Sympathy for the De Vil

"Sympathy for the De Vil" is the eighteenth episode of Season Four of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by David H. Goodman & Jerome Schwartz, and directed by Romeo Tirone. It is the eighty-fourth episode of the series overall, and premiered on April 19, 2015.

Synopsis
In fictional 1920s England, viewers meet a young Cruella, whose oppressive mother uses her Dalmatians to terrorize her daughter. Cruella is confined to her mother's attic until a mysterious stranger arrives and empowers her to challenge her captor. In Storybrooke, Regina gains leverage to keep Gold from interfering with her plan to rescue Robin, but her trip to New York takes the backseat when she and Emma learn that Cruella has kidnapped Henry.

Starring

 * Ginnifer Goodwin as Mary Margaret Blanchard
 * Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan
 * Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills
 * Josh Dallas as David Nolan
 * Emilie de Ravin as Belle French
 * Colin O'Donoghue as Hook
 * Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills
 * Michael Socha (Credit only)
 * Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold

Guest Starring

 * Kristin Bauer van Straten as Maleficent
 * Patrick Fischler as Isaac
 * Anna Galvin as Madeline
 * Victoria Smurfit as Cruella De Vil

Co-Starring

 * Milli Wilkinson as Young Cruella

Uncredited

 * Cinder as Pongo

Quotes
Belle: You're pathetic. Watching you come groveling back to me. It's like a dog begging for scraps.

Mr. Gold: Why are you saying that? This isn't like you, Belle.

Regina: But it is so like me.

Maleficent: We need to talk.

Cruella: Good thing I had my brakes serviced, darling. I do hate having blood on the car.

Madeline: Maybe you should write your own story for once, instead of leeching off other people's pain.

Regina: You're acting like a petulant child. Your parents did a bad thing. They apologized. Now get over it.

Emma: Forgive me if I don't take advice from the woman who held a grudge for half her life because a ten-year-old spilled a secret.

Madeline: What did you do to them?

Cruella: I simply taught them a new command: Kill.

Isaac: We're not in a time. We're in a realm of story. There are many. Some beautiful, some horrific, and some just plain magical.

Cruella: Some people struggle not to be drawn into the darkness. Ever since I was a little girl, I've said, "Why not splash in and have fun?"

Trivia
Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * The title card features dalmatians running through the woods.
 * The episode name is a reference to the The Rolling Stones' song "Sympathy for the Devil".
 * Milli Wilkinson, who plays young Cruella, also plays Alice's daughter in the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland series finale "And They Lived...".
 * The room where Cruella is locked up, is filled with her mother's dog statuettes and dog show trophies.
 * A dictionary from University of Oxford in 1920s England is lying on a table in adult Cruella's room in her homeworld.
 * As Henry is in the alley with Pongo, the peeled-off paint on the container next to him forms a star pattern around a vertical silhouette of a running dog.
 * Murray's Club was a real night club on Beak Street, London, which opened in 1913, and closed in 1975.
 * Fittingly enough, the in-universe name of the song that Cruella hears on the radio, is "The Toast of Beak Street".
 * The club scenes for this episode were filmed in the basement of the house also used as Cruella and Madeline's house.
 * After Emma kills Cruella, the sound of crows can be heard in the final shot of Emma. This is a subtle hint that Emma is sliding into darkness. Crow sounds were often edited in by the sound designers for Regina's Storybrooke scenes during Season One. (Two examples are when she tells Emma to leave town in "Pilot", and when she is talking to Sidney in "The Thing You Love Most").
 * -|Episode Connections=

Events Chronology

 * The Storybrooke events take place after "Heart of Gold" and before "Lily".
 * The 1920s England events take place some time before the Enchanted Forest events in "Darkness on the Edge of Town".

Episode Connections

 * Cruella, Ursula and Lily arrived in the Land Without Magic in "Best Laid Plans".
 * Maleficent learnt the truth about her daughter's fate in "Best Laid Plans".
 * Emma learnt her parents's secret in "Best Laid Plans".
 * Isaac allied himself with Mr. Gold in "Heart of Gold".
 * Regina discovers Zelena is posing as Maid Marian in "Heart of Gold".
 * Belle married Mr. Gold in "There's No Place Like Home".
 * Belle banished Mr. Gold in "Heroes and Villains".
 * Belle regains heart in "Lily".
 * Regina finds and warns Robin Hood in "Lily".


 * -|Cultural References=

Disney

 * The song that Cruella hears on the radio is a jazz instrumental version of "Cruella De Vil", from the 1961 Disney animated movie One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
 * Madeline's car is similar in design and color to Cruella's car in 1961 Disney animated movie One Hundred and One Dalmatians.

Fairytales and Folklore

 * This episode is a rendition of the Hundred and One Dalmatians story, with Cruella De Vil and Pongo. Also featured is Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story.
 * Isaac calls Cruella's life "a classic Cinderella story".

Popular Culture

 * Isaac comments on the Abandoned Cabin, saying that it makes him feel like "Hemingway, or maybe Thoreau"; a reference to the American authors Ernest Hemingway and Henry David Thoreau.
 * While he is captive in Mr. Gold's cabin, Isaac reads F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
 * After she captured Henry and tied him up, Cruella plays Angry Birds on her phone.