on DUI charges in Oakland, but will be released if her father picks her up. Upon arriving in the same train yard where Pope was previously revealed to be hiding the dead body of Niner leader, Laroy, Tig realizes that he was set up. The police officer, actually a corrupt cop with Oakland PD, cuffs Tig to a pipe, giving him a few feet of chain so as to move relatively freely. When Pope shows up, he reveals that he learned Tig was driving the car that killed his daughter at the cafe. Pope then has his associates open up the oil pit, revealing Tig's daughter Dawn is lying in the pit, unconscious. Pope's men begin pouring gasoline over the bodies in the pit, causing Dawn to wake up. She starts crying, "Daddy", as Tig tugs and pulls at his chain, screaming to be released and for Pope to kill him instead. Mr. Pope turns to Tig and says, "Know my pain, Mr. Trager", as he throws his cigar, lighting the pit on fire. Tig is forced to listen and watch his daughter burn to death. When the fire is out, Pope leaves Tig and the corrupt cop behind to wait for a "cleaner" to come and sanitize the crime scene, after which the corrupt cop is supposed to take Tig to the police station. Before he leaves, however, Pope warns Tig not to mention anything about the incident to anyone lest he wants his other daughter to suffer, as well. When the "cleaner" arrives and enters the pit to begin disposing of the evidence, and the corrupt officer is distracted, Tig manages to manipulate his chained wrists from behind his back to his front. Tig disables the corrupt cop with a quick, unexpected blow. He uses his chains to garrote the officer, then uses the officer's sidearm to shoot the "cleaner" to death. The last that is seen of Tig in the premiere episode is him sobbing at the sight of his daughter's body.
Tig is later found by Jax, Chibs, and Bobby. They go to find Fawn to protect her from Pope. Following an altercation with a black man Tig believes is raping her, Tig reveals what happened to Dawn. Fawn states that she hates him, but Jax convinces her boyfriend to get her out of town. The three of them are later arrested when witnesses, bought by Pope, identify Tig in Veronica Pope's murder and Jax and Chibs in the highway shooting of one of the Niners. Opie meets them at the clubhouse and assaults Roosevelt so he can accompany them.
While the SOA's relationship with the Galindo cartel gives them protection from the black prison population, Jax later meets with Pope, who demands a dead Son for the cop and Niner they killed. Tig volunteers himself, but Jax reveals that Pope wants him to stay inside prison, forever. Opie then punches the guard and is put into "the box" to fight to the death. The other three Sons watch as he is overwhelmed and beaten to death. Jax later tells Tig he talked to Pope and he is coming out with them. When Tig thanks Jax, he replies that now Tig must always back his deals and vote with him, and Tig gives his word that he will. He is shown to have been good to his word voting in Pope's offer to help them mule their cocaine and the Club entering the "escort business" with Nero Padilla. In "To Thine Own Self" Clay meets with Tig telling him he missed having him at his side and will always have a spot open for him. Tig refuses stating that Clay broke up their friendship and leaves. When Jax reveals a new deal allowing the Club to leave the cartel by delegating the muling and gun-running to the Mayans and Triads respectively, Tig votes yes and is shown to have a new level of respect and admiration for Jax.
In the season finale, Jax takes Tig to a garage in the middle of nowhere to allow Pope to murder him per their deal. After Pope takes Tig inside to avoid any noise, Jax pulls out a silenced pistol and shoots Pope's men before cornering Pope in the garage. Jax then hands Tig the gun and tells him to "kill the man who burned your kid alive". Pope warns them about what would happen to whoever kills him, but regardless Tig executes him with two bullets to the head and gets his revenge for Dawn's death. Jax then reveals the gun they used is Clay's and he will be framed for the murder. Right after this, Tig breaks down crying in Jax's arms, realizing that killing Pope was not going to bring his daughter back. Tig is last seen at the clubhouse with his dog, laughing and in peace of mind.
Season 6
Tig was passed over for the Sergeant at Arms position in favor of Chibs. He is one of the Sons who helps shut down a torture porn studio. When he returns to cut the director loose, he threatens to put Tig's daughter in one of his movies, Tig loses his temper and drowns him in a tub of urine. At the end of the episode, he later drops the body in a cage into a bay. Afterwards, he goes to Jax's house to watch over Thomas. He remains a possible loose end as August tells Jax that once Clay is killed he needs to deliver Trager a deal he already backed out of once. After settling the beef with the director's brother, Tig is told by Jax to go back to the warehouse and wait for the prospects to pick him up. At the end of the episode, he is met by August and his men.
The next episode shows Tig is okay and was merely told to deliver a message. He is shaken by the encounter and has doubts about his relationship with Jax. He later poses as Rat's father to feign interest in joining with a Neo-Nazi band who attacked Unser (showing his pain by relating how he watched "a bunch of black people burn his daughter alive"). They later return and wipe them out with KG-9's. He later aids Jax and SAMCRO in freeing and killing Clay as well as Galen. They then negotiate for August Marks to take over the gun business from the Irish. August states with this, Tig is clear of all trouble with his crew.
Season 7
In season 7, Jax, after being voted to "meet Mr. Mayhem" for killing the SOA Indian Hills president, Jury White, hands over SAMCRO's presidency to Chibs, and Tig is promoted to Vice President. Also this season, Tig strengthens his romantic relationship with transgender woman Venus Van Dam.
References
- "Hunnam, Glenn and Sagal in FX's Anarchy". Comingsoon.net. 2008-01-11. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
- Sons of Anarchy - The Ink. YouTube.
- Alex Trager at FX.com
- "Pilot - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-09-03. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
- "Seeds - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-09-10. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
- "Fun Town - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
- "Patch Over - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
- "Giving Back - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-10-01. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
- "Old Bones - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-10-15. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
- "Better Half - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-11-05. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
- "The Sleep of Babies - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-11-19. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
- "The Revelator - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-09-03. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
