Dalmatian 1 (4.18)

This dalmatian was the well-trained pet of Madeline, mother of Cruella De Vil, but once gaining the power to control the actions of animals, Cruella turned the dalmatian against its owner, and once having Madeline killed, she had the dog skinned and made into a fur coat. The dalmatian appears in "Sympathy for the De Vil".

Before the Curse
We fade in from black to see a young girl running through the forest, with the sound of vicious dogs' barking in the background. The girl has pale-blonde hair and is dressed for England in the 1920s, looking behind herself to see that one of the dogs - or, more specifically, dalmatians - is catching up to her, looking ferocious. She leaps over a log in her attempt to get away, hoping to outrun her canine pursuer, but he is faster than she is, and even when it looks like she might just get away... a second dog blocks her path, and barks at her. Fear envelops her face, and the sound of intense snarling causes her to turn around in further fright: the first dog has caught up to her, and she is now caught between the two. The noisy engine of a vintage car is heard approaching, and then it stops as the car pulls over nearby; the girl's mother, Madeline, steps out, dressed all in black as though in mourning. She stands beside one of her beloved dogs as her daughter draws tears, exclaiming, "Heal!" The other dalmatian comes running towards her also, both of them whimpering in the presence of their dominant mistress as she tells her daughter that she's gone far enough. "Now be a good girl, and come back home," she orders, but the child refuses, telling her mother that she can't make her. Madeline then steps forward, and she points out that - as a matter of fact - she can, snapping her fingers and making it so that both hounds growl scarily, baring their teeth. "And now that your father's gone," Madeline adds, leaning down to look her crying daughter in the eyes, "We're going to make a few changes around the house, Cruella." The young Cruella De Vil continues to appear distraught.

Young Cruella is sitting and waiting somberly in her constraining attic bedroom, clearly beginning to think that maybe Isaac has given up on her. The sound of a stone hitting her window is then heard - twice - and she decides to investigate, opening it to discover that a key has been left on the sill for her. She takes it and smiles, shocked beyond belief, and proceeds to hold it close to her heart as she prepares to finally exit her prison-like attic with this means of escape she's been provided with. She is next seen in a coat as she cautiously makes her way out of the mansion's gate, where, to her joyful surprise, one of her mother's guard dogs is sleeping soundly. Isaac is standing near it, waving, and Cruella tells him how amazing this is, wanting to know how he did it. He tentatively reveals that he has his methods, and she holds up the key, expressing further amazement as she comments on how her mother never lets it out of her sight. "Do you wanna keep asking questions or do you wanna get out of here? I know a nice, quiet spot we can talk," he says, but Cruella says in turn that she'd prefer somewhere loud, to his confusion. She points out that she lives in an attic and her mother never allows her visitors or music or fun; "I mean, she even ripped my favorite trumpet flowers out of the garden because she 'doesn't like the smell'!" Isaac understands and takes her by the hand, leading her around the corner as he tells her that wherever she wants to go - he can take her. He gestures towards his vintage car parked nearby and Cruella is deeply impressed by it, smiling excitedly as she knows just where she wants him to take her in it.

In his hotel room, Isaac is staring down at the lipstick-stained napkin when there's a sudden knock at the door, and he answers it, expecting Cruella but instead finding Madeline. Both of them are equally shocked to see one another, and the latter's two dalmatians growl at the Author menacingly as she demands to know where her daughter is. Isaac insists that he doesn't have to tell her anything, trying to shut the door, but Madeline won't allow that, using her vicious guard dogs to force her way inside. She explains that they can smell Cruella on him, and she once again demands to be told her whereabouts, as well as the reason why she was with this supposed newspaper writer. He says that he was following Madeline's own advice in living life instead of just writing about it, and now, thanks to Cruella, he won't ever be going back. "You foolish boy..." she whispers, and she orders the dogs to stay as she properly enters the room, exclaiming that the Author should have gotten far away from her when he had the chance. He wonders why, thinking that it's so her secret would remain buried and revealing that Cruella told him the truth about her father and the others... that Madeline murdered them.

"She really did a number on you, didn't she?" the old woman realizes, "You'd think a newspaper man knew a tall tale when he heard one! Because I didn't kill anyone... don't you understand? It was Cruella." Isaac asks if she expects him to believe that the angel he danced with tonight is a killer, and Madeline says that she didn't want to believe it either, taking a seat on the armrest of a nearby sofa as she explains that her daughter was always a troubled little girl; she and her father had hoped she'd grow out of it, until one night he was having his tea in the parlor and Madeline heard a thump. She raced in to find him dead on the floor from a heart attack, and Cruella - the poor dear - was there, paralyzed with shock. After the doctor left, Madeline's first thoughts went to her little girl - what effect would seeing her father dead have on her already disturbed mind? - so she went up to try and comfort her, expecting to find her crying, but she wasn't... instead, she saw the hint of a smile on her face. She thought she was imagining things, but then she saw the trumpet flowers on the bedside table.

