Tamara

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

- Tamara to Captain Hook 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
Before the breaking of the Dark Curse, at the exact moment Emma Swan enters into Storybrooke, August goes to Hong Kong to find someone called "the Dragon," who runs a small clinic, because he is turning back to wood. He meets another patient, Tamara. When she is called into the Dragon's office, she drops her phone and August offers it back to her. Tamara removes her sunglasses and thanks him.
 * -|During the Curse=

Later, after August meets with the Dragon, he encounters Tamara at a restaurant. She waves him over and offers him a drink to celebrate; revealing a large envelope of cash. Tamara tells August that she had been all over the world to search for a cure to her cancer, and she finally found it in the Dragon. She gave the Dragon a photo of herself and her grandmother, and though she regrets losing it, the sacrifice allowed her to find a cure. After speaking with August, Tamara's phone rings and she walks away to answer it. While she is busy, August steals her cash and runs away.

August uses her money to obtain the magical potion from the Dragon. Once outside, Tamara encounters him on the fire escape and runs after him; shouting for him to stop. He runs, but eventually stops and falls to the ground in agony as his body becomes more wooden. In the process, he drops the potion and Tamara takes it. She looks at August and states he deserves what he has, and vanishes into the streets.

Tamara goes back to speak with the Dragon while holding the bottle of magic she obtained from August. She admits her claims about having cancer are fake, but has been searching for magic across the world for a long time and seeing nothing but frauds until meeting him. She asks how the potion doesn't contain any element known to man, and the Dragon says 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 and strides out of the room.

Sometime later, through unknown means, Tamara shows up in New York and from a distance on the streets, she watches through a compact mirror of August and Neal conversing. With perfect timing, she walks right into Neal while carrying a cup of coffee as he turns to leave, and purposefully bumps into him; knocking the scalding liquid onto her own shirt. Feigning surprise, Tamara acts upset as she is in a hurry to work. Apologetically, Neal offers her his scarf to cover up the coffee stains, to which she accepts.

At some point in time, Neal and Tamara become engaged to marry. Unexpectedly, Neal's life takes a turn when his father, Mr. Gold, comes looking for him in New York. He meets his ex-girlfriend, Emma, after ten years since their break-up, and discovers he is the father of a son, Henry. From these events, trouble comes to them in the form of Mr. Gold's nemesis, Hook, who attempts to kill him with poison. While Mr. Gold slowly succumbs to his wound, Neal and Emma form a plan to get back to Storybrooke as fast as possible on Hook's ship, and to get to the harbor they need a car. Neal texts Tamara and asks to borrow her car, which she allows. As Neal and Emma approach the parked car, Tamara runs up. She greets Neal warmly and wonders where he is going. Upon noticing Emma, she introduces herself while Neal informs her Tamara is his fiancée.
 * -|After the Curse=

During Neal's stay in Storybrooke, he misses Tamara and requests she come to town. She grabs some of her things from Neal's apartment, and discovers Hook in the storage room closet. Tamara kidnaps Hook for a future purpose.

Tamara arrives in Storybrooke as per what Neal wanted. She meets up with Neal, Emma, and Henry at Granny's bed and breakfast and have a very awkward bagel breakfast in silence. When prompted by Henry, Tamara happily tells the story of how she and Neal met; mentioning that he ran into her on her way to work and knocked her coffee all over her blouse. Neal offered her his scarf and said that she could either keep the scarf or call him, and she decided to call him, and they hit it off.

Emma and Henry leave, and Neal attempts to share with Tamara his past life in the Enchanted Forest. Tamara is in complete disbelief at the tale he is feeding her, and rebuffs him; saying she believes Neal is still has feelings for Emma, and this is a ploy to get her to leave him so he can rekindle his old relationship. 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 Granny's Diner, Tamara overhears Mary Margaret tell Emma and Marco that she found August living in the woods of Storybrooke. As they leave, Tamara decides to take that tidbit and heads into the woods to find August's trailer. She knocks on the door; greeting him. August is shocked to see her, and wonders if she is also from his land when she makes note of his wooden state. She admits to August that she has no magic of her own and that she is very much human. She makes it perfectly clear to August it is none of his business why she is in Storybrooke, and that she is here to offer August a deal. She tells him to leave Storybrooke and if he goes to her apartment in New York City, he will find the bottle of potion that will allow him to change from wood back to a man. August does not want to, but Tamara tells him that he is the same man she encountered in Hong Kong all those years ago.

August is on his way out of Storybrooke, but turns around after realizing he is being tricked when he sees the photo of Tamara and her grandmother in the car. He goes to the sheriff's office to call Emma, and attempts to tell her about Tamara. The phone line is cut off abruptly by Tamara snapping the wire. August knows she was the one who killed the Dragon, and threatens to reveal her to Emma. Tamara tases him to death to prevent it from happening.

