Psych – Once Upon a Time: ‘Sympathy for the De Vil’ Review

<p>For a show that bases an episode off on a pun&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;d think that <em>Once Upon a Time<&sol;em> would no better than to expect any sobering moral from <em>Sympathy for the De Vil&period; <&sol;em>If it ever did&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure it suffers for it&period; We got to see the Author and Cruella Freaking De Vil dance on the set of what I swear was Agent Carter&&num;8217&semi;s just weeks ago and finally see where Cruella&&num;8217&semi;s crazy hair dye came from&period; Goofy&comma; scary&comma; and utterly<em> Once Upon a Time<&sol;em>&comma;<em> Sympathy for the De Vil<&sol;em> can safely say mission accomplished as far as getting a break from the Enchanted Forest is concerned&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In many ways&comma; Cruella&&num;8217&semi;s the only villainess on the show who dresses as dark as she actually is&period; She&&num;8217&semi;s killed multiple people&comma; she&&num;8217&semi;s crazy&comma; and for crying out loud&comma; she skinned dogs alive&period; &&num;8220&semi;I&&num;8217&semi;m a terrible person&&num;8221&semi; she admits and she&&num;8217&semi;s probably the only villainess that owns it&period; We&&num;8217&semi;ve seen or heard about Regina performing similarly awful actions&comma; but Cruella&&num;8217&semi;s a different sort of villain and variation keeps things interesting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Victoria Smurfit’s dynamic and fun in the over the top role&period; Cruella&&num;8217&semi;s mannerisms aren&&num;8217&semi;t unlike Zelena&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; and there&&num;8217&semi;s a certain appeal that comes with larger than life characters like these&period; They can get away with being exaggerated and theatrical&comma; and Smurfit handles Cruella&&num;8217&semi;s big personality with seeming ease&period; She excelled when delivering some of Cruella&&num;8217&semi;s more choice and biting dialogue&comma; but she infused the moments with the Author with a a touch of innocence too&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;05003405&sol;OUAT-S4-Symnpathy-for-the-De-Vil-Dance-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-81691 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;05003405&sol;OUAT-S4-Symnpathy-for-the-De-Vil-Dance-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"OUAT S4 'Symnpathy for the De Vil' Dance BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One of the benefits of writing for a network show &lpar;meaning&comma; a 22-episode season&rpar; is that you&&num;8217&semi;re often writing while you&&num;8217&semi;re in production and often only a couple episodes ahead of filming&period; If a character&&num;8217&semi;s working &lpar;or not&rpar; you respond to fan feedback accordingly&period; For several seasons now&comma; <em>Once Upon a Time<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s felt like it&&num;8217&semi;s always in the middle of a redraft – dropping ideas and scribbling in some more as often as The Author&period; Now we know who else borrowed his pen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After his &&num;8220&semi;popping out of nowhere&&num;8221&semi; cliffhanger&comma; we don&&num;8217&semi;t know much about The Author yet&comma; but I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t say that he seems like a gullible kind of guy&period; He shared what&&num;8217&semi;s likely his biggest secret with Cruella after only a sort time together&period; I get it&comma; man&period; She&&num;8217&semi;s pretty and he wanted to party than write about Disney fan-fic&comma; but I can&&num;8217&semi;t believe that he just jumped on a relationship this soon&period; He literally read her psychological profile&comma; after all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The connection between the Author and Cruella was just one element of Cruella&&num;8217&semi;s history that was clumsy&period; If Cruella&&num;8217&semi;s just born psycho&comma; than her mother&&num;8217&semi;s obviously got a few screws loose somewhere up there&comma; because it&&num;8217&semi;s always parents and children that creates Disney&&num;8217&semi;s monsters&period; Mrs&period; De Vil was so much an evil stepmother that it detracted from the bait and switch&period; Her breathy animal mind control is still about as random as her power-lust and The Author&&num;8217&semi;s pen is about as weirdly specific&period; What was really stopping her from jotting down &&num;8220&semi;Cruella always wins&&num;8221&semi; than &&num;8220&semi;Cruella blows green mist to make dogs eat people&&num;8221&semi;&quest; Much more&comma; it apparently takes some really fine handwriting to make those magic edits&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;05001404&sol;OUAT-S4-Sympathy-for-the-De-Vil-Cruella-Packing-Heat-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-82089 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;05001404&sol;OUAT-S4-Sympathy-for-the-De-Vil-Cruella-Packing-Heat-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"OUAT S4 'Sympathy for the De Vil' Cruella Packing Heat BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Though the jaunt into Cruella&&num;8217&semi;s past proved informative and played into the present day events in Storybrooke&comma; it took too much time away from the Emma drama&period; Emma is sort of addressing her feelings of betrayal&comma; but separating her reactions and comments so much makes them lose oomph&period; The moment when Regina tried to counsel her was priceless&comma; but overall&comma; it seems like Emma is still in knee-jerk anger mode and she should have moved to the next stage by now&period; Since she took extreme measures to save Henry&&num;8217&semi;s life&comma; maybe she&&num;8217&semi;ll gain perspective about what a parent will do to keep his or her child safe and sound and take those thoughts back to her parents next week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Chunks of the episode felt like filler&comma; but there was one other highlight&period; Robert Carlyle managed to make me believe Rumplestiltskin has good in his heart&period; Again&period; His motivation for hunting down the author was noble&comma; and at this point in his story&comma; that wasn&&num;8217&semi;t something I expected&period; Maybe I should start cutting Belle some slack when it comes to being fooled by Rumple&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Though this <em>Once Upon a Time<&sol;em> may have done the exact opposite of its title&&num;8217&semi;s intent&comma; it certainly made for something of an entertaining romp&period; This is someone who doesn&&num;8217&semi;t have a softer side&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s a nice change&period; She&&num;8217&semi;s unapologetic and cruel&period; Though there were clunky aspects in the episode&comma; they expanded the mythology of the world and the Author&&num;8217&semi;s role as well as adding another layer to Rumplestiltskin&&num;8217&semi;s motivations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Once Upon a Time<&sol;em> airs Sunday night on ABC at 8&sol;7 Central&period; Catch all the latest episodes at <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;abc&period;go&period;com&sol;shows&sol;once-upon-a-time">ABC&period;com<&sol;a> and all the latest reviews here at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com">BagoGames<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;