Sympathy for the De Vil

"A person obsessed with vengeance is easy to manipulate. She thought I believed her happy ending was reconciling with her mother. But I knew she was after something else. Your death."

- Mr. Gold to Isaac Heller

"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.

"Good Boy"


TBA.

"The Lonely Author"


TBA.

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

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".
 * In an early version of the script, Cruella and her mother were both part of a dog psychic team.
 * Milli Wilkinson, who plays young Cruella, also plays Alice's daughter in the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland series finale "And They Lived...".
 * A digital facial replacement was used for Pongo's angry face. The dog was not actually snarling. The growls on Madeline's dalmatians were also digital.
 * 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".
 * Although the episode was written by David H. Goodman and Jerome Schwartz, young Cruella using trumpet flowers as a murder weapons was Dana Horgan's idea.
 * 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 her 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

 * Madeline states Cruella used trumpet flowers to poison her own father to death. She does not specify which type of trumpet flowers, but one possibility is the angel's trumpet, also commonly known as a trumpet flower, that have several different species and all have fatal effects if ingested.
 * Isaac comments on the Mr. Gold's 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.
 * According to writers David H. Goodman and Jerome Schwartz, the novel is a nod to the fictional time age in Cruella's world, a jazz age 1920s world.
 * The Once Upon a Time version of Cruella De Vil is inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald, F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife.
 * After she captures Henry and has him tied up, Cruella plays Angry Birds on his phone.
 * -|Props Notes=

Props Notes

 * 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.
 * When Cruella leaves the club, as she puts the napkin in Isaac's inside pocket, the box where Isaac keeps the quill, is open. A few seconds later, when he is holding the napkin in his hands, the box is closed. This is the moment where Cruella steals the Magic Quill. This little detail was added by the director, and was not in the script.

Costume Notes

 * The dress Cruella is wearing at the jazz club is from the 2011 movie The Artist.


 * -|Other Notes=

Filming Locations

 * Cruella's attic was a set built on a soundstage. The rest of the house, was filmed on location, in a 1930s mansion in Vancouver.
 * The club scenes for this episode were filmed in the basement of the house, which was also used as Cruella and Madeline's house.