Later, Tamara sees August transform into Pinocchio as she meets up again with Neal. She gets nervous when Emma tries to question him about what he was trying to warn them about, but is relieved when Pinocchio cannot remember. Tamara tells Neal that she is here for him, and she loves him.

At the bed and breakfast, Tamara calls Greg on his phone, showing she is "Her" who he has been in contact with this whole time. As he asks where she is, Tamara knocks on his guest room door and he goes to open it. She tells him Neal is currently in the shower, so they do not have much time. Greg says they must take advantage of the moment, and the two kiss and embrace.

In Greg's room, 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 as there are that many spots shown on the map. Greg warns she would do best not to let Neal become suspicious of her. She promises he won't, and then asks if Greg has had any success in further locating his father, which he has not. Tamara tries to lift his hopes by saying they will definitely find him soon. Before she leaves, Greg inquires whether the "package" is here yet. She attests it will be in town by tonight.

In the evening, Greg waits for Tamara by the town border. She drives a truck into town, and the two share a quick kiss. Then, together, they go to the back of the truck and Tamara unveils her "package", who is actually Hook.

They bring Hook to the top of the clock tower and unbind his gag. Hook thinks they are going to torture information out of him, and refuses to do their bidding since he has now accomplished his life goal of killing the Dark One. They decide to show him the truth by pushing the chair he is bound to closer to the view outside the clock tower, and Tamara gives him a telescope to use. Hook takes it and peers into the distance of the ground, and is enraged to see Mr. Gold alive and well walking beside Belle. Greg makes him see he cannot win against the Dark One without their help, and Tamara encourages the idea by saying they know how to kill magical creatures. Greg also wants Hook to get close to Regina as he believes she knows where his father is.

Tamara orders some food at the diner, and receives it to go in a bag. As she turns, Emma purposely bumps into her and Tamara's things become scattered on the ground. They apologize to each other and proceed to pick the items up. Emma sees a list of Storybrooke residents and their fairytale counterpart names on it, though Tamara gives no explanation and simply takes the paper back. Emma converses by asking how Tamara is adjusting to Neal's secret. Tamara takes it light-heartedly, and admits it's a lot to take in, and wonders if it was the same for Emma. She agrees, though she had Henry to help her, and Tamara concedes Neal is doing the same for her. Emma is worried about the town's secret being exposed to outsiders. When she voices this concern, Tamara reassures her she is trustworthy, and won't give them away. She bids Emma goodbye, and leaves the diner. After breakfast, it begins raining and she and Neal huddle under an umbrella as they leave the bed and breakfast.

Hook agrees to Tamara and Greg's plan, and promptly goes to Regina in her office where he pretends to give away their secret plan of making him get close to her, and then betray her at the last moment. Instead, Regina thinks she has gained a new ally and they go to the basement level of the clock tower to retrieve a "fail-safe" that will destroy all of Storybrooke. Regina forces Hook into being bait to distract Maleficent while she takes the "fail-safe". Because Maleficent can regenerate as the magic in the cave prevents from her truly dying, she reforms bigger and even more menacing after Hook stabs her. Using unknown means, Tamara and Greg rescue him from her grip.

Regina returns to the ground floor of the library and is surprised Hook made it out of there alive. He fesses up to the scheme, and Tamara and Greg walk into the room. Regina attempts to use magic against them, but her mother's armband is preventing her from doing so. Earlier, Regina asked for the armband back after seeing Hook wearing it, and Greg informs her they used science to put a stop to the magic in her body. Tamara watches as Greg speaks to Regina, and pulls out her list of names. She asks which fairytale counterpart Regina is, Greg smugly replies, "The Queen". On Greg's orders, she covers Regina's head with a bag so she won't know where they are taking her.

Tamara and Greg kidnap Regina and take her 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 her decoy running clothes she usually wears when training for a marathon. So when she leaves, Neal thinks she is headed to the woods to build up her stamina for the upcoming marathon. Instead, she heads to the cannery where Greg has strapped Regina down to a table and hooked wires to attach her to the electrocution machine with the intent of torturing information about his father out of her.

Tamara shows the magic beans to Greg while explaining she knows all about them since Neal filled her in. Greg is jealous, though she promises when everything is finished with, Neal's engagement ring will come off. He's glad to hear that, and gives her an item in a bag to replace it. Upon opening it, she sees it's a strange black diamond shaped object. Greg doesn't know what it is either as he took it from Regina's pocket. Tamara decides to send the object, along with the rest of the data they complied, back to their "home office" so it can be analyzed.

