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Unlike you, we believe in something. We have faith in the sacredness of our cause.

—Tamara to Hook src

Tamara, briefly known as Her, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the fifteenth episode of the second season and is portrayed by guest star Sonequa Martin-Green.

History

During First Curse

While the Dark Curse is still intact, Tamara presumably meets and joins Greg in an organization dedicated to destroying magic called the Home Office. She travels the world in search of magic and meets many frauds until finding a person called "the Dragon" in Hong Kong. While waiting on line for her turn in the Dragon's office, she is finally called and gets up while dropping her phone in the process. Another awaiting customer, August, returns it to her, which she thanks him for. When she meets the Dragon, she pretends to have terminal cancer and desires for a magical cure. As payment, she gives him a cherished photo of herself and her grandmother. Later, at a restaurant, she waves August over for a drink to celebrate while taking out a large envelope of cash. Tamara tells him her story of searching for a cancer cure and finding it with the Dragon's help. After speaking with August, her phone rings and she walks away to answer it. While she is busy, August steals her cash and runs away. When she discovers the theft, she corners him outside the Dragon's shop. After chasing him through the streets, he collapses as she snatches a bottle, which he paid for with her money. Before leaving, she states that he deserves whatever illness he has. ("Selfless, Brave and True")

Tamara returns to speak with the Dragon, who knows her claims about having cancer are fake. She admits to the deception and he asks how can the potion not contain any element known to man. The Dragon acknowledges that the ailments he treats are not of this world. Since she now knows this, Tamara doesn't want anyone else to discover it as well and takes out a taser to kill the Dragon. Though she is momentarily stunned when the Dragon begins rising into the air to attack her, Tamara thrusts the taser at him. After he is dead, she grabs back the photo of herself and her grandmother before leaving. Sometime later, through unknown means, Tamara shows up in New York and from a distance on the streets, she spies on August and Neal through a compact mirror as they converse. When August takes off, she purposely walks up to Neal with a cup of coffee, and as he turns to leave, she bumps into him. The coffee spills all over her and she feigns dismay over the situation. Apologetically, Neal offers her his scarf to cover up the coffee stains, which she accepts. They later exchange numbers and later begin dating. ("Selfless, Brave and True")



After First Curse

At some point in time, Tamara and Neal become engaged. Her partner-in-crime, Greg, whether by accident or intentional, crashes his car into Storybrooke and is admitted into the hospital as a patient. While he is out cold, she calls his cell phone, but no one picks up. After Greg has been through surgery and on his way to recovery from the car crash, he calls Tamara. She learns from Greg about a man he saw at the town border, who conjured a fireball from his hand. ("The Outsider", "In the Name of the Brother", "The Queen Is Dead")

When Greg is discharged from the hospital, he phones Tamara again to let her know about his decision to stay longer in town, and sends her a recorded video of a woman using magic to levitate items into the air. On the same day, she receives a text from Neal asking to borrow her car, which Tamara allows. By chance, she sees him on the street with a blonde woman as the two approach the parked car. Tamara runs over to give Neal a warm greeting while wondering where he is headed off to. She introduces herself to the blonde woman, and learns from Neal that her name is Emma. ("The Queen Is Dead")

Tamara is informed of the circumstances surrounding her fiancé‎ and Emma, as the two were romantically involved in the past, and Neal only recently learned a child was conceived from this prior relationship. Neal goes to Storybrooke with Emma and his son, Henry, but later asks Tamara to come, too. She grabs some of her things from Neal's apartment only to discover Hook in the storage room closet. On Hook's arm, she finds a cuff which she later sends to the Home Office for testing, and then moves Hook's body into a truck. Tamara arrives in town as Neal wanted and stops over at the inn where she meets up with him, Emma and Henry. The foursome have a very awkward breakfast in silence until Henry prompts for a story of how she and Neal met, to which Tamara happily details the encounter for him. After Emma and Henry leave, Neal attempts to share his past life in the Enchanted Forest. She accuses him of trying to get rid of her with a crazy story so he can rekindle his old relationship with Emma. Neal assures her this is not the case, but she angrily storms out. As she leaves, Tamara asks him to find her when he's ready to be truthful. At the diner, she overhears Mary Margaret disclose August's whereabouts to Emma and Marco. Tamara heads there first and shocks August with her surprise visit. Seeing as he is now completely wooden, she promises him the Dragon's potion if he leaves for her New York apartment now. August promptly departs, but she accosts him in the sheriff's office when he comes back and tries to warn Emma via phone about Tamara. After tearing out the phone line, she tases him to death to prevent her true agenda from coming to light. Later, she witnesses some of the townspeople trying to save a dying August, who is transformed by Mother Superior into Pinocchio. She dodges a bullet when Emma questions him about what he was saying earlier, but the boy cannot recall, much to Tamara's relief. Having received "proof" of Neal's claims, Tamara feeds him another lie; stating she will stay in town for his sake. While Neal is busy in the shower, Tamara calls Greg on his phone and shows up at his inn room. ("Selfless, Brave and True", "The Evil Queen")

