Isaac Heller

"To be honest, I'm looking for stories with a bit more pizazz. A great story always needs just a sprinkle of magic."

- Isaac to Madeline

Isaac Heller, formerly known as the Author and briefly known as the Peddler, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. He débuts in the sixteenth episode of the fourth season. He is portrayed by guest star Patrick Fischler.

Before First Curse
As a self-professed storyteller, Isaac becomes a television salesman, hoping to use his skill to boost consumer sales. One day, in December of 1966, he does a poor job at persuading a customer to buy a new television, so his boss must intervene to turn the situation around. After getting berated by his boss about his dismal customer skills, Isaac checks the mail pile and sees a letter from a book publishing company asking to see him. Once there, he unknowingly meets the Apprentice, who presents him with several pens on a table and asks him to pick one. Isaac chooses a quill, which glows to signify he is the next Author. Following a brief explanation about the Author's role, the Apprentice opens a door to another realm, intending to take Isaac there.

Upon accepting the job of Author, Isaac's responsibility is to record tales in a storybook with the quill as the many previous Authors before him have done. However, the one taboo is he cannot use the quill to write his own happy ending, which will result in his termination as Author.

Arriving in 1920s England, Isaac disguises himself as a newspaper reporter and interviews Madeline, a famous dog trainer, hoping to get a good story from her. Seeing three male portraits in her home, he inquiries if she is divorced or widowed by three husbands, as Madeline becomes frustrated at his callous questions and kicks him out. Before closing the door on him, she angrily suggests he should write his own story instead of prying into hers. When her daughter, Cruella, calls to him from the window and promises a story if he lets her out, Isaac uses his quill and ink to teleport a key to her windowsill. After sneaking out, Cruella asks him to take her somewhere "loud", and he brings her to a nightclub. There, Cruella reveals she's been kept captive by her mother, who poisoned her husbands. As Isaac writes, her favorite song comes on and she convinces him to dance with her. As the night draws to a close, she thanks him for the evening and kisses his cheek, which compels him to tell her about the quill and ink's powers. Isaac proposes they run away together, but when Cruella expresses fears about being caught by her mother, he gifts her with the power to manipulate animals. Before she can go with him, Cruella insists on facing her mother alone. After giving her his car keys, Isaac waits for her at the hotel, where Madeline reveals to him that Cruella murdered her husbands and she kept her daughter locked up to protect outsiders. Only when he sees his quill is missing, Isaac realizes she is right. He finds Cruella sewing, and with immense satisfaction she recounts using her power to make her mother's dogs kill Madeline before butchering the dogs to make her new coat. Realizing she used him, Isaac makes a grab for the quill and some paper. As Cruella wrestles away the ink, it spills on her face and hair, turning it black and white. Before she can fire her gun at him, Isaac cancels it out by writing, with the quill's ink, that she no longer can kill anyone ever again. As he leaves unharmed, she yells that they are not finished.

At some point, Isaac returns to the Enchanted Forest. After the sorceress Maleficent makes her nest inside a cave, laying an egg, and scorches all the land around her, Isaac escapes from this region and disguises himself as a peddler. When his wagon becomes stuck in the road, Snow White and Prince Charming assist him as they pass by. With plans for Maleficent's story involving the pair, Isaac redirects them to go east into the Infinite Forest to find the Apprentice so they will agree to a deal with him in order to rid their unborn child of darkness. To accomplish this, Isaac controls the Apprentice andthe Charmings into infusing a vessel, Maleficent's child, with darkness. After completing the awful task, the Apprentice angrily confronts the Author about his scheming ways. Isaac, currently in the midst of writing in the book with the quill, casually notes that he did it to make the story better. Believing his abuse of power has to end, the Apprentice entraps him inside the storybook's door illustration as punishment.

While entrapped in the book, Isaac loses his ability to change stories as he pleases, although he can still record tales.

