In “ISSUE #108” of Netflix’s Raising Dion, Dion’s been taken away from Nicole by BIONA. Can she free him? How’s Pat taking rejection? How many storm puns can I accidentally make? And yes, there’s big spoilers here, so turn back if you’re reading this but haven’t watched the show yet.
1. That Was Quick
Nicole storms into BIONA’s lobby demanding the return of her son, terrifying the employees, who seem largely unaware of what’s going on. Suzanne Wu cooly steps in, asking her to come to her office, where she explains Dion is safe in their examination rooms, basically implying Nicole should be grateful the government isn’t dissecting him on some black site. She refuses to give up their only sample of a mutated human until Nicole offers her Mark’s research on his transformation, which was a generous, and quickly made deal – she could’ve been advancing an evil corporate agenda there.
2. Calm Before the Storm
Crisis averted: Dion goes back to school, and Nicole resumes work, where she gets a promotion and really starts getting into her dance lessons with the charismatic Rashad during her lunch breaks – and despite the Crooked Man potentially showing up at their door, Charlotte accepts Nicole’s offer to move in with them and be officially signed up with the school as one of the boys’s guardians. Some might call it padding, and to be fair while Netflix could’ve ordered eight episodes with an extended finale, it reminds us of this life Nicole has built without Mark, and how much she stands to potentially lose.
3. Goofy Effects Strike Again
While at school, Dion suddenly decides to use his powers to help Esperanza walk, but this attempt to “help” her backfires, with her demanding he stop it. On the way back home, Charlotte – who observed the incident under her invisibility shield – has to reiterate that you shouldn’t see disabled people as suffering souls in need of a cure. Unfortunately, this important message about seeing disabled people as they are, and not a real person “hidden” underneath their disabilities, is marred by some truly terrible sub-Nickelodeon or Disney Channel effects of Esperanza floating, which are composited far too cleanly onto the footage of the empty classroom – it’s something that they should’ve waited until a budget increase next season to explore.
4. Meltdown
There’s an implicit loss of trust between Nicole and Pat, between his falling in love with her, and the possibility he may be blackmailed into spying on her by his boss at BIONA. He becomes withdrawn, child-like and then childish, starting an argument with Nicole after he spies on her at work over her relationship with Rashad, accusing of her of having manipulated his feelings to get him to help her and Dion. (Excuse me? You didn’t like her when you met her and you did it for Dion.) It’s frightening and disturbing, so much so Nicole orders him to stay away and calls Charlotte to let her know – you really wonder if there’s any coming back from this.
5. Genuinely Blindsided
Charlotte introduces herself to Pat and explains he’s not allowed to see Dion. After some shoving, yelling, and electric jabs, Pat drops what could be my favorite TV bombshell of 2019:
“I should have killed you in New Orleans.”
That’s right, Pat is the Crooked Man. I think the twist shocked me even more having spaced out watching the series, and got internally used to thinking of Pat as Nicole and Dion’s sidekick, but also because I’d gotten used to years of pointless arguments between heroes and sidekicks on CW superhero shows. Furthermore, the show used the sympathy years of Hollywood depictions of white nerds had generated and used it against me: I have to applaud the show for becoming such a topical depiction of a nerd suffering from a severe case of entitlement, and I really have to reflect on why I didn’t see that he was the “angry” man of the title.
Gosh – I know this is a family show, but I feel like I got groomed. And yes, I stand by what I said about how good the twist is: this show is hardly DARK, but I didn’t spend two weeks on that thinking someone wasn’t someone else.
Continued belowBonus thoughts:
– Funny to think of Charlotte dodging and weaving around those kids at Dion’s school.
– You definitely feel like this episode was watch shot later: look at those shadows caused by the sunlight when Pat picks up Dion for school.
Well, see you all next time for our thoughts on the season finale – I’m on the edge of my seat for the final round, just waiting to press play on godfather vs. godson.
