Isaac Heller

"The pen is mightier than...everything ~Isaac"

Isaac Heller, also known as The Author, is one of the three main antagonists in the second half of season 4 of the TV Show Once Upon a Time. Isaac is arguably the true main antagonist of the entire show, as he is responsible for most if not all the events that happen in the show. He is played by Patrick Fischler.

Biography
For eons, the Sorcerer and his apprentice have chosen authors to write out people's stories accordingly. Isaac was one of those authors. Sometime during the 1920s in England, Isaac met Cruella De Vil while looking for a good story. He frees her from her imprisonment in her mother's attic and takes her to a party. While spending time with her, Cruella lies about her mother killing her three husbands, and keeping her locked up so she can't reveal the truth. By the night's end, Isaac is smitten with her, and he tells her about his quill and ink, which give him the power to write anything into reality. After proving it's real by granting her a necklace and diamond earrings, Issac asks her to run away with him. Since she is afraid her mother will catch her, he gives her the power to manipulate animals. Before she can leave with him, Cruella insists on facing her mother one last time. Isaac hands her his car keys and then promises to wait for her at the hotel. Sometime during this, Cruella steals his quill, returning home, where she forces her mother's dogs to kill Madeline. Later, she butchers the dogs and sews a fur coat out of them, just as Isaac walks in on her. Realizing that she used him, Isaac grabs the quill and fights with Cruella for the ink pot before Cruella accidentally spills it on herself, turning her hair black and white and changing her appearance. Before she can fire her gun at him, Issac cancels it out by writing that she can never kill another person again. As he leaves, she yells that they aren't finished yet. Later, he travels to the Enchanted Forest. During this time, he started to manipulate the stories to his own will. Disguised as the Peddler, he directs Snow White and Prince Charming to the Apprentice's Cabin as his writing caused Snow White and Prince Charming kidnap the witch Maleficent's baby daughter and take her to the sorcerer's Apprentice to transfer the potential for darkness and evil from their child to Maleficent's child. Afterwards, the Apprentice banishes Maleficent's child to Earth, along with Ursula and Cruella De Vil. This angered the Apprentice, and he imprisoned Isaac in one of pages in the book as punishment.

30 years later, Emma Swan finds the book and released the author from the book. Emma then tries to question Isaac but he flees and Emma, Captain Hook, Snow, and Charming, go out to look for him. While hiding and looking for something to write with, he runs into Rumpelstiltskin. Isaac then expresses displeasure in writing about the Dark One. Rumpelstiltskin responds by offering a deal to get villains their happy endings, to which Isaac agrees. Gold takes Isaac to his cabin. Gold says that he plans to turn the Savior dark, and then everything he needs will fall into place. However, Gold abruptly says that something has come up and teleports away. Later, Isaac is reading when Cruella comes in. She demands that he give back what she took. Isaac says that he can't, and Cruella grabs him by the throat and promises to kill him. He says that she doesn't have enough power to hurt him, and Cruella releases him. She takes a gentler approach but Isaac refuses and Cruella promises to make him suffer for his making her what she is. Isaac points out that Gold doesn't know that they know each other, and figures that Cruella lied to him. He says that Cruella should leave before Gold returns, which she does. Later, Gold returns to the cabin and tells Isaac that he knows he lied about knowing Cruella. He says that Cruella has kidnapped the Savior's son and it's essential to his plans. Gold explains Cruella's threat, and notes that if Isaac dies then the mantle of Author would pass on to someone potentially less cooperative. He can manipulate Cruella and asks why Cruella wants Isaac dead. Isaac takes a letter from his pocket and tells Gold to read it. Once he does, Gold chuckles. Later, David and Mary Margaret arrive at the cabin and David grabs him. Isaac admits that he had no idea how Gold would end Cruella, and he didn't see the end of the story. He adds that the story ends with the Savior turning dark. He hands David a piece of paper and says that it's a truth that he wrote. Mary Margaret and David read the note, which says that Cruella can no longer take the life of another. Isaac says that Henry is in no danger, and Mary Margaret and David realize that Cruella is defenseless and Gold wants Emma to kill her. Following the death of Cruella De Vil at the hands of the savior, the chic diva is laid to rest, and Gold and Isaac watch as her coffin is lowered down into the ground. The Author, staring down at the napkin Cruella kissed all those years ago in the club they attended, comments that he'll miss her ,furs and all - for he realizes that in her own special way she cared for him. The napkin is placed onto the grave, and Rumple says that someone had to die for the progress of his plans. Isaac questions this, and they proceed to discuss the state of Emma's heart. Emma, meanwhile, watches them from nearby. Isaac and Gold are next seen in the latter's car, again discussing plans, when Rumple sees Belle and Will strolling nearby. He excuses himself from the Author, saying that he has business to attend to. Isaac is at the diner with Gold when Hook comes in to announce that Emma is returning and she didn't turn evil after all, which means that the Dark One's plans have failed. Isaac doesn't take too kindly to the news, knowing that his magic ink needs the blood of a darkened savior in order to work in this land, and Rumple teleports them back to his shop. His heart is very weak now; he takes it out and sees that it's almost entirely black, at which point Regina walks in to take the Author for herself, pointing out that it was her idea to use him before Gold stole it. She then sees how dreadful Gold looks and realizes that his heart is catching up with him; however, she refuses to believe that the Dark One could die in such a manner, recalling that all he'd lose is his capacity to love. Mr. Gold confirms that the Dark One can't... but Rumplestiltskin can, and no one wants to face the Dark One when there's "no one else at home". Regina proceeds to leave with Isaac as Mr. Gold collapses onto the floor, and Isaac reveals what a fan of hers he is, having enjoyed her as a character. She reveals that she has a page from some of his extra works, and he is astounded, promising to write for her anything she wants. However, when the former Evil Queen refuses to let the Author write anything new for her half-sister Zelena, he returns to the Dark One, using his now-empowered (thanks to Lily's blood, taken by the Queen) ink to start writing a new story for everyone in town.