Some time later, a mystic from Hong Kong, the Dragon, learns about the existence of the storybook and amasses research about the Author. After his death, August takes the research with him for his journey to Storybrooke.

After Second Curse
After being trapped in the door illustration for an unknown time, Isaac signals using a light through the door keyhole to shine on a table drawer in the Sorcerer's mansion, where Henry discovers a key. Later, Emma unlocks the door with the key and frees Isaac. Shocked, David and Mary Margaret recognize him as the "peddler" they once helped in the Enchanted Forest. Before Emma can ask him the questions she desperately wants answers to, Isaac pulls a curtain down on her and her parents, distracting them, as he races from the room and flees out of sight.

Escaping into the woods, Issac snaps a twig, attempting to fashion a magic quill out of it, until Mr. Gold unceremoniously tells him it won't work since the wood isn't from an enchanted tree. Unwilling to go with Mr. Gold, who Isaac deems the most troublesome person he has ever had to write about, he quickly changes his tune when the latter flashes him an actual magic quill. In exchange for safety, the Author agrees to write happy endings for him and others.

Holed up in the cabin, Isaac is met by Cruella, who threatens to kill him, although both of them know that's no longer possible given their past history. Despite this, Cruella departs, warning him that there are other ways around it. Later, Mr. Gold returns to confront him about his chat with Cruella. Isaac feigns ignorance at first, but then he cracks under pressure and begs Mr. Gold not to hurt him for lying. Conjuring his crystal ball, Mr. Gold admits Cruella is essential to his plans, as he reveals her desperation for Isaac's death has led her to kidnap Henry and force Emma to help her. Isaac is appalled he is going to allow Emma to kill him so she becomes dark, but Mr. Gold clarifies that he actually needs him alive, not dead. When questioned why he is working with Cruella, Mr. Gold explains that she is driven by vengeance and someone of that nature is easy to control. Prompted for the truth about what he did to Cruella, Isaac shows him the paper he wrote on long ago that cancelled her ability to ever kill anyone ever again. Later in the day, David and Mary Margaret storm the cabin to find out information about Emma. As he is thrown against a wall by David, Isaac blurts out he only wanted to protect the world from Cruella. After he provides the paper that proves Cruella is harmless, and the situation is Mr. Gold's ploy to make Emma dark, David and Mary Margaret rush off to stop their daughter. However, they are too late, as Emma kills Cruella to protect Henry.

In the aftermath, Isaac and Mr. Gold are the only ones to show up for Cruella's burial, where the Author reminisces about her and how she made him the man he is. Mr. Gold reminds him that they both have what they need to rewrite the book, but for now, they must keep Emma on the dark path if they wish to complete their mission. Later, Isaac steps into Mr. Gold's car after they learn Emma and Regina are leaving town to look for Maleficent's child. The Author is surprised Mr. Gold is letting them go, but the latter believes Emma will turn dark no matter what world she is in.

While trying food at the diner, Isaac and Mr. Gold are informed by a triumphant Hook that Emma is returning to town, but she has most definitely not gone dark. After the pirate leaves, Isaac considers their plans are going to fall through because the ink needs to be powered by Emma's darkness. As Mr. Gold's darkened heart affliction worsens, he and the Author return to the pawnshop, where Regina takes Isaac as well as the quill, intending to use both for her own happy ending. At Regina's vault, Isaac explains to her how the quill's ink must be taken from Emma's darkness. When she shows him the image of herself and Robin Hood, he recognizes it as an alternate story that he experimented on for another book. After much thinking, she realizes the darkness originally intended for Emma is already in Lily, leading her to steal blood from her for the ink. Regina takes Isaac to Zelena so he can write her out of existence, but she soon has a change of heart and backs out of the plan. Isaac then betrays her and uses the quill to write himself into returning to the pawnshop. Now severely weakened, Mr. Gold wastes no time and tells Isaac to start writing. As Isaac looks around for paper, Mr. Gold conjures an entirely new storybook, titled "Heroes and Villains", for him to write in. On the first page, Isaac begins the story with the line, "Once upon a time...".

