On part six of Netflix’s Raising Dion, Dion has seen the Storm – or the Crooked Man as he takes to calling him – that took his father, and Nicole convinces Charlotte Tuck to teach him to protect himself. Leaving the two to train, she goes to meet with Pat, who’s finally allowed in BIONA’s Iceland research project, and figure out what else Mark was hiding.
1. Crooked Lego
Dion builds the Crooked Man out of Lego bricks to illustrate to his mother what he saw during the previous night/episode’s storm, but to complete the picture, he heats the ions around the sculpture to melt the blocks into something more evocative of the lightning that make up its body. Now I know more important and dramatic things are going on, what with Nicole realizing her son has seen the threat, but all I could think about is how expensive Lego sets are, and that Dion’s destroyed a perfectly good bunch that’s likely served him well for years, and would’ve for years to come – I imagine Nicole’s gonna have to remind him how he torched a lot of his Lego when he inevitably complains he hasn’t got enough later.
2. “No Bueno”
Dion excitedly greets Esperanza at the start of school, causing him to be mocked by Jonathan, who asks him if she’s his girlfriend. Dion retorts she’s his friend, not his girlfriend, and to grow up, which is a pretty mature, measured comeback: I like to think that is more powerful than if you were to answer with something as rude, because by sounding like a grown-up, you summon that authority adults have over children. Certainly Chris, the boy whose lead Jonathan follows, thinks it was a good burn, leading to their falling out during a science project. Mr. Fry reassigns Jonathan to work with Dion and Esperanza, something our dynamic duo agrees is not going to be good.
3. Little Pricks
Nicole convinces Charlotte to stay in Atlanta to teach her son how to evade the Crooked Man, just like she did. It’s pretty cool seeing Dion learn that his dad was a superhero, and wish we could be seeing more of these revelations from his perspective: branching storylines scripted from multiple point-of-views is certainly something Netflix ought to look into on its format.
Charlotte’s pretty abrasive, her flight from the Crooked Man having left her unable to contact friends and family; “she’s mean” as Dion says, and I think there’s a strong visual pun in her revealing her electrical abilities, which she uses to prick Dion while teaching him to master his teleportation skills. The strong visual storytelling continues when the apartment’s landlord goes to inspect the noise from the basement, and they literally become closer as they huddle together when she uses her invisibility power to hide them both.
4. The Room Where It Happens
(Nice Hamilton reference there, Pat.)
In an act of keeping her enemies closer, Suzanne Wu finally gives Pat access to the Iceland research project. We learn Mark started the project when he was trying to uncover what caused his abilities, and that there is something in the soil that caused the mutations received from the meteor shower/aurora event to be beneficial rather than cancerous: some of the land and animals in Iceland weren’t so lucky, and it’s causing a spreading devastation that BIONA is trying to counteract. It seems Dion’s healing abilities, which he demonstrated with the sick fox in “Issue #105,” would be the key to resolving this, but right now this is probably the seed for a second season, as it’s unlikely he’d be going to Iceland anytime soon.
5. Nicole’s Got a Crush – So Does Pat
Nicole’s beginning to move on from Mark, becoming attracted to Rashad, a hunky instructor at the dance class. Feeling inspired, she returns to the stage she once danced on in 2011 while it’s empty. The dance sequence here is much better than the flashback in the previous episode: there’s less cutting and backlighting obscuring that it is actually Alisha Wainwright doing her own choreography, and you really get to appreciate the hours she put in. Rashad greets her, and offers to help her regain her out-of-practice footing. I think despite his silly suggestion that she do this during her lunch break (after she’s eaten), it’s going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Continued belowLater, Nicole goes out with Pat to discuss what he’s learned while Charlotte trains Dion. They play pool (it turns out Nicole is better than Pat and Mark at that), have a drink, and come home drunkenly singing TLC’s “Waterfalls” before Pat wishes her goodnight – with a kiss on the lips. Suffice to say, Pat crossed the line, and Tessa was right to be suspicious of him – I don’t care how fluent he is in R&B, I wish he were dead or will make up for it by going out sacrificing his life for Dion and her.
Bonus thoughts:
– Dion clearly gets his dancing skills from his dad.
– Esperanza’s drawing of the Crooked Man looks a lot like classic Hulk villain Zzzax.
– Charlotte clarifies that everyone who went to Iceland’s powers are all based around ion manipulation.
– In a way, Charlotte’s invisible life, cut off from friends and family, likely means some part of her wishes the Crooked Man got her.
See you soon for my thoughts on “ISSUE #107,” as we witness the fallout of BIONA discovering Dion’s powers – say, didn’t that camera drone look a little Star Wars-y?
