Beatings, slurs, and the pop quiz from hell 1923 is off to a brutal start. But did that Tiona scene go just a little bit too far? Who would've thought we'd ever be so afraid of soap? In the premiere of the Yellowstone spinoff 1923, this seemingly innocuous cleaning product contributes to one of the episode's most shocking, disturbing, and violent scenes. The moment in question sees Tiona Rainwater, a boarding school student, get asked to name the nine ingredients of soap by her strict religious teacher, Sister Mary.
Oil. Lie in water. What kind of eye? Any kind.
When Tiona can't recall the ingredients, the nun proceeds to beat her with a ruler, which prompts the student to spring from her chair and start throwing fists. Of course, it's easy to sympathize with Tiona here, as she's clearly being persecuted. The school isn't exactly enlightened when it comes to human rights, after all, and Taylor Sheridan's work never shies away from showcasing the uglier side of history.
Furthermore, the nun refers to Tiona as an animal in similar slurs, highlighting the mistreatment and prejudice that the girl faces at the religious institution. However, while many 1923 viewers sided with the boarding school students, they were still shocked by the violent nature of the scene. Following the episode, some fans took to social media to share their thoughts on the matter.
While the scene in question will go down in history as a polarizing one, it certainly got people talking. Unsurprisingly, many people hated the boarding school scene, but some people felt it was necessary in order to get the show's point across. Regardless of which side of the debate the social media users sided with, many of them agreed that the scene was unexpected.
One user wrote, The boarding school scene in 1923 probably should have had a trigger warning. This sentiment was shared by another user, who said,"'1923'giving me something I was truly not expecting in the scene when the nun gets absolutely rocked."Elsewhere, some viewers were disgusted by what they saw, and were quick to make their feelings known. One person said,"'1923'is a good reason I don't watch shows. Sick s—. Awful."On the flip side, some fans claimed that the scene was necessary in order to highlight the persecution faced by Native American students, especially during the time in which the show's story is set. One Twitter user said,"'Love'that 1923 has incorporated the Native perspective on the colonizing Catholic schools. It's hard to watch, but so impactful."From movies such as Wind River to the shows set in the Yellowstone universe, Taylor Sheridan has always tried to shed a light on indigenous characters. His work also highlights the displacement and mistreatment that Native Americans have faced throughout history, which obviously isn't pretty.
Unfortunately for viewers with queasy stomachs, this means having to sit through some truly disturbing sequences, such as the boarding school scenes in 1923. Indeed, the messed-up history of Native American boarding schools has been well-documented. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States government funded a program called the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, which was designed to assimilate Native children into American culture. That meant taking children from their parents and placing them in schools far away from their homes, where they were often beaten and abused by their teachers. 1923 is authentic in that regard. Sheridan's work has always been political, and 1923 is clearly no different.
The show is certainly disturbing in that sense, but it's also a great way to at times, but at the end of the day, that's more or less the whole point."