Tig Trager

Alexander Trager
First appearance	"Pilot" (episode 1.01)
Created by	Kurt Sutter
Portrayed by	Kim Coates
Information
Nickname(s)	Tig, Tiggy, Tigger, Tig Dawg
Gender	Male
Occupation	Sergeant-at-Arms of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, gun runner, mechanic, former Marine
Title	Sergeant-at-Arms
Children	Dawn Trager Fawn Trager
Nationality	American

Alexander "Tig" Trager is a fictional character on the FX television series Sons of Anarchy, played by Kim Coates.^[1][2] He was the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club's Charming, California chapter and is the gang's second most violent member. Trager is extremely fond of women, and is a mechanic in both meanings of the word. Tig has been shown to be sexually open to anything. There have been hints in season 3, such as Jax's joking, that Tig may be open to incest. In season 3 Tig also reveals that he is well endowed, saying to Gemma that he is "a very big man," who required baby oil to make things "more humane" for whatever woman he was with. He was extremely loyal to Clay Morrow, the club's President, Clay's wife Gemma and the club itself. He has a strained love/hate relationship with Vice-President, Jax Teller arising from his use of violence in situations which may not call for it. By season 3 his relationship with Jax Teller seems to have improved. His often callous demeanor hides a person with unlikely sensitivity and strong loyalty.

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 deleted scene from Season One that he is a former US Marine. He is in his late 40s or early 50s and was the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club's Mother Chapter, which means that he was responsible for discipline within the chapter's jurisdiction. 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 also has two daughters he sees a couple of times each year. Their names are Dawn and Fawn.^[3] He suffers from pediophobia, a fear of dolls, which Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter actually has.

Season One

Series One began with the Sons of Anarchy finding 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 chapter's members attend a meeting ("Church") where they are informed that it was the Mayans, a rival biker gang, who destroyed the warehouse and that they are now storing the guns in San Leandro. They decide that they will ride out to San Leandro the next night and steal the weapons back. Clay, Jax, Chibs Telford 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 which 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 and that he had been having sex with them, and allowed them to stay in the warehouse as they had nowhere else to go. Also 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 retrieved the corpses from the police site and burned 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 travelling carnival, they go there, retrieve the rapist, and 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 are 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 Tig was pursued 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 they 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 he, 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 on 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 mechanic at Teller-Morrow. 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 that 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 went 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 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 stole 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 that the ATF have put a warrant out for Opie's arrest and that he will 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 location of the witness. Trammell didn't know, however, so they went to Elliot Oswald. They again blackmailed him with the knife that he used to kill the rapist earlier in the season, this time to get his friends in the US Attorney to tell him the witness' 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 they 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 he 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 Tig up 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 that the club was coming apart from inside.^[12]

Season Two

In episode two, Tig is involved in a fight with bodyguards of a pornographer 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 very preoccupied with their own problems and have not realized that a woman as strong as Gemma should not be so shocked and disturbed by 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 would not do anything rash. They 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.

He is shown to feel remorse to some extent over mistakenly killing Opie's wife Donna. In one scene, he attempts to reach out emotionally and comfort Opie by telling him about a girlfriend that 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 that 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," he eats shrooms and is seen in a field crying and apologizing to a small Native American doll. It could be inferred that he is apologizing to Donna.

In the episode "Service," the audience sees Tig in his deepest depression yet: while he was 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 almost have sex, 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. Close to the end of "Service," he 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 Three

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 his 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 into 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 is bailed out of county jail by Tara. 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. Since Clay and Jax are both in Belfast with most of SAMCRO trying to find Jax's son.

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 Tara is kidnapped by Salazar and demands that club kills Alveraz and $250,000 from him, Kozik suggest they ask Alveraz 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 come wanting to help the club find Tara, Tig is less than willing to accept, because of law enforcement dragging their feet to find Abel. But Tig accepts their help, because they need the money to get Tara. When ATF gives the money for the ransom Tig, following orders from Salazar, puts it into a trash can in the park. Kids on bicycles sees this and decides to steal it. Tig chases them down with the of undercover ATF agents and is spotted by Salazar who drives when he realizes that 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 is stopped and calmed down by SOA brothers. Knowing that 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 it is seen that he and Kozik acting friendly with each other. After Tara is safe the club sits down to talk about 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 member to transfer. But some members will have to be voted in after they are in jail, so they need to vote one on right then and there and it had to be Kozik. Tig still can't find it in himself to get pass 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 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 are 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 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 Four

Through out 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 beat up at the hands of Clay he turns in his Sergeant at Arms patch.

References

1. ^ Sons of Anarchy at IMDb
2. ^ "Hunnam, Glenn and Sagal in FX's Anarchy". Comingsoon.net. 2008-01-11. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=40843. Retrieved 2011-09-07. 
3. ^ Alex Trager at FX.com
4. ^ "Pilot - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-09-03. http://www.tv.com/Sons+of+Anarchy/Pilot/episode/1213971/recap.html. Retrieved 2011-09-07. 
5. ^ "Seeds - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-09-10. http://www.tv.com/Sons+of+Anarchy/Seeds/episode/1213972/recap.html. Retrieved 2011-09-07. 
6. ^ "Fun Town - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-09-17. http://www.tv.com/Sons+of+Anarchy/Fun+Town/episode/1228109/recap.html. Retrieved 2011-09-07. 
7. ^ "Patch Over - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-09-24. http://www.tv.com/Sons+of+Anarchy/Patch+Over/episode/1216591/recap.html. Retrieved 2011-09-07. 
8. ^ "Giving Back - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-10-01. http://www.tv.com/Sons+of+Anarchy/Giving+Back/episode/1218459/recap.html. Retrieved 2011-09-07. 
9. ^ "Old Bones - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-10-15. http://www.tv.com/Sons+of+Anarchy/Old+Bones/episode/1224007/recap.html. Retrieved 2011-09-07. 
10. ^ "Better Half - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-11-05. http://www.tv.com/Sons+of+Anarchy/Better+Half/episode/1230675/recap.html?tag=content_wrap;episode_header. Retrieved 2011-09-07. 
11. ^ "The Sleep of Babies - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-11-19. http://www.tv.com/Sons+of+Anarchy/The+Sleep+of+Babies/episode/1235305/recap.html?tag=content_wrap;episode_header. Retrieved 2011-09-07. 
12. ^ "The Revelator - Recap". Tv.com. 2008-09-03. http://www.tv.com/Sons+of+Anarchy/Pilot/episode/1213971/recap.html. Retrieved 2011-09-07.