Performer of the Week: Heather Headley

HONORABLE MENTION: Clayton Cardenas and JD Pardo 

Mayans MC‘s series finale was a harrowing, emotionally devastating affair — but it might not have been, had JD Pardo and Clayton Cardenas not committed so thoroughly to the anguish that EZ and Angel were experiencing. And that doesn’t just apply to EZ’s death scene: Earlier in the episode, Pardo and Cardenas brought a tender, aching sadness to the conversation where Angel revealed his plans to leave the club lifestyle behind. With just a few tearful glances, the actors summarized years of their characters’ complicated bond, which only made EZ’s eventual demise harder to stomach. Both Pardo and Cardenas — especially Cardenas, whose Angel was tasked with stabbing his own brother — dug deep to communicate the horror of the siblings’ forced goodbye, bringing Mayans‘ final episode to a compelling (if agonizing) climax.

HONORABLE MENTION: David Eigenberg

As Miranda’s spurned husband Steve on And Just Like That…, David Eigenberg has been moping silently in the background all season long, but he found his voice this week as Steve finally put his frustrations with Miranda’s dalliance into words. Steve was terse at first, but when Miranda pushed him to find a new place to live, he lashed out, pointedly reminding her that he remodeled their Brooklyn townhouse with his own two hands. “You never wanted me, and you never even wanted Brady!” he bellowed, Eigenberg’s voice quaking with emotion. It was a vicious tirade, but it showed how deeply hurt Steve was by Miranda’s betrayal, and Eigenberg’s long-simmering passion in that scene spoke for plenty of Sex and the City fans who think Miranda gave Steve a raw deal.    

HONORABLE MENTION: Sam Heughan

Outlander’s Jamie is no longer the impulsive young man he was when Claire first tended to his shoulder in the series premiere, and Sam Heughan beautifully conveyed his character’s growth and maturity during the Frasers’ cozy chat at the end of this week’s episode. Heughan took what, at first, seemed like a terribly of-the-times comment about how women aren’t cut out for war and made it a gentle, reverent thing: Awe clear on his face, he turned Jamie’s explanation about women being life-givers instead of life-takers into an ode to his extremely capable wife. When their talk turned to the imminent war, we were impressed by the way Heughan layered Jamie’s regret about having to shoot at young men in the prime of their life and his certainty that he’d do so to save his own — a rich, restrained performance on par with the actor’s best.

Which performance(s) knocked your socks off this week? Tell us in Comments!