Performer of the Week: Heather Headley
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THE PERFORMER | Heather Headley
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THE SHOW | Sweet Magnolias
THE EPISODE | “And a Star to Steer Her By” (July 20, 2023)
THE PERFORMANCE | Before we dive into this, we advise anyone who hasn’t seen Episode 6 of Sweet Magnolias‘ now-streaming third season to turn back. In addition to lavishing praise upon Headley for another spectactular turn as Helen Decatur, we’ll also be revealing some pretty major spoilers. You’ve been warned.
The sixth episode ends with Helen being told by her fiancé Ryan — the love of her life, the man for whom she’s given up more than he could possibly imagine — that he’s not the partner she deserves, and that he can’t stick around. He’s right about the first part, of course. Helen does deserve better. She deserves the world. Fans of the Netflix drama have known this from the jump, and if Mt. Helen didn’t erupt all over this poor excuse for a man, we would have leapt into the TV and done it ourselves.
Satisfaction and devastation rarely go hand in hand, but that’s the precise cocktail of emotions that Headley pours out in this unspeakably powerful moment. Fans have longed for someone to finally put Ryan in his place, but even after everything this couple has been through, we never could have foreseen the gravity of the moment until it was upon us.
In fact, it was more than a moment. It was a meal. An all-you-can-eat buffet of heartbreak, rage and regret served with a stunning presentation by a five-star performer.
You could pause this scene at any second, show the still frame to someone with no knowledge of the character, and they would still be able to hear Helen through the image. Her pain. Her grief. Her power. Headley is an absolute force of nature, summoning unimaginable strength even in her character’s weakest hour.
In the end, Headley left us feeling the same way Ryan left Helen — desperately struggling to compose ourselves as we fought through the stinging pain of what felt like a death.
Scroll down to see who scored Honorable Mention shout-outs this week…
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!
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