Season one of Raising Dion follows single mother Nicole as she struggles with raising
her seven-year old son Dion following the death of her husband, Mark. Nicole not only has to
deal with the racial hardships of bringing up an African American child in today’s America,
but she also has the uniquely difficult task of raising a child who develops
superpowers. Dion begins developing abilities including telekinesis, teleportation,
levitation, invisibility, healing, and more. The seven-year old Dion sees these powers as
cool and fun and gives himself the superhero name The Mind Mover. Nicole sees these powers
for how dangerous they could be and turns to Mark’s best friend and colleague Pat for advice.
Several years before his death and Dion’s birth, Mark worked with Pat at the biotech company Biona,
run by Suzanne Wu. Mark and Pat traveled to Iceland to study the “Aurora Event”
which basically combined the Aurora Borealis with a meteor shower. While Pat stayed inside
the research yurt to monitor data from the event, Mark and onlookers who had traveled
from around the world stood outside to watch the event unfold. The event exposed everyone outside
to radiation that altered their DNA and gave them superpowers. These newly superpowered individuals
returned to their normal lives, unaware that Biona monitored and studied them, hoping to find a way
to reverse the necrosis caused by the radiation that would soon destroy all of Iceland. Even worse
is that the Aurora Event had also created an evil being known as the Crooked Man,
who took the form of a lightning storm, hunting and consuming the superpowered people from the
event. In the present, Nicole learns from a superpowered woman named Charlotte that Mark
had died saving her from the Crooked Man. The Crooked Man also attacks and consumes
a farmer named Walter, leaving Walter’s young superpowered son Brayden an orphan.
And so, throughout season one, Dion learns to hone his powers all the while Nicole tries
to protect him from the shady Biona and the villainous Crooked Man. Upon Pat’s suggestion,
Nicole gives Dion Mark’s watch as a way to focus his energy and more accurately control his powers.
When Pat takes Dion on a tour of Biona, they break into a top secret lab containing contaminated
animals from Iceland. Dion steals a hermit crab and heals a diseased fox, and later even helps
heal Pat from his migraines. The exhaustion eventually leads to Dion’s hospitalization,
where Biona takes him for further experimentation. Upon healing Dion,
Nicole trades Mark’s research on the Aurora Event to Biona to secure Dion’s release.
Pat has grown extremely close to Nicole throughout the season and begins to grow
unrequited romantic feelings for her. When Nicole rebukes his advances in order to remain friends,
the awkward Pat begins to grow more and more possessive and confronts Nicole. This
causes Nicole to refuse Pat from seeing Dion, a message she relays to her new friend Charlotte,
who was now serving as Dion’s superpowered mentor. When Pat ignores Nicole’s wishes and
shows up at her house, Charlotte intervenes and turns Pat away. This sends Pat over the edge,
who reveals himself to be the Crooked Man, absorbing Charlotte as Nicole and Dion flee.
It turns out, Pat had left the research yurt during the Aurora Event and instead of giving
him cool powers like everyone else, the radiation was killing him like it was killing Iceland. The
only way for Pat to survive was to absorb other superpowered individuals. He hadn’t meant to
absorb Mark, but when his best friend intervened to save Charlotte, Pat couldn’t stop his powers.
Now, Pat hoped that Dion would be able to use his powers to cure him. And if Nicole wouldn’t
allow Dion to try, Pat would have to force him to. And so, Pat pursues Nicole and Dion.
Dion, still a young child unaware of the severity of his situation,
teleports himself to his school’s science fair to present his project alongside his friends
Esperanza and Jonathan. Pat tracks Dion to the school and attacks. Dion, Nicole, Esperanza,
and Jonathan team up to fight the Crooked Man, and even receive an assist from Suzanne Wu and Biona.
Dion ultimately defeats the Crooked Man, and the spirit-like energy from all of his absorbed
victims are freed as the villain escapes. The spirit-form of Mark visits his wife and son,
warning them that the Crooked Man was still out there. Dion assured his father that if the
Crooked Man was still alive, then so was Mark, and Dion would find a way to bring him back for good.
As the season comes to a close, we see that Mark’s warning was right,
as the Crooked Man has possessed Brayden, who kills his aunt and leaves his family’s farm,
seemingly on a path to confront Dion.