Sympathy for the De Vil far about Cruella de Vil—that once upon a time, she was an innocent, wide-eyed blonde completely at the mercy of her wicked, ultra-controlling mother—just seemed a little, well, familiar. Give or take a flapper dress and a pair of Dalmatians, her past looked remarkably like Regina's and Ursula's, for that matter. (Once does love its daddy/mommy issue stories, doesn't it?) Which meant that one of two things was happening: Either the show was really repeating itself almost to the letter, or things were about to take a right turn into Crazy Town (Not that one). Thankfully for everything, Once went
Cruella de Vil rescue the recently deceased Killian Jones (Colin O'Donoghue), Cruella was among the deceased of whom they came across. In hopes of returning to life, Cruella appealed to Henry, the new Author, to use the quill to bring her back to life. Later, she helped Regina locate the grave of her lost love Daniel, who had since moved on to a better place. Mistaking David for James, Cruella made a move on him, then informed him of the hostility James held toward his brother. Cruella and James then hatched a plan to get out the Underworld by delivering Hades the child