Let us be honest: Twitter/ X thrives on out-of-context clips. Various shows and movies have dedicated accounts and troll accounts that share random moments from their favorite episodes or scenes.
Netflix’s cult-favorite series, The OA, is the latest to join the “What’s happening here?” trend. An out-of-context scene featuring some cast members dancing in front of a school shooter is going viral.
But is the scene as silly as it seems? Or is something going on?
Twitter user @heyyitsjanea shared a puzzling video of teens and an adult performing a strange dance in front of an active shooter in a school cafeteria. This scene is from “The OA,” featuring Prairie, a blind character known as “The Original Angel,” who reemerges after seven years with restored sight. The series follows her mission, alongside four teens and a teacher, to rescue similarly vanished individuals. In a gripping moment at a school cafeteria, they execute “The Movements,” an enigmatic dance to summon an interdimensional portal and save everyone’s lives.
Explained: Why Is The OA School Shooting Scene Going Viral?
In a recent Twitter frenzy, user @heyyitsjanea reshared a perplexing video clip featuring what seemed to be a group of teens and an adult engaged in a peculiar dance.
The caption, “Y’all PLEASE come get me off this floor cause what is this???,” encapsulated the bewilderment viewers experienced upon witnessing the scene.
Fans of the show quickly identified the source and fervently defended its significance. But which show is it, and how can anyone support this weird interpretive dance?
The scene in question hails from the enigmatic and thought-provoking series “The OA.”
The show revolves around the character Prairie, also known as “The Original Angel,” a blind woman who miraculously regains her sight upon her return after being missing for seven years.
As she reintegrates into society, Prairie assembles a group of followers, consisting of four teens and a high school teacher, with a common mission: to rescue others who have vanished under similar circumstances.
Throughout the first season, a palpable undercurrent of darkness and violence gradually intensifies, culminating in a harrowing moment within the crowded school cafeteria.
In a heart-stopping turn of events, a shooter enters the scene, plunging everyone into a state of sheer terror with no clear course of action except to seek refuge under tables.
What ensues is the pivotal moment when Prairie’s followers, who also happen to be present in the cafeteria, begin performing what is known as “The Movements.”
To outsiders, such as those on Twitter, this bizarre sequence resembles an interpretative dance against a gunman—a sight that understandably perplexes viewers.
However, the entire season had been meticulously building towards this pivotal juncture. Prairie had been training her loyal companions to employ the Movements to summon an interdimensional portal capable of saving lives.
The shooter himself is left bewildered by the unexpected flash mob he encounters, and in a dramatic twist, he fires a shot at Prairie’s chest before being heroically tackled by a cafeteria worker.
In an astounding turn of events, the bizarre dance ultimately proves to be the catalyst for averting catastrophe, exemplifying the underlying theme of unity and transcendence.
Despite the controversy and criticism surrounding using dance to prevent disaster, the show’s creators, Brit Marling, and Zal Batmanglij, staunchly defend their creative choice.
Marling explained in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
“I think that the Movements felt like a call to returning to the body and other intelligences that we have abandoned that are possibly greater than the linear, rational thinking of the mind sometimes.”
So, she sees it as a primal and ancient form of communication that taps into something fundamental.
Marling also acknowledges that some of the performers initially found the concept laughable. But as they dedicated themselves to practicing the scene and mastering its choreography, they began to experience a profound transformation.
She said:
“By the time we were doing those movements for two or three months on end, something otherworldly starts to happen in your own body and starts to happen between people who are doing them.”
Overall, the dancing scene may continue bewildering those who encounter it out of context. Still, it stands as a testament to the show’s commitment to pushing creative boundaries and exploring the deeper realms of human connection.
“The OA” is streaming on Netflix.
What did you think of the viral dancing scene in the school cafeteria? Did you think it was funny? Or did it make sense in the context of the show?
Let us know your opinions in the comments below.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