In Tamara's inn room, she looks over a map of Storybrooke with pinpointed areas where Greg observed magic being used. Tamara remarks that the town is lousy with magic and promises to be careful in evading Neal's suspicion. Greg, having once escaped from Storybrooke when he was a child while his father Kurt was left behind, mentions he is not having much success tracking down his father's whereabouts. Before Tamara leaves the room, she confirms that the "package" she and Greg are expecting will be in town by tonight. During the evening, she drives a truck into Storybrooke and opens the back compartment to show him the "package": Hook. ("Lacey")

Believing Hook can be of some use to gain Regina's trust, they bring the pirate to the top of the clock tower and give him a mini-telescope for a look outside. Despite Hook's satisfaction over apparently killing his nemesis and enemy, the Dark One, he is stunned to see an alive and well Mr. Gold walking on the street with Lacey. Greg convinces him that he cannot win against the Dark One without their help, and Tamara encourages him to align with them since they know how to kill magical creatures. Flashing the cuff that she previously took from Hook's arm and had sent to the Home Office, she explains it was returned to her with the ability to absorb magic from the wearer. In an assembled plan, they ask him to forge a fake alliance with Regina and put the cuff on her. Neal, in an effort to help his girlfriend adjust to Storybrooke's magical nature, gives her a list of residents and their fairytale names. Tamara stops by the diner to pick up breakfast, where Emma purposely bumps into her and scatters Tamara's belongings. Emma asks how she adjusting to Neal's secret, and Tamara admits it's a lot to take in. Emma is worried about the town's secret being exposed to outsiders, but Tamara reassures her that she is trustworthy, and won't give them away. After breakfast, she and Neal huddle under an umbrella as they head out in the rain. When Hook finally gains Regina's trust, they go to a cave in the clock tower to search for a trigger to destroy Storybrooke. Regina uses Hook as bait for the cave guardian, Maleficent, though Tamara and Greg rescue him. At the ground library floor, the three of them confront Regina as she comes back up in the elevator. She attempts to use magic, but the cuff prevents her from it. Tamara pulls out the list and asks which fairytale counterpart she is, to which Greg smugly replies, "The Queen". On Greg's orders, Tamara places a bag over Regina's head, obscuring her vision. ("The Evil Queen")

After kidnapping Regina to the town cannery, Tamara uses an override code to get into Regina's office to steal various items, such as the magic beans. The following morning, she dresses in running clothes under the pretense of training for a marathon. She goes to check on Greg, who is hooking Regina to an electrocution machine with plans of questioning her about his father's whereabouts. Tamara excitedly shows Greg the magic beans, which Neal told her all about. He becomes jealous at the mention of Neal, but she promises Neal's engagement ring will come off when everything is finished. As a replacement ring, Greg hands her the trigger, an object which Tamra sends, along with the rest of the their data, to the Home Office. When Emma persuades Neal that Tamara might be responsible for Regina's disappearance, they comb the beach, where Emma believes Tamara went after seeing sand on the floor of the inn room. However, Tamara provides a reasonable explanation for changing her jogging area from the woods to the shoreline to keep Neal from suspecting her. Later, on the security monitor, she sees David, Emma, Mary Margaret and Neal enter the cannery. Tamara urges Greg to escape with her, but he refuses, wanting to stay behind to continue grilling Regina. Tamara then leaves alone, but on her way out, she knocks out an unsuspecting Emma before aiming her gun at Neal. She finally admits to lying to him since the first day they met, and although she believes he is a good man, her job is more important. After Tamara shoots him in the abdomen, Emma wrestles the gun away, but the latter distracts her by opening a portal with a bean and running away. She eventually regroups with Greg in the woods, where he is reburying his father's remains and reveals the trigger has been proven by the Home Office to be the key to destroying magic. ("Second Star to the Right")

