Sympathy for the De Vil Sympathy for the De Vil "Sympathy for the De Vil" is the eighteenth episode of the fourth season of the American fantasy drama series "Once Upon a Time", which aired on April 19, 2015. In this episode, a young Cruella de Vil is tortured by her mother's evil use of her Dalmatians, resulting in her eventual confinement to her attic until a strange visitor tells her she should stand up to her mother. In Storybrooke, Regina's plan to save Robin are put on hold when Henry is taken by Cruella, teaming her up with Emma Swan to save their son.
Cruella de Vil has made her husband adopt her surname as his own, in an effort to carry on her family name. She and her husband have no children. Cruella is portrayed as the tyrannical figure in the marriage, and her husband as a meek, subservient man who seldom speaks and obeys his wife entirely. He supplies Cruella with extravagances, such as the white mink cloak she often wears with skin-tight satin gowns and ropes of jewels in contrasting colours, such as a black dress with ropes of pearls, or a green dress with ropes of rubies. Cruella's chauffeur-driven car is black-and-white striped,