The Small Council: Who’s your pick for Best Actress in Season 4?

We’ve hit the big categories in this year’s WiCnet Awards. This week, our Small Council discusses Best Actress in Season 4.

Rowan Kaiser: Season 4 was a difficult year for Daenerys Targaryen, which meant a much higher degree of difficulty for Emilia Clarke. Her character progression tended to almost always leave her somewhere between “angry” or “curious,” which Clarke was quite good at depicting, but there was always a minor question of whether her character was limited, or her actress. That question was decisively resolved in the fourth season, though, as Dany rose to power, and had to deal with a far more complex world than her teenaged brain might have wanted.

Over the course of the season, Dany discovered that power and revolution, while useful, weren’t sufficient. Halfway through, upon discovering that freeing the people of Slaver’s Bay hasn’t led to happier societies, she decides to settle down and rule, instantly creating a situation requiring portrayals of wisdom, care, and subtler forms of power….

All three are on display in her scenes where she compromises with the citizens of Meereen. With both the former slave and the aristocrat’s son, in a giant throne on the other side of the room, Clarke is forced to do so from distance, and succeeds. In fact, that effective use of poise is noticeable even earlier, as she watches Daario kill and humiliate the Champion of Meereen–in a few movements and expressions, she manages to convey imperious disdain, girlish amusement, and sexual attraction over his antics.

But the moment that gave Clarke my vote came in the season finale, as Dany chained her dragons. She was resolute and unflinching in her responsibility–and utterly heartbroken as well. That’s the complexity we need from one of the series’ most important characters, and Emilia Clarke is clearly up to the task.

Ani Bundel: Diana Rigg was only in three episodes this season, but her performance in them was instructive. In Season 3, she had a much easier time of it. Her role was Game of Thrones‘ answer to Maggie Smith on Downton Abbey: acerbic, witty, pointedly knowledgeable and perfectly willing to play the game from inside the parameters given. Queen of the one liners, she managed to make proclamations like “Here comes my cheese” both funny and meaningful.

This season was not such a cakewalk. Her character’s time was up–it was time to do what she was here to do. In the premiere, she had to play it straight. So her necklace dithering had to be a signal to us who knew what was coming without ever seeming like it was anything more than an old woman dottering on over what details she could control while concerned that her granddaughter’s marriage to an abusive monster was imminent.

“The Lion and the Rose” is one of the highlights of the season because of the Wedding Feast scene, and yet Rigg stayed out of the picture for most of it. Her big moment was for the ages though: “War is war, but killing a man at a wedding? Horrid.” The irony was delicious for those of us who knew, the line was merely another bon mot for those who didn’t.

Rigg’s hardest scene, though, was her swan-song. Hard for a number of reasons–the scene we saw had no basis in the books. We simply hear that Olenna has left the building, we do not see her beat the hasty retreat now that her plan has worked better than expected. (Remember, she only wanted to keep Margaery for being married to a monster. Bringing the Lannisters crashing down was icing on the cake.) This being TV, the show needed to spell out for us that Olenna was the murderer, forcing her to say things that her character probably wouldn’t have in real life. A couple of Unspoiled afterwards had to ask me if she was saying what they thought she was, which I chalk up to the subtlety of her performance.

But what really chalks Rigg’s performance up for me is how much of her I now see in Margaery since she left King’s Landing. Dormer’s character is following in her grandmother’s footsteps, and there are moments of calculation where I see Margaery’s think to herself “What would Grandmother say?” It’s a testament to both of their performances, and an acknowledgement that someone of Rigg’s caliber doesn’t just leave the show, before she goes, she makes sure leaves her mark.

Cameron White: Season 4 is a turning point for Arya Stark. After fleeing King’s Landing in the wake of her father’s beheading, she spends much of her time between various frying pans and fires (ironic since she is neither conventionally feminine nor a Targaryen) searching for a purpose in a world that has pulled the rug out from under her. What emerges from her spirit is a deadly weapon forged out of hardship, struggle, and chaos.

So it’s no surprise that Season 4 is also a turning point for Maisie Williams. Not that she’s ever been starved for good material, but this season pairs her with Rory McCann for an entire season of rough banter tempered by the black comedy of the characters’ respective situations. (A similar pairing of Gwendoline Christie and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau made for one of Season 3’s great storylines as well.) For much of the year, Maisie still has a sentimental streak running through her lines, compared to McCann’s blunt realism.

And then they reach the Eyrie.

There are a great number of ways to interpret Arya’s descent into mad laughter at the gates to her aunt’s humble yet foreboding abode, and it’s because of Maisie that we can do that. Is she laughing at the Hound’s misfortune, the fact that he can’t seem to find a lord or lady willing to pay Arya’s bounty? Is it the last gasp of optimism leaving her body as she realizes most-if-not-all of her family is dead and that she was a stone’s throw away from it all? Has traveling for so long without purpose simply taken its toll on her mental state? Maisie hits all of these interpretations and a few of her own, all without ever letting the laughter end.

Maisie has grown up so much since the show began, and that maturation has carried itself into her portrayal of Arya. When she stands over the Hound’s bleeding body, with that hard look in her face, I can’t help but be reminded of the cheeky girl who once showed up her brother Bran at archery, who playfully and carefully chased cats around the capitol city. Arya is not that little girl anymore, and as she stands on the deck of the ship carrying her to a new adventure at the end of “The Children”, I can’t help but get excited at what her future holds for her. From the look on Maisie’s face in that scene, I’d say she’s on the same page.