Emma, Mary Margaret, David and Henry are alerted to the disappearance of Regina, and are on the trail of searching for her. Emma notices sand left behind at the bed and breakfast guest room by Tamara, and she and disbelieving Neal look for Tamara at the beach. Tamara catches on to what they are doing, and quickly jogs over to them to investigate. She makes up a casual excuse for why she changed her jogging spot from the woods to the beach, which strengthens Neal's belief that Emma is reading into things too much. Tamara continues her training routine after hearing the news of Regina's disappearance, and expresses hope they find her soon.

She informs Greg of what happened, but that Neal and Emma seemed to buy her cover story. Though Regina is being repeatedly electrocuted by Greg, she still refuses to say anything about his father. Unknown to both Tamara and Greg, Mary Margaret has forged a bodily connection with Regina, and can hear, feel and smell everything she does. After one brief connection, Mary Margaret recalls a strange smell of sardines in the room Regina is in. Emma picks this up as the location being the cannery. Emma, Neal, Mary Margaret and David close in and enter to search the premises of the building.

Tamara sees them come in on the security cameras, and urges Greg to leave now before they find them. He insists on grilling Regina further until she gives him the truth. Disappointed, Tamara leaves first. Her escape is obstructed by Emma and Neal approaching. Catching Emma off guard, she hits her at the back of the head with her gun. Neal is stunned, and an argument ensues about how long she has been lying to him. Tamara credits Neal as a good guy, but her job is more important. She ends up shooting Neal in the abdomen, and flees after distracting them by throwing one of the magic beans, which opens a portal.

Later, she regroups with Greg in the woods where he is reburying his father's remains. She reveals their "home office" analyzed their data, and the diamond shaped item--a trigger--is the key to destroying magic.

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.

During her getaway from David, she trips and her gun slides across the ground. Tamara is left vulnerable, but only for a short time, when Greg pushes her assailant down from behind. She motions to grab David's fallen gun, but her partner urges Tamara to go as they already got what they needed.

In the mines, while Emma figures out the trigger can be stopped if she combines her powers with Regina's, an impact blow in deactivating it causes everyone present to be thrown back onto the ground. Sometime during this time frame, Tamara and Greg make off with kidnapping Henry.

Outside, she and Greg drag Henry towards the harbor. Tamara ensures Henry they will not hurt him, to which he replies they will hurt everyone he loves, and just tried to destroy his hometown. In turn, she counters back it was never their true intention. Greg reveals they wanted to put an end to magic, but found something much more valuable--him. Though Henry's family rush to save to stop them, they are not fast enough. The duo use their last magic bean to open a portal to Neverland; prompting the twosome to force Henry to jump in with them.

Landing on the shores of Neverland's island, Henry attempts to make a hasty escape, but is swiftly caught by a water soaked Greg. Gleefully, Tamara remarks their mission has been accomplished, though Henry threatens that both of his mothers will be coming to save him. Greg dusts off his hopes by pointing out this new world is not anything like Storybrooke, and when Henry insists his family has been to the Enchanted Forest before, Tamara makes it known they are actually in Neverland. While she tries to use a communicator to let their employers, the Home Office, know they are present, Henry badgers Greg about who they work for and how they will get back home after magic is destroyed. To both questions, Greg remains tight-lipped, and stresses they don't need to know much about the Home Office, and believing in their cause alone is enough. Tamara interrupts to bring attention to the communicator's ineffectiveness, to which Greg opens the battery case to discover it's filled with sand. Shocked, she murmurs in disbelief of the current situation. Henry interjects it's good they don't ask any questions; causing Tamara to feel doubtful of the Home Office, but Greg presses on into the jungle where he starts a campfire as a signal. With what occurred earlier still fresh in Tamara's mind, she wonders if the empty communicator wasn't an accident, but Greg just thinks Henry's previous words are simply getting to her head.

Hearing nearby rustling, the brush parts to reveal a group of boys led by Felix. Greg demands to know who they are, and Felix states they are the Home Office. Unnerved, Tamara can't believe they've been working for are a bunch of teenagers, but Henry corrects her to say they are Lost Boys. He asks them why they want to destroy magic, but Felix acknowledges that was never their intention. Stunned, Greg says that was their mission, though Felix deflects the statement by countering that's what he and Tamara were told, and asks for Henry to be handed over. Refusing to comply, Tamara wants answers about the actual plan for magic and getting home, but is told they won't be going anywhere. Upset at being duped, Greg resists giving Henry over to them. With an ease, Felix, the lead Lost Boy, calls upon the Shadow, who rips out Greg's shadow; killing him. 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 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.

Trivia

 * Her 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."
 * The name "Tamara" is of Biblical Hebrew and Sanskrit origin derived from "tamar" that means "date palm, palm tree" in Hebrew and "tamara" that means "spice" in Sanskrit.
 * 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.