Isaac remembers Cruella telling him that said trumpet flowers were ripped out of the garden because her mother hated the smell, but Madeline informs him that she ripped them out because they were poisonous. Cruella poisoned her father. The Author insists that she's lying, for if what she's saying is true then she would have gone to the authorities, but Madeline wonders how she could - Cruella was her daughter, and she blames herself. She thought if she kept her close that she could somehow fix her, but there's no fixing her; she poisoned the next two husbands as well. Isaac orders her to leave before he calls the police, and Madeline says that he doesn't have to believe her, just so long as he stays away from Cruella... she takes the things you care about and she destroys them. The old woman proceeds to leave, dogs in tow, and the Author slams the door shut behind her, unwilling to accept all that he's just been told. "It's just a bucket of fiction, that's all..." he tells himself, proceeding to check the thin wooden box in which he keeps his enchanted pen and ink. He opens it, and the pen is missing; then he snaps it shut in devastation.

Madeline is next seen stepping foot in her mansion along with her trusty dalmatians, and she calls out for Cruella, hoping to find that she's home. Footsteps are heard coming from around the corner, and Cruella indeed steps out into the hall, looking more confident around her mother than ever before as she greets her rather casually, yet very eerily. She adds that she's been waiting for her, and Madeline just exclaims, "Dogs!" They begin making ruckus, running at their mistress' daughter and barking at her viciously, but the pretty blonde just smiles and laughs and says that that's not going to work anymore, proceeding to crouch down and blow green smoke from her mouth into their faces. As her newly-acquired magic takes effect, the dogs quit making noise and sit down in submission - much to Madeline's shock - and they stand with Cruella, now growling at her mother. Madeline demands to know what her daughter did to them, and Cruella replies, "I simply taught them a new command: kill!" With that, the dogs leap forward and Madeline screams. Cruella just smiles with satisfaction as her mother's own two dalmatians eat her alive.

It's a dark and stormy night in 1920s England, and we are treated to a shot of the radio in Cruella's attic bedroom, which plays music while she is busy running spotted furs through a sewing machine. She works it all very steadily, and Isaac calls out her name as he enters the room behind her, confused by what she's doing and commenting that he's been looking everywhere for her. He wonders where her mother is, but she doesn't reply, just continuing to sew. "Cruella!" the Author exclaims, and there's a bright flash of lightning outside that continues to illuminate her as she finally vacates her craft, saying rather sinisterly, "Well thanks to you, she's dead, darling. Oh, you should've seen the look on her face when her beloved dogs turned on her... it's a memory I shall truly cherish." Isaac realizes what she's done, as well as the fact that everything Madeline told him back in his hotel room was true, and he cries out in defiance, with her simply telling him that he needn't fear the dogs anymore... "They're with mother now," she reveals as she gets to her feet, picking up the fabulous fur coat she was making in the sewing machine out of the dalmatians' skins and draping it around herself.

Lightning again illuminates her as she feels the softness of the fur against her body, with the thunder outside adding drama to the whole event. The Author asks how she could do this, but she ignores him, too wrapped up in herself and her new fashions. He laments thinking that she cared about him, and she tells him that that was the idea: "You were - what is the phrase? - a means to an end." More lightning, and Isaac is crying now, wanting to know... why? "That's the question on everybody's mind, isn't it?" Cruella knows, "I wish I had an answer. Some people struggle not to be drawn into the darkness... but ever since I was a little girl I said, why not splash in and have fun?" Another flash. Isaac spots his enchanted quill resting atop a nearby magazine, and Cruella finally notices him staring at it, meaning that she goes in to tackle him as he runs towards it. He manages to grab it, popping open his jar of magic ink and dipping the quill inside. He wants to write something, but the girl he thought he loved starts wrestling him for the jar, and it isn't long before the ink inside is accidentally spilled all over her face. It contorts around her, swirling magically, and shock is portrayed on Isaac's face. Something like this has never happened before, and the effects of that ink when used without the pen can be disastrous.

When Cruella De Vil finally stands up, she looks exactly as she does in the present: her face is overly made-up and her blonde hair has become half-black and half-white. One last illumination by the strike of lightning, and Isaac is stunned by what he sees standing in front of him. He quickly grabs his quill and the piece of dalmatian-emblazoned paper that will later be read by Mr. Gold, beginning to write as Cruella orders him to drop it, calling him a horrid little scribbler. He can't get it done in real life, so he scratches it out like a rat scrabbling in the filth. As she exclaims this, she puts the ink jar down and grabs her famous jeweled gun instead, pointing it right at the man before her and going to shoot him dead. However, she cannot. The trigger can't be pulled. The Author smiles, while she doesn't understand what's going on. She demands to know why she can't seem to do it; "What did you do?!" "I learned a lesson from you," he states, "Take what a person loves... and destroy it." He creases the paper he wrote on as he prepares to pocket it, and Cruella realizes what he's done as he begins to leave, calling him a fool. He grabs his ink jar, and she elaborates with, "You damned, insane fool! I'm not done! I'm not done at all!" Her words echo as she throws the now useless gun to the ground, and the storm rages mightily outside her window.