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

—Tamara to Captain Hook src

Tamara is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the fifteenth episode of the second season. She is portrayed by Sonequa Martin-Green.

History

During First Curse

While the Dark Curse is still intact, Tamara presumably meets and joins Greg in an organization that destroys 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.

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 aliments 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, to which she accepts. They 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 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 of the 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. She kidnaps him for a future purpose in Storybrooke with Greg. 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. She 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 location to Emma and Marco. Tamara heads there first and shocks August with the 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")

Tamara and Greg look over a map of Storybrooke where he has pinpointed various spots in town where he saw magic being used. She remarks the town is lousy with magic. Tamara promises to be careful in evading Neal's suspicion. Thus far, Greg is not having much success procuring the location of his father. Before she goes, Tamara confirms the "package" 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")

They bring Hook to the top of the clock tower and give him a mini-telescope for a look outside. Despite Hook's satisfaction at apparently killing his nemesis and enemy, the Dark One, he is stunned to see an alive and well Mr. Gold on the street. Greg convinces him that he cannot win against the Dark One without their help, and Tamara encourages the idea since they know how to kill magical creatures. During some period, Tamara took a bracelet she found on Hook's arm and sent it to the Home Office. It is returned to her with a special ability to absorb magic of whoever is wearing it. In an assembled plan, they ask him to forge a fake alliance with Regina and clasp the bracelet on her. During her stay in town, Neal gives Tamara a list of residents and their fairytale counterpart names as a way for her to come to terms with the magical nature of Storybrooke. For breakfast, she orders some food at the diner and goes to pick it up. She and Emma knock into each other as Tamara's things scatter to the ground. The two retrieve the items while Emma asks how she adjusting to Neal's secret. 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. Following breakfast, she and Neal huddle under an umbrella for an outing in the rain. When Hook gains Regina's trust, they go to the basement of the clock tower to search for a trigger to destroy Storybrooke. Hook is used as bait against the basement's 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 bracelet prevents her from it. Tamara pulls out the list and asks which fairytale counterpart she is, to which Greg smugly replies, "The Queen". Then, Tamara places a bag over Regina's head to kidnap her. ("The Evil Queen")

Tamara and Greg take Regina to the town cannery storeroom. Then, using an override code, Tamara breaks into Regina's office and steal various items, such as the growing magic beans. The following morning, Tamara dresses in decoy running clothes under the pretense of training for a marathon. She goes to check up on Greg, who intends to hook Regina up to an electrocution machine and interrogate her about his father's whereabouts. Tamara excitedly shows Greg the magic beans, which Neal told her all about. Greg becomes jealous at this, but she promises Neal's engagement ring will come off when everything is finished. As a replacement ring, Greg hands her the trigger. She sends the object, along with the rest of the their data, to the Home Office. When Tamara sees Emma and Neal near the beach, she realizes her shoes must have left sand in the inn room. She jogs up with an excuse for her reason for changing jogging areas from the woods to the shoreline. The answer satisfies Neal. Tamara returns to inform Greg of what happened. On the security camera monitor, she sees David, Emma, Mary Margaret and Neal enter into the cannery. She is forced to flee on her own when Greg stubbornly still wants to question Regina. In the hallway, she knocks out an unsuspecting Emma while aiming her gun at Neal. She finally admits to lying to him since the first day they met. Though Neal is a good guy, her job is more important, and she fires a shot at his abdomen. Emma wrestles the gun away, but Tamara distracts them by opening a portal with a bean. Later, she regroups with Greg in the woods where he is reburying his father's remains. She reveals the trigger was analyzed by the Home Office and is the key to destroying magic. ("Second Star to the Right")

To use as a distraction, Tamara and Greg set off the trigger to buy themselves time in redirecting the whole town's attention onto the incoming catalyst. Desperate to save his own life, Hook aligns himself away from Tamara and Greg 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. In the mines, Emma combines her magic powers with Regina to deactivate the trigger. Tamara and Greg kidnap Henry and drag him towards the harbor. 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 rushes over, the duo use their last magic bean to open a portal to Neverland and force the boy to jump 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 where Henry is, she shakily describes what occurred. Tamara apologizes for everything, including what happened to Neal, 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; crushing it to ash. ("The Heart of the Truest Believer")



Family

Neal Cassidy
 
 
Tamara
 
 
Greg Mendell
 
 
 
 

Notes:

  • Solid lines denote blood parent-child relationship
  • Dashed lines denote marriage, engagement and adoption relationships and romantic relationships
  • denotes the deceased
  • Tamara was previously engaged to Neal
  • She was in a relationship with Greg

Trivia

  • The casting call describes her as "African American, Late 20s to mid 30s. She's beautiful, 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." [1]
  • The name "Tamara" is of Biblical Hebrew and Sanskrit origin derived from "tamar"[2] that means "date palm, palm tree" in Hebrew and "tamara" that means "spice" in Sanskrit.[3]
  • Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz have said Tamara has no equivalent in the world of fairy tales and is just a person from the world without magic.[4]

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Appearances

Template:SpecialAppearances Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.

  • Tamara's code name "Her" appears on Greg's phone in "Manhattan".

References

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