I say 10 points, with 9 of them deducted for absolute abysmal bratty annoyingness, and infinitely more to follow once I pry my mouse out of the wall. 
I don't like her. And she's not even the sort of character I like to dislike. In Forgiven Tara is portrayed as an orphaned, wayward kid who joined the dark side for their cookies and therefore reminds Xena of her own teenage street-gang past. It's a good premise - the show didn't make a habit of following younger characters as they took their first steps on the road to evil - but as Gabrielle pointed out, being evil is one thing, being evil and obnoxious is quite another.
So I guess Tara, for me, was a good idea with bad delivery. TPTB could have done so much more with her than they did, which - combined with the fact that I just plain don't like her - means she gets a cumulative score of -872. Or on this scale, 1.
I don't like her. And she's not even the sort of character I like to dislike. In Forgiven Tara is portrayed as an orphaned, wayward kid who joined the dark side for their cookies and therefore reminds Xena of her own teenage street-gang past. It's a good premise - the show didn't make a habit of following younger characters as they took their first steps on the road to evil - but as Gabrielle pointed out, being evil is one thing, being evil and obnoxious is quite another.
So I guess Tara, for me, was a good idea with bad delivery. TPTB could have done so much more with her than they did, which - combined with the fact that I just plain don't like her - means she gets a cumulative score of -872. Or on this scale, 1.
PROUD MEMBER OF THE PLA! 
I Loves My Lappy 
Yeah, I realize that "the tough juvenile delinquent who's really a
good kid at heart" is a bit of a cliché, but call me a sap ... it kinda worked for me in this ep. Even if the final double twist (first it turns out that
Tara was fooling Xena and Gabrielle all along ... then it turns out she wasn't after all!) was somewhat predictable. I thought she was rather engaging, and
I liked Shiri Appleby's performance. The scene where she was talking about her mother's death was quite moving IMO, as was her "eager
apprentice" interaction with Xena.
