With Friends Like These
Episode 4 of Raising Dion Season 2 begins with Nicole back home, being patched up by Kat. She’s been scratched but Suzanne is confident that it’s not deep so she shouldn’t be infected. Suzanne is taking drastic measures at BIONA though, deciding to take a team down to destroy and burn whatever is down in the sinkhole. Not only that, these sinkholes across the world seem to be hotspots where the Crooked Man has attacked, and Suzanne finally sees the direct link between the two. Nicole also lies to Dion too when he asks about the scratch. She claims she just fell over, deciding to try and shield him from the monster problem. She also tells Dion to stay inside for the time being, prompting him to ring Brayden and invite him over. Although to be honest, it’s not really explained why he doesn’t invite Jonathan or Esperanza over. Anyway, while he waits for the evil kid to show, Dion speaks to Esperanza about her real powers. It’s not invisibility after all, it’s very clearly her singing. I’s a beautiful chat but it’s soon interrupted by our Sith child showing up to ruin the day. At the school sinkhole, the team work to destroy the hole. For David though, he’s unhappy about this and urges Suzanne to stop and research what’s happening. Suzanne suggests he be suspended but in return, David reveals that Cutler is looking to replace her, which throws Suzanne off her game. As they talk, David opens up and breaks the news that this sinkhole actually has Crooked Man energy inside. At BIONA, Janelle loses control of her powers, leading to armed security with guns to show up. Things are blown completely out of proportion, and it’s Nicole who manages to step in and calm Janelle down. She’s definitely helping the teen, and it appears she has a knack of helping the Powered. In fact, she even sets up a safe space for Janelle to practice using her powers. While Tevin teaches Janelle, Nicole speaks to the girl’s mother who admits that everything started when a big explosion took place in the science lab. This is what started their road into become a Powered being. Nicole next heads off to speak to Pat in confidence. He admits that the Crooked Man uses its energy to feed on hatred and fear. But it seems like the sinkhole underground, on the site of the Civil War, could well be helping to channel its powers and make it grow stronger. Pat also deduces that Dion could be the key to curing this, given he’s “pure good”. However, Nicole’s arm begins to flare up, and as she removes her bandage, it’s clear to see that the scratch is most certainly infected. Brayden is obviously a bad influence and encourages Dion to break the rules. When Dion mentions what happened with his father, Brayden begins to doubt his own ties with this creature. However, the hatred is too strong and Brayden soon makes Dion use his powers against a couple of bullies, with Brayden finishing it off by using his mind control to let the pair fight each other. Brayden encourages Dion to do what he wants, and manages to cause a barking dog to double over and become docile. And NOW Dion realizes the kid is bad news. Finally. While Kat picks Dion up and takes him home, at BIONA Nicole is taken into quarantine. Elsewhere, Brayden is influenced by the Crooked Man, who encourages him to do the right thing and claims he has no friends other than him, feeding off the boy’s energy. As the episode closes out, those strange luminescent critters from the sinkhole begin to swarm and grow across town, infecting numerous different people.
The Episode Review
With the infection spreading and everything looking bleak for our characters, Raising Dion finally sees Dion understanding that Brayden is not the wholesome kid he thought he was. Took him long enough though! This second season seems to have taken its focus away from Nicole raising Dion (y’know, like the show’s title would lead you to believe) and become much more focused on the interpersonal drama between characters. The interesting part of this episode comes from the relationship between the Crooked Man and Brayden, which seems to hint that the pair aren’t completely in-sync and that could be crucial for the final fight ahead. Less interesting though is the romance between Tevin and Nicole, which doesn’t quite work. Either way though, Nicole is now infected and it appears that Dion may actually be the key to resolving all of this, especially if Pat is right about his influence.