In the pawnshop, Isaac suggests erasing Mr. Gold's memories of Baelfire, but the latter wants his memories rewritten so he remembers his son thinking of him as a hero. As soon as the words "The end" are written, everyone except Henry and Isaac are taken into the Heroes and Villains storybook to live out their new lives.

During Alternate Reality
Isaac gains fame in the Land Without Magic, where his own book, also titled Heroes and Villains, becomes a bestseller. During a book signing event, a fan gives him a "Long Live Regina" pin, before he is confronted by Henry and later coerced into revealing what he did to everyone else. Henry demands he reverse the stories, but Isaac cannot, since writing his own happy ending is the taboo which cost him the power of the quill. When Isaac riles him up further, Henry plunges the book key into a page in the storybook, causing both of them to fall into the story. Henry attempts to defend himself with a sword, but Isaac knocks him out. Tying the boy to an overturned carriage, Isaac tells him that the stories will become permanent once the bells chime at sunset. He then leaves Henry to be killed by an ogre; however, the Light One known as Rumplestiltskin saves him. Realizing the boy escaped, Isaac searches the woods, where he is caught in a net set by Queen Snow White's dwarves. Upon finding the "Long Live Regina" pin, they haul him to the Queen, who orders his execution. Moments before Prince Charming can sever his head, Isaac reveals he knows Snow White hates Regina for causing the death of her true love, James. Snow White then lets him go just as he informs her that Regina will rob from a royal carriage. She questions what he wants out of the situation, and Isaac asks her to kill both Regina and Henry. Paying a visit to Rumplestiltskin, Isaac mentions knowing details of his actual life before the alternate timeline, which the Light One does not remember, in which he was a coward and abandoned Baelfire. He threatens to reveal all this to everyone and ruin his happiness with Belle unless Rumplestiltskin kills Henry and stops Regina from interrupting Robin Hood's wedding. Isaac later attends Robin Hood's wedding to Zelena, which proceeds smoothly, while Regina is prevented from intervening because she takes a fatal blow that Rumplestiltskin meant for Henry. As Regina lays dying, the church bells chime, signaling Isaac's stories are about to become permanent forever. In a stroke of luck, Henry harnesses the quill, becoming the next Author, and uses Regina's blood as ink to restore everything to normal.

Before Third Curse
Finding himself in the pawnshop again, Isaac grabs Mr. Gold's car keys and tries to flee town, but David and Mary Margaret apprehend him. When they ask why he set them on a path and made them hurt Maleficent's child, Isaac admits his grudge wasn't against them, but the heroes they represented. Elaborating further, he reveals hating heroes like them because they reminded him of the various "heroes" he has encountered in life who have pushed him around. Isaac considers that writing them as villains was his chance to be a hero for once. Despite his intent, Mary Margaret suggests he became a villain since being one means making himself happy at the expense of others, but it's made him more unhappy. Eventually, Isaac is arrested.

Etymology

 * The name "Isaac" is of Hebrew origin and is derived from the Hebrew name "יִצְחָק" (Yitzchaq) which means "he laughs".

Character Notes

 * Issac mentions having a bar mitzvah; implying he is Jewish.
 * Isaac's Land Without Magic address is 968 East 14th Street, Brooklyn NY, 11230.

Production Notes

 * The casting call name for him was "Gorin".
 * He is described as a character who "comes across as well-intentioned but is actually a quick-witted, arrogant man with reckless impulses". The description also says he is set to "appear in both Fairy Tale Land and Storybrooke".
 * The role of the Author was offered directly to Patrick Fischler.
 * Isaac's address, 968 East 14th Street, Brooklyn NY, 11230, was the childhood home of Woody Allen. Show creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis were both inspired by Woody Allen at young ages.