Tara Carpenter is a fictional character in the Scream film series, played by Jenna Ortega in Scream and Scream VI. Tara is the half-sister of Sam Carpenter and one of the main protagonists who gets targeted by Ghostface in the two installments.

Early life

Tara Carpenter was born on December 14, 2002, to Ben Carpenter and his wife Christina. Tara grew up with her sister Sam, who she didn't know was actually her half-sister.

In 2010, Sam discovered Ben Carpenter wasn't her biological father and exposed it to the whole family, causing him to leave. After that, Sam still stayed with Tara and Christina for 5–6 more years, going on a downward spiral whilst reading her real father Billy Loomis's diary.

When Tara was about to turn 14 sometime on December 14, 2016, Sam left her at a bar and according to Tara, never returned. During this time, Tara also met and befriended Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin, the niece and nephew of Randy Meeks, Wes Hicks, her secret crush and the son of Sheriff Judy Hicks, Amber Freeman, who became her close friend and Liv McKenzie, Chad's girlfriend.

Encountering Ghostface and reuniting with Sam

5 years later, Tara, now a high school senior in her final year one day was talking to Amber on her phone until all of a sudden, she got a phone call from a mysterious man on the other line named "Charlie". "Charlie" first asked Tara what her favorite horror film was and the conversation was pretty friendly until he started to threaten Tara, telling her he knows who she is and where she is right now. This caused Tara to hang up the phone and look around for any mysterious man in her house until she was suddenly attacked by Ghostface. She fought him but ran as quickly as she could before she slipped and fell and was ultimately stabbed multiple times. Luckily, Tara survived and was hospitalized later.^[1]

A few days later, Tara was lying in her hospital bed still injured. Wes, Mindy, Liv, Chad and Amber visited her to offer her support. Sheriff of Woodsbro Judy Hicks, Wes's mother, also visited her until finally Sam arrived alongside her boyfriend Richie Kirsch. Sam at the hospital apologized to Tara about how she had ignored and left her for all those years however Tara angrily demanded an explanation as to why she was showing up now, Sam then said that the reason why is because she found Billy Loomis's diary and found out he was her real father, after hearing that, Mr. Carpenter obviously left whilst Sam couldn't believe that Tara was really her half-sister which caused her to spiral into drugs for 5–6 years and leave her on her 14th birthday in 2016. Tara however still told Sam to leave and stayed in the hospital for a few more days.

As time passed by, Tara started to heal and recover from her injuries, riding a wheelchair sometimes. One night, Tara was lying down in her hospital bed when she suddenly heard noises come from outside. Sensing a problem after her last encounter, she wheeled herself out using her wheelchair and accidentally knocked out Richie when he came inside, but before the two could talk, Ghostface attacked them from behind, causing the two to run outside and evade and defend themselves from Ghostface's attacks, running into Dewey Riley along the way. Ghostface managed to attack the three still and fought off against Dewey who knocked it to the wall and instructed Tara and Richie to go escape using the elevator which they did, Tara asked for Dewey to join them but he refused and fought Ghostface in the hospital corridor until being brutally murdered.

Tara reunited with Sam the next day and met Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers for the first time. That night, Sam, Tara and Richie decided to finally leave Woodsboro for one last time and were leaving in Richie's car until Tara realized she forgot her inhaler at the hospital. For this, Sam and Richie took her to Amber's house to get her a new one. Tara, Sam and Richie finally arrived at Amber's house were her party for Wes was finally ending, trying to find an inhaler but however, a problem arose as Ghostface attacked the group of teens and suspicions were put against people. Sidney and Gale also arrived and saw that the house was actually Stu Macher's former house. After they went inside, the two reunited with Sam and Tara and everyone else who kept on blaming each other as the killer. Amber blamed Liv who refused she was the killer. Amber agreed to this and Tara helplessly watched as she shot Liv to death and revealed herself as the Ghostface killer which caused the remaining group to once again run away and split up. Tara also found out that Richie was the killer working with and secretly dating Amber as he attacks and explains to Sam his entire plans on killing her to provide source material for the Stab film series. Meanwhile, Tara tries to fight Amber but is easily defeated and tied up by her, causing Sidney and Gale to shoot and burn Amber to apparent death.

Sam kills Richie while burned Amber angrily attacks Sam, Sidney, and Gale. Before she could kill any of the three, Tara shoots her in the head and kills her using Ghostface's gun. A few hours later into midnight, ambulances and police cars arrive to investigate the events and help take the physically hurt and injured survivors to the hospital; in it Tara finally accepts Sam's apology as the two lay down and sit in an ambulance and are carried away to the hospital for treatment of the injuries they got during the battle with Richie and Amber.

