"Once Upon a Time" Recap: "Sympathy for the De Vil"

Written by Shae

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

There have been few episodes in TV history that disturb me, and this was one of them. Guys! This show got dark! Were you shocked? Because I was just a bit shocked...like....damn. Finally getting the story of Cruella was something we have long been awaiting. After all, this show is notorious for taking villains and giving them tragic back stories that have us falling in love with people we're supposed to hate. And then this episode happened. And I'm still trying to recover from it. They tricked us! At least they did finally explain how Cruella had magic powers. I mean, that was a little out there at first, but then it made sense. So, let's just walk through this. 

Maleficent wants to know where her daughter is, since Cruella and Ursula fell through the portal with the baby. She does deserve that much. But alas, Cruella isn't in the mood to play along. Antagonising Maleficent until she turns into a dragon, only to use her powers and have the dragon take a nap. Cruella is late for a date with the Author, since there are happy endings to be had. He, however, won't give her one. He refuses, even after her threats...so when all else fails, she's off to kidnap Henry after that, because there's nothing better to do. If she can't kill the author she'll get Emma to do it for her. Why does she even want him dead? What sense does that even make!? Well, they do know one another, and it would seem Cruella's upbringing wasn't all that peachy. 

Our Author is either named Walt, or Isaac, and I really don't care which, because this is just as much his story as it is hers, only we get to see what happens when true evil is involved. So far, we've seen there has always been a reason for why things are the way they are. Why people make the choices they do, and what lead them to make those choices. Last night, though, we saw a true monster. Cruella was just a child, really, locked away by a strict mother. Isaac came to see said mother, to collect interesting stories. The woman, a famous dog trainer, has no intentions of giving any story. But Cruella does. She gets Isaac to break her out and they sneak away to a club. Dancing, music, alcohol. It's a 1920's wonderment for the two. In just a few short moments, Isaac is enchanted with Cruella and has no problem spilling his secret.

With a magic quill and magic ink, anything he writes is truth. To illustrate, he give Cruella a diamond necklace and matching earrings. But that's not enough. So he does the stupidest thing ever, but he doesn't know it's stupid yet, and neither do we. She now has magical powers to persuade animals to her whim. Okay, weird, but useful as we see later. When she leaves to supposedly face her mother, I was okay with it. But, first mommy dearest visits Isaac. The story he gets is one he wasn't wishing for. Cruella wasn't kept out of meanness, she was kept to protect other people. The mother knows as three husbands, including Cruella's father, were poisoned by the girl. Isaac refuses to believe this, and so did I. I was wrong. So wrong. Cruella does confront her mother...she turns her mother's own Dalmatians on her, kills her. Isaac finds her sewing...Cruella had taken his pen, the magic quill, and he needs it back and wants answers. The scene that follows really had me wondering just how dark this season would go. Very. It went very dark. After using her new powers to have her mother killed by her own dogs, she killed the dogs and made them into a coat. In a dash to get his quill/pen back, our Author loses the fight over the ink. That explains Cruella's hair. He manages to scribble something down. And she manages to not be able to shoot him. Taking the ink well, he leaves her....

The Sociopath she is, Cruella is unable to kill anyone, thanks to one sentence, scratched in magical ink and enchanted quill. The note the Author keeps. He writes stories of his own instead of living them. Now, however, I'm still not okay. Rumple knows Cruella can't kill. She does have Henry though, and that's not something Emma is okay with. She doesn't know Cruella can't kill, all she knows is that Henry is in danger. Emma breaks her cardinal rule, she uses her magic to shove Cruella off the cliff....which I'm pretty sure there's no surviving that.

Rumple has succeeded, right? He's managed to make the Savior fall..... 

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