Kim Coates talks about his character Tig Trager heading into season 6 of Sons of Anarchy, and the trust issues that may never be resolved…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
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Over the last few seasons of Sons of Anarchy, Kim Coates has taken the character of Tig Trager from being a trigger man and right hand of former president Clay Morrow to a man torn apart by tragedy and loss while being betrayed more than a few times along the way.
In season five, Trager learns that his misguided need for justice that cost Damon Pope his daughter’s life was all for not when his old pal Clay Morrow reveals that he was shot by Opie and not the One-Niners gang as he originally told the club.
Because of Clay’s lies, Tig ended up killing an innocent woman and as revenge her father torched his daughter alive while he watched every second of the massacre. Tig again feels like he’s being betrayed when Jax hands him over to Pope at the end of the season to be killed, only to find out a few minutes later it was all part of an elaborate plot to get rid of the Oakland gangster and set up Clay for his murder.
So as Coates prepares for season six of the show that kicks off next Tuesday night on FX, he says that what creator Kurt Sutter has in store might be even more maddening for all of the characters on the canvas including Tig Trager.
“(Kurt) Sutter every season seems to up the ante,” Coates told NerdcoreMovement.com. “He goes places people really don’t think he’s going to go. Tig’s at a real crossroads. He should have been killed a few times by now for sure. He keeps surviving, he’s a survivor. He’s loyal, he’s tough, he’s screwed up, he’s like a little puppy dog at times Tig is, and yet he’s tough as nails.
“I think somewhere deep down inside of Tig he hates the fact that Clay lied to him like he did, but he hates the fact that he was part of the framing of the gun. So Tig is really a full circle of emotions.”
Through the first four seasons of the show, Tig was Clay’s best friend and the pitbull he would send after anyone that wronged SAMCRO or those closest to the club. Tig’s loyalty was unquestioned, and even when he knew something felt wrong he trusted in his friend and the club’s president to steer him in the right direction.
That all fell apart last season when Tig killed Veronica Pope and then found out that Clay was lying about everything. Losing his daughter may have been the straw that finally broke Tig’s back when it comes to trust and loyalty with anyone in the Sons of Anarchy.
“He is fucking loyal,” Coates said about Tig. “And he hates being betrayed more than anything. I’ve made mistakes but out of loyalty, but it’s out of pulling the trigger before I should have. I guess we’ll see what happens.
“It’s so screwed up. It is madness what’s happening.”
With Clay currently in jail after virtually everyone in SAMCRO turned their backs on him and help frame him for the murder of Damon Pope, Tig is left with Jax as his new president, but can he trust him?
Jax has always been wary of Tig over the years because of his undying loyalty to Clay, but now with the past behind them, maybe they’ve turned a new page heading into season six. Or have they?
“I think Jax and Tig are an unsolved puzzle,” Coates said. “I said that last year Tig was sort of off the leash. Once his daughter died he was off the leash. Now I’m kind of back on the leash, I’m sort of back on Jax’s leash and I don’t know if we’re really trusting each other right now. There’s a big ass, unsolved trust issues with the entire club.”
Season 6 of Sons of Anarchy will debut next Tuesday night at 10pm ET/PT on FX and make sure to return to NerdcoreMovement.com for more exclusive cast interviews all week leading to the season premiere.
