Sonequa Martin-Green’s Tamara was a formidable villain inOnce Upon a Timeseasons 2 and 3 – yet despite the character’s compelling story, she disappeared from the narrative before she had much of a chance to make her mark. Tamara’s mission to rid the world of magic using any means necessary made herthe mainOnce Upon A Timeantagonistin the final episodes of the second season. Operating behind the scenes, she became a genuinely menacing presence. However, no sooner has she established herself, than the character was killed off – a mistake that cost the show dearly.
Tamara’s final appearance on the show was in the season three episode, “The Heart of the Truest Believer”. She waskilled by Mr. Gold (a.k.a Rumplestiltskin)after she attempted to murder his son. However, Tamara’s death wasn’t supposed to happen so early on in the series, and the showrunners were disappointed to write the character out of the show. Due to other filming commitments, Sonequa Martin-Green had to leave the show, meaning that all future storylines for Tamara had to be scrapped.Tamara’s time on the show was very short-lived, lasting only seven episodes, leaving audiences wondering what might have been.
Tamara Was The Main Villain Leading Into Season 3
Her Storyline Brought The Show Into Its Third Season
When Tamara first arrived in Storybrooke in season 2, episode 18, “Selfless, Brave and True”, her true colors were revealed to the audience. She believed that magic was unholy and didn’t belong in the real world, so she wanted to cleanse the world of anything magical. Her mission made her more dangerous than any other villain on the show as she wasn’t from a magical land.She was just a human with an agenda, and when humans want to destroy something, they’ll do it ruthlessly until it is destroyed. This made her unpredictable and difficult for the heroes to defeat.
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During her run on the show, Tamara killed two magical beings, kidnapped three main characters, and stole some magic beans. She also set off a magic trigger that would destroy the town of Storybrooke and every magical thing inside. Tamara caused a lot of harm during her seven-episode stint anddid it all using human man-made resources.For example, she killed The Dragon using a taser, and she set off the trigger by using a pickaxe. She only resorted to magic when she kidnapped Henry and took him through a magical portal to Neverland, putting her at odds with many of the show’s central characters.
Tamara Was Killed In The Season 3 Premiere
She Was Shockingly Killed Off At The Beginning Of Season 3
Tamara’s shenanigans came to an end in the first episode of season 3 where she reaches her deadly demise. The character’s story felt like it was cut short, but it let the doors open for a new villain in the form of a terrifyingly cruel Peter Pan. When she was killed, it wasn’t just Tamara that met the end of her story. Her accomplice, Greg Mendal, was also killed to conclude the season 2 storyline andpave the way for new storiesand villains in the future ofOnce Upon a Time.
Greg and Tamara’s deaths were quite ironic. Considering they both hated magic and wanted to destroy it, magic ended up being the thing that killed them. Greg’s shadow was ripped from him using magic, killing him instantly, whereas Tamara’s heart was crushed by Mr. Gold, who used magic to rip her heart out of her chest and crush it to ashes.The deaths of both characters were extremely shocking. Historically,Once Upon a Timeliked to definitively end story arcs in real time, implying that Greg and Tamara’s season 2 survival would make them key players into the future. However, as it turns out, their deaths were unavoidable.
There Was So Much More Story To Tell
Once Upon a Timewould undoubtedly have benefited from featuring more of Tamara. It would have been worth delving deep into Tamara’s backstory and finding out how she ended up evil, as this would have made her arc even more compelling – and potentially a touch sympathetic. Even the show’s creatives admitted that they wanted to keep Tamara on the show even longer, butthey had to kill off the character due to Sonequa Martin-Green’s commitmentstoThe Walking Dead.In an interview withcartermattSonequa Martin-Green revealed:
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.
Overall, not much was actually known about Tamara onOnce Upon a Time.It would have been beneficial for the show to dig deeper into her character and tell more of her story, making her more fully realized and three-dimensional. It also would have been intriguing to see what would have happened to Tamara if killing her off hadn’t been unavoidable. It is unknown whether they would have just dragged out her storyline longer and killed her later, or if they would have tried to redeem the character. Either way, she made a brilliant villain during her seven-episode stint on the show and could have continued to enhance the series.
Once Upon A Time
Cast
Once Upon a Time is an adventure fantasy-drama series created for ABC that features fairy tale characters and their Disney incarnations in a modern setting. When Emma Swan and her son Henry accidentally drive into the town of Storybrooke, they soon discover the inhabitants are those from fairy tales, and they have no knowledge of the modern world inhabited by Emma and Henry. Robbed of their pasts and given new identities by the Evil Queen known as Regina, the hope of the town’s residents lie solely in the hands of Emma, who has stronger connections to the town than she knows.
