Who You Are
Episode 8 of Raising Dion starts with a whole army of infected swamp creatures lurking about and following Brayden’s lead in the field. As they all stand together, egging him on to fight, Nicole speaks to Dion. Dion eventually opens up about Brayden and the pair decide to face him together. Just before they do though, Dion heads off to give Esperanza words of encouragement before her big gig, telling her about Brayden. It’s all up to Esperanza to keep everyone inside and entertained, and that comes from her singing her heart out.
What happens to Pat? Does he die?
At the hospital, the doctors struggle to try and save Pat. It turns out the Powered DNA is competing for dominance and he may well be dying. For David though, he doesn’t care about Pat and instead, is more interested in the outcome of the DNA once everything settles down. Basically, David wants to monetize his powers and make a tidy profit. After being refused by the board, he takes drastic measures and when Pat passes away, he organizes for samples to be taken from his body. Some time passes, and Pat inexplicably awakens again. It turns out he has the power to heal his own body. With electrical powers and a big chip on his shoulder too, he hits out at Suzanne for locking him up and betraying him. Those powers aren’t all he has either. Pat also has telekinesis and explosive capabilities, which he puts into good use to escape from BIONA.
What happens during the final fight? Is Brayden stopped?
Outside in the field, Dion and Nicole approach Brayden. The pair are joined by Tevin, who manages to use his forcefield to hold back the monsters. Suddenly, a brilliant bright light in the sky appears and swirls down to the ground. It’s Janelle! Somehow she manages to materialize and dematerialize her own cells, and helps to turn the tide of battle. At least a little anyway. Brayden continues to manipulate Dion, throwing him off his game. Given he has the power to read his thoughts, Brayden has his infected hold everyone down. With electric sparks emanating from his fingers, he prepares to hit the killing blow. However, it’s Nicole who manages to talk him around. Nicole reveals his past and specifically about Brayden’s mother and her love for him. The darkness manages to fade from his eyes. As he steps forward to embrace Nicole, the Crooked Energy crawls away and into the Sinkhole.
How is the infection stopped?
Recovering from his injuries, Brayden confirms that the Crooked Energy is en-route to create more of the infected. The flowers are the key to the infection here so the gang deduce that if they could inject the serum into the flower, at the root cause of it all, it should stop the infection. So with all hope lost and everything resting on a precarious knife-edge, Dion takes the serum and heads into the sinkhole alone, preparing to inject the the flowers. The Crooked Energy continues to swirl in the air. Dion doesn’t let that stop him though and he injects the flower, which in turn cures everyone frim their infection.
What happened to the Crooked Energy? Where is it?
Thankfully they manage to do all of his just before Esperanza’s big singing number. And as she sings, the gang all gather together after having saved the day. However, the real Crooked Energy is actually with Pat. David’s attempts to persuade him over to his cause and monetize the Powered serum, fall on deaf ears. The Crooked Man returns once and for all, with Pat complete with the dark energy once again. Unfortunately, that looks set to be bad news for everyone.
How does Raising Dion Season 2 end?
We then skip forward two days later. Nicole isn’t dying after all, negating her whole video message for Dion and a lot of the drama these past few episodes. Kat remains determined to try and reverse Pat’s powers, working with BIONA to make that happen. Nicole encourages Dion to use his powers too, letting him grow up a bit, while Pat’s whereabouts are still unknown. At least until the post-credit sequence.
What happens during the post-credit sequence?
Just outside Atlanta, we skip forward in time to find a much older Pat with a whole army ready to follow him. It’s hinted that they all have powers too but that’s unclear from the shots we receive. A hero called Mind Mover shows up and decides to stop them. And this appears to be a much-older Dion, given the costume looks similar to what he’s been sketching. What does this mean for the future?
The Episode Review
Raising Dion bows out with a conclusive chapter, one that uses the oldest trick in the book to say the day – love. Using a monologue of love to save Brayden and thwart the darkness is about as cliched as you can get in this genre. However, it appears the Crooked Energy has now infected Pat again and he’s back to his old tricks once more. That’s a bit of a shame if I’m honest, negating the whole redemptive arc this show was building up toward for much of the season. Likewise, Brayden’s ending just sorta… ends. It would have been nice to see him touch down in the future flashback alongside Dion (if that is him of course) and show that he’s managed to turn his life around. For now though, his fate is left unclear. Some of the subplots have been pretty poor though, especially Esperanza’s singing. Sure this is a nice inclusion but like I said in last episode’s recap, it has absolutely no effect on the main storyline whatsoever. It feels like a missed opportunity not to incorporate this into the mind control Brayden used, explaining how she managed to stop him controlling her rather than “I just didn’t listen.” This season has been rather contrived and it’s a shame there wasn’t more development in the relationship between Nicole and Dion. There have been glimmers here of the pair starting to grow, but mostly it’s been thwarted by the tepid romance between Tevin and Nicole. While not as strong as the first, this second season of Raising Dion has been pretty mediocre. Dropping on a Tuesday is an odd choice too. I’m not sure if that was done as a way of trying to rush it out the door before the heavy-hitting series and films over the weekends ahead, but either way, this has not been a season to remember. There’ certainly been potential but it feels untapped in a way. If this is renewed for a third season, hopefully it’s much stronger than this follow-up.
