Cruella De Vil (Once Upon a Time)

"Shall I get you a step stool so you can look into my eyes when you threaten me?"

- Cruella De Vil to Rumplestiltskin

Cruella De Vil was a major antagonist of the second half of the fourth season of ABC's "Once Upon a Time". She is portrayed by Victoria Smurfit.

A witch with the ability to persuade animals, Cruella joins forces with Ursula, Mr. Gold and Maleficent to form the "Queens of Darkness", so that together they may achieve their goal of getting a happy ending for villains.

Season 4
In 1920's England, Cruella is locked up in the attic in her mother's mansion, and her mother, named Madeline, is mean to her, using her two dalmatian dogs to intimidate Cruella to stay inside. After Madeline kicks out a reporter, who is the Author in disguise, Cruella calls from the attic that she has a story for him, but she must get him out of the attic first. He uses is Author powers to transport the attic key to her, then they got to a nightclub to talk. Cruella says that Madeline killed Cruella's father, and two stepfathers. The Author then trusts Cruella enough to reveal his Author magic, and proves it by summoning diamon jewelry for her. He then writes her the ability to control animals. He gives her his car to go visit her mother one last time. Madeline then visits the Author at his hotel room, and tells him that Cruella sold him a pack of lies and that Cruella was the one to murder her fathers. He doesn't believe it until he realizes his magic pen is missing. When Madeline returns home, she tries to use her dalmatians to drive Cruella back to the attic, but Cruella controls the dogs with her new powers and makes them tear apart Madeline. She then skins the dogs to make a fashionable fur coat. As she finishes sewing it together, the Author comes in, and when he sees the coat, he knows what Madeline said was true. He demands to see Madeline, but Cruella says that, thanks to him, she, and her dogs, are dead now. The Author spots his pen, and he and Cruella dive for it and the magic ink. In the fight, the ink spills on Cruella, making her hair half black, half white, and her eyebrows thick and unrealistic. As Cruella pulls a gun on him, her quickly writes down that Cruella can't kill anymore. He leaves as Cruella shouts that they aren't finished.

Cruella and Ursula are invited by Rumplestiltskin to Maleficent's castle, where he invites them to ally themselves to him in order to get the Dark Curse. They help him get past various obstacles in the Bald Mountain, but Rumple then betrays them and leaves them to die at the hands of the creature Chernabog. As Maleficent fights Chernabog, Cruella and Ursula climb out of the cave and Ursula uses her tentacles to hoist Maleficent out ("Great. It'll take me weeks to get the smell of fish out of this dress."). They decide to be allies from then on. Cruella, Maleficent and Ursula kidnap Belle and hold her ransom for Rumplestiltskin. When he arrives, they demand a magic gauntlet that will reveal their enemies weaknesses and once they have it they leave. However, later, Rumple manages to regain the Gauntlet from the Queens. The Queens travel to the Charmings' palace. Maleficent uses her expertise in sleeping curses to knock out everyone there before the Charmings arrive from their honeymoon. The Queens make a bargain with the Charmings: the Queens help the Charmings find a way to prevent the Dark Curse, the Queens leave the Charmings alone. The Queens take the Charmings to a magical tree that answers any question to those of pure heart. When it fails, Maleficent realizes that Snow White is pregnant, and the unborn baby's siding, good or bad, is unknown. The Charmings blame the Queens for the failure. Later, Ursula and Cruella guard the cave where Maleficent keeps her egg, but the two are knocked out when Snow White blows a magic powder onto them. After the Charmings take the egg, Ursula and Cruella rush to try to save it, but they fall into the portal to the real world along with it. After the egg hatches, they leave the baby and use the magic in the eggshell to keep themselves youthful as they go to New York.

Back in present time, Rumple travels to New York to find Cruella and Ursula so that they may once again form the Queens of Darkness. Cruella drives the three to Storybrooke in her car. At the town line, they find that Gold has already created a problem in Storybrooke that requires the help of Ursula and Cruella, in exchange for them being let into the city. The two witches do a series of tricks to get Snow White and Prince Charming to go to the cave beneath the library, Maleficent's resting place. Ursula knocks them out and Cruella gets some of their blood and pours it on Maleficent's ashes, which resurrects her. Cruella and the other queens are tricked by Regina to think that she still wants to be evil with them, but it is only to be an inside woman. After Ursula is reunited with her father and voice and abandons the Queens cause, Cruella mistakingly identifies Ursula as the inside woman. After the Author is released from the book, Cruella kidnaps Henry and orders Regina and Emma to kill the Author or she'll kill the boy. Not knowing that Cruella is unable to kill, she blasts Cruella off a cliff. Cruella is buried in the Storybrooke Cemetery.

Trivia

 * Cruella's animal control magic is in the form of green smoke from her mouth. This is based on the cartoon, when Cruella breathed green smoke because of her cigarette.