Rebecca Pahle: This season was a roller coaster ride for Cersei, and Lena Headey had a lot of places to take her character—the triumph of telling Tywin the truth about her relationship with Jaime, the loathing in her dealings with Margaery Tyrell, the quiet fear she feels about her daughter (“Everywhere in the world they hurt little girls”), the confident snark (“I want you to leave my presence”) and complete and utter emotional devastation of “The Lion and the Rose.” She never missed a beat, because she’s Lena Headey, and that’s how she rolls.

Every time my finger hovered over my trackpad, on the verge of voting for another character (OK, Gwendoline Christie. On the verge of voting for Gwendoline Christie. Being Podrick’s Obi-Wan, that scene with Arya, the ear bite!), what I ultimately came back to was “The Mountain and the Viper.” An odd choice, maybe, for making me pick Headey as best actress, as if memory serves she didn’t actually have any lines. And yet, her presence in the episode—sitting back, reacting to the almost-win and ultimate defeat of Oberyn and, by extension, her hated brother Tyrion—was one of the most memorable parts for me. She didn’t need to say anything. Her facial expressions are just that good. Who else could have been so powerful just sitting back and looking at things?

Yi Li: I watched the season premiere at a screening with hundreds in attendance, and when Arya dispatched Polliver in the final minutes of the episode, the horror was palpable in the air. She says to Polliver the same thing (“A fine little blade. Maybe I’ll pick my teeth with it”) that he did when he killed Lommy, and for a moment there, our sweet, lovable little Arya seemed just as terrifying as the men who’ve made her life a living hell these past few seasons. In the desolate moral landscape of Westeros, we fans of Arya would very much like to make her into the badass hero we could root for through thick and thin— the plucky girl whose sword quenches our thirst for vengeance and whose big heart warms ours. But Maisie Williams’ unflinching portrayal never lets us forget that Arya can’t be that girl. No one can.

We once watched Arya learn swordplay for the fun of it and admired her sense of justice, and now we must watch as Arya uses both in ways far more brutal than we could have ever imagined. The people Arya kills are the awful, even by Westerosi standards, but Williams never lets us forget that it’s just as awful that Arya grew up into the sort of person who could kill like that. “You’re learning,” the Hound notes, when she checks Rorge off her list, and Williams’ cold dispassion reminds us that sometimes, that’s a terrible shame.

Arya’s season begins with her killing one man on her list and ends with her sparing another and somehow, the latter is far more chilling. She’s learned that death isn’t just a punishment to be meted out vigilante-style, but that in this godforsaken place, it can be an act of mercy, too. And Arya Stark just hasn’t got room for mercy anymore.

As she turns her back on Westeros in the season’s final scene, she leaves behind something else, too: the hope of finding her family that’s sustained her thus far. But as I watched her sail into the distance to the strains of a surprisingly optimistic arrangement, I couldn’t help but feel a new appreciation for Williams and for the heroine Arya actually is. After three seasons at the mercy of her captors, she’s free while they’re all dead or wishing for death. After all this time chasing after the quickly shrinking list of remaining family members, Arya finds that maybe she doesn’t need anyone at all. Forget swords or crowns— now, that’s power.

Andrea Towers: From the very first episodes of Game of Thrones, I’ve yelled to the heavens about how much I love Lena Headey’s acting, the way she says so much with just her expressions, and how as Cersei Lannister, she perfectly straddles the fine line between someone who is cunningly evil but also desperately misunderstood. As we’ve gone through different seasons, I’ve found myself anticipating storylines and events specifically because I know I’ll be able to look forward to a spectacular performance.

Suffice it to say that I was particularly looking forward to Season 4  knowing the kinds of events we would get to witness–the Purple Wedding, Tyrion’s trial, Jaime’s return to King’s Landing, Margaery fully immersing herself in the world of the Lannisters….and given all of the moments this season, it probably seems cliche to use “The Lion And The Rose” when talking about what I consider a stand-out scene. Personally, I consider every episode Headey is in to be one that stands out, not only because of her acting but also because of what she adds to an already tense hour of television. Take the end of “The Lion And The Rose,” for example: even though I knew what was coming, I’d be lying if you said that I wasn’t affected as I watched the once-mighty queen fall apart. Cersei may be all hard edges, all anger and evil, but she’s also a mother who loves her son. Watching her break down over Joffrey’s body and seeing the resulting anger and fear when she realizes that Tyrion must be the cause of her son’s death was heartbreaking, emotional, and intense.

Cersei ran the gamut of emotions this season as she fought for her freedom, her pride, and her revenge, and when we watched that final scene in “The Children” where she tells Tywin the truth about Joffrey–where she admits her relationship with Jaime–it seemed like we were watching a culmination of everything Cersei had been through in ten episodes. No longer was this the woman who was sitting on the sidelines, pushed down by the men in her life. She was standing tall, and even though she wasn’t standing on the Iron Throne, or alongside her son as a Queen and ruler, we still felt that fire. We understood what she was fighting for, and why she made the decisions that she did throughout the season. As we look forward to Season 5, I find myself thinking that if Season 4 is any indication…well, we’re in for a hell of a ride.

Haven’t voted yet? It closes tomorrow, so here’s your chance!

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• Published on 12/07/2014 at 7:25 PM CDT
• Last updated on 12/07/2014 at 7:25 PM CDT