On orders from the Home Office, Greg and Tamara are to kidnap Henry and bring him to Neverland, and to keep the townpeople distracted until then, they set off the trigger. Desperate to save his own life, Hook aligns himself away from the pair and gives away their location in helping David to steal back the remaining beans. David and Hook follow Greg into the cannery building. Inside, David threatens to pull the trigger unless the beans are handed over. As Greg pulls out a small clear bottle containing them, Tamara shoots as an ambush attack, though David manages to dodge while getting grazed by the bullet. Hook tackles Greg to the ground; causing the bottle to break on the floor. While David chases after Tamara, Hook wrestles for the beans and eventually grabs one of them while Greg makes off with the other. She is chased by David, which shortly ends when Greg tackles him and they flee. With the trigger seconds away from destroying Storybrooke, Emma combines her magic powers with Regina to deactivate it, causing a blast of magic to throw everyone backwards. During this short period, Greg and Tamara grab Henry and begin dragging him to the harbor. On the way there, they divulge to the boy that it was never their true intention to put an end to magic once Henry became more valuable to them. As Henry's family rush over in a futile attempt to stop them, the duo use their last magic bean to open a portal to Neverland and force the boy to jump in along with them. ("And Straight On 'Til Morning")

Landing on the shores of Neverland's island, Tamara tries to use a communicator to reach the Home Office, but it isn't working. Greg has a look at the device and opens the battery case. Stunned, she watches as nothing but sand pours out from it. Henry calls into question how little they know about the Home Office, which causes Tamara to begin doubting her employers, though Greg brushes off the boy's ominous comment. Greg ventures into the jungle and makes a campfire to signal the Home Office, but instead, a group of boys approach out of the bush. The leader, Felix, states that they are indeed the Home Office. Tamara is mortified that they've been working for a bunch of teenagers, but Henry corrects her to say they are Lost Boys. They soon discover the Home Office is not what it's cracked up to be, and it was never their quest to eliminate magic. Upset at being duped, the pair refuse to hand over Henry. To counter the defiance, Felix summons a shadow to kill Greg. Fearing a similar fate, Tamara urges Henry to run while she does the same. She does not make it far before being impaled by an arrow to the back. Left alone after the Lost Boys run off to chase after Henry, Tamara is unable to walk and struggles to crawl away. Mr. Gold stumbles upon her state and helps to heal her wounds. When asked by him about where Henry is, she shakily describes what occurred. Tamara apologizes for everything, including Neal's death, and swears she had not known the true intentions of the Home Office. Though she begs for his forgiveness, Mr. Gold calmly declines and tears out her heart before crushing it to ash. ("The Heart of the Truest Believer")

Trivia

Character Notes

Production Notes

Appearances

Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.

See also

References

  1. File:218ThePhoto2.png
  2. Sarah Chalke on "How To Live With Your Parents," "Grey's," "HIMYM," & "Once" Scoop - SPOILER ALERT!. YouTube (April 7, 2013).
  3. Once Upon a Time - Episode 2.15 - Recurring Role of Tamara being Cast *Updated*. SpoilerTV (December 1, 2012). “Tamara is described as African American, Late 20s to mid 30s. She's beautiful (<-- oh, there's that word again!), artistic, relaxed, friendly, charming and smart. She's also ambitious, fearless and a born leader, and she won't stop until she gets what she wants.”
  4. 'The Walking Dead' exclusive: Sonequa Martin-Green on Sasha’s journey, Abraham, huge episodes ahead. CarterMatt (February 9, 2016). “They had to kill me on ‘Once Upon a Time’ because I couldn't be on the shows at the same time; I was grateful to even do the stint that I did, since it was a lot of fun and very different.”
  5. File:214MagicFootage.png
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