Here are a few adjectives used to describe the most offensive scenes from Season 2 of 1923: Gross, unnecessary, sadistic, grotesque, pointless, pornographic …

“Taylor Sheridan has now corrupted my mind,” says @beemuse8586 on YouTube.

“I feel violated,” adds @ehickey1202. “I am ashamed to even tell anyone I watch the show.”

“I really wanted to show my dad this show but after the Whitfield scenes …” adds @Jesus-rz8ik, underscoring the results of a 1923 fan poll.

“Whitfield” is Donald Whitfield, and there was a path to him becoming the greatest Yellowstone franchise villain of all time. Actor Timothy Dalton has been tremendous, and the slow squeeze his character has put on the Duttons has created an unavoidable tension throughout every scene. He’s seemingly always looming.

Unfortunately, Don met Lindy and Christie in Season 1, and now that’s all we’ll remember about him.

The phrase I like to use to describe Whitfield’s bedroom scenes is “beyond the pale.” During Season 1, he blew past kinky to sadistic. His behavior to start Season 2 found a new shade of dark that played along the edges of acceptable television.

Episode 6, “The Mountain Teeth of Monsters,” went too far. I’m not going to describe what happened in any detail (a bed and a pillory was involved), and I certainly won’t justify it. There simply had to be another way — a better way — to illustrate how cruel and perverse this man is. Had the action simply been left to our imaginations, instead of shoved down our throats, we may not even be here.

Fan attempts to explain the torture are desperate at best. Most give hope to a theory that Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn) will turn on Whitfield in the finale and that bearing witness to how he treated Christie and Mabel will be the straw that broke that camel’s back.

Even if that’s true, this plot line is unforgivable. Donald Whitfield’s bedroom scenes are a blot on an otherwise fine Western drama. They are what happens when one person’s vision goes unchecked and unchallenged.

I’m going to stop far short of criticizing writer Taylor Sheridan, because great creatives need to be able to work along the edges of acceptable, and we need to be forgiving when they go too far.

These scenes have a place in a horror film, or an arthouse thriller. There, people have signed up to be challenged by new and unsettling concepts.

1923 airs on Paramount+, which is one step away from CBS. Brutal killings, crude surgery, cursing, some degree or torture and the horrific truth of how Americans treated Native Americans are all fair game. Content that would be removed from Pornhub is not.

“Just no reason for the perverse scenes. I dread and hate them. Such a waste of film time,” says @CountryGram1324.

If you have not watched Ep. 6 yet, I recommend you skip head at the 12-minute mark until you get to Teonna at about 16:30.  You’ll come away with from this show with a much higher opinion.