Move to New York and return of Ghostface

A few months after the battle at Amber's house, Tara graduated from Woodsboro High School alongside Chad and Mindy and the three alongside Sam left Woodsboro to live in New York City where Tara attended a film college and where Sam took two jobs to pay for her and Tara's apartment rent. The two also lived in the same building as Mindy and Chad. Tara and Sam lived with Tara's roommate Quinn Bailey whilst Chad lived with Ethan Landry and Mindy lived with her girlfriend Annika Kayoko. Living in the apartment next to them was local resident Danny Brackett whom Quinn had a crush on and who Sam was secretly dating. Sam at this time also began seeing psychologist and therapist Dr. Christopher Stone but only mentioned about Tara and how she was affected by the attack. During this time, Tara also developed feelings for Chad and he did the same for her as well. Tara also attended film college learning under Professor Laura Crane and briefly met film students and roommates Greg Bruckner and Jason Carvey.

In October 2022, one year after her encounter with Ghostface in Woodsboro, Tara is seen walking with some unseen college friends to a Greek fraternity party dressed as a pirate when she runs into Jason who says that he and Greg are going to come to the party in a few minutes and asks her how Sam is and were she is which Tara responds by saying that she is not coming. At the party, Tara gets into a brief conversation with a drunken college student named Frankie who wants to take her upstairs. Annika and Mindy try to talk her out of it to save her because of last year's events. Tara disagrees with the two and is about to walk upstairs with Frankie until Chad intervenes and throws him down, telling him to back off and getting in a brief physical fight with him before Sam interrupts the party, tells off Tara and tases Frankie when he tries to interrupt their conversation, which causes Tara to angrily walk outside followed by Mindy, Ethan, Annika, Sam and Chad. Sam tries to tell Tara that she's doing these things for her own safety but Tara angrily berates Sam, telling her that she was out of her life for five years and now since last year she is obsessed with her, even taking two jobs to pay her rent and following her everywhere she goes and that she just wants to live her life, go to college, graduate and forget the past events last year ever happened before she walks back to her dorm room.

A few hours later, Quinn leaves the room and Tara talks to Chad who comforts her, saying that they're both survivors and that Sam just wants to help her, the two start to kiss until Quinn interrupts causing Chad to leave and apologise and Quinn to apologise for cock-blocking and also leave, Tara then listens to the song on her radio and thinks of her blossoming romance with Chad.

A few hours later, Tara, Mindy, Quinn, Ethan, Chad and Annika watch a news channel talking about the murder of Professor Laura Crane and of Jason and Greg by Ghostface, Sam and Danny come up to watch the news and whilst Chad throws Danny out of the apartment due to suspicions rising between the group. Sam tells Tara that they have to run away, causing Tara to angrily confront and yell at Sam about how she is always scared of these things and that she doesn't want to go to another state. They then decide to catch the killer by talking to Quinn's dad NYC Police Detective Wayne Bailey and who tells them to come to the police station for a meeting as he has found Sam's ID card at the scene of Jason and Greg's murder in their apartment (even though it was the Ghostface killer who kept the card there).

Sam and Tara, hearing the news, walk down to the streets were they are called by Ghostface using the deceased Richie Kirsch's phone number on Sam's phone, who tells them that he killed Jason and Greg because they were going to plan on killing Sam and Tara but that instead he will be the one to kill them because he wants to punish them for what they did last year, Sam threatens Ghostface, however he attacks Tara from behind, which causes a chase between them were they go to a supermarket were Sam and Tara run and hide whilst Ghostface kills the shop cashier and a few random New Yorkers at the shop before chasing them a bit more and then disappearing from the area. After all that, Sam and Tara go to the police station were they talk to Detective Bailey about the recent event at the supermarket that happened alongside the previous murders framed towards Sam, with Detective Bailey releasing them from the interrogation. Sam and Tara remain at the station for the night before they then meet FBI Agent and Ghostface survivor Kirby Reed who talks to them and Detective Bailey about the recent Ghostface murders in New York City and that she will help them with their safety, also it is revealed to Tara that Sam was a freshman in Woodsboro High in 2011 at the same time Kirby was a senior at the school when one of the Ghostface murders happened and that the two sisters and Kirby have a connected past as well. After walking out of the police station, Sam and Tara run into Gale Weathers talking and interviewing them about the recent events, which causes Tara to punch her and for her and Sam to then talk about how Dewey would have liked this. Gale tells them that she is just doing her job and that Sidney is safe from the Ghostface killer along with her kids and husband Mark Kincaid before Sam and Tara ignore her and leave to their apartment.

References