This week in television kicked off on Sunday with a fantastic season finale of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and quite possibly the most controversial episode yet of Game of Thrones. Monday and Tuesday featured a pair of ABC reality shows, as Dancing with the Stars crowned its champion (the very deserving Rumer Willis) and The Bachelorette aired a two-night season premiere. Wednesday night saw the end of David Letterman’s reign on The Late Show. And Saturday gave us one of the most emotional and shocking episodes of Orphan Black in the show’s three-year history.

While nothing on TV this week made me happier than Jake and Amy finally sharing a great kiss on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, there was nothing better than Paul’s final minutes on Orphan Black—even if they did break my heart in the process. After multiple seasons spent wondering where Paul’s allegiance lies and what’s behind his stoic facade, we learned the truth, and what a beautiful truth it was: Paul is a protector, and once he fell in love with Sarah she was always the one he tried the hardest to protect. He spent so long trying to help the Castor clones, but once he realized the truth of what was going on (and what a terrifying truth it was—planning to use their sexually-transmitted defect as a weapon and testing it on Sarah), he turned his fierce protective instinct toward the women who were harmed, especially Sarah. He was willing to die to destroy the science behind those experiments and protect Sarah and all the other women who could have been sterilized by the Castor clones.

Paul died a hero, and it was the most honorable death scene I’ve seen for a character in a long time. He died with love in his heart and a brave purpose filling his soul. All of his interactions with Sarah in this episode reminded me why I was once so captivated by their dynamic—because, in a world where Paul’s loyalties always seemed to be a mystery, his love for Sarah (which was never supposed to happen) became his primary motivating factor. It shouldn’t have surprised me to hear Paul tell Sarah that it wasn’t Beth he loved, but I was floored by his honesty in that moment. It was the most beautiful way imaginable for Paul to go out, and it was the perfect way for us to say goodbye to Dylan Bruce as an actor. His little smile after saying that line just about killed me.

This episode of Orphan Black showed us Paul’s heart, and it also showed us Mark’s. I loved the comparisons drawn between them in this episode. Mark’s honest confession that he loved Gracie perfectly paralleled Paul finally admitting to Sarah he loved her. And Mark’s desire to defy orders to avenge the pain he never meant to bring to Gracie humanized him in such a beautiful way. Both Mark and Paul were motivated by their love for women treated as pawns in Dr. Cody’s experiments, and I loved the way that connection was shown, especially in the final scene between them. Ari Millen absolutely destroyed me when Mark told Paul to make things right. The tears started then, and they didn’t stop until long after the final credits rolled. I was so sad to see Paul die, but his death scene honored his character and the actor who brought him to life with deep respect and understanding. But, of course, I wouldn’t expect anything less from Orphan Black.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

I apologize for being late with this post once again, but I needed the extra day to get caught up on Orphan Black (and I’m so glad that I waited to post this until I did). 

This week in television started off with a penultimate episode of Game of Thrones that was possibly a little too heavy on the action sequences but somehow managed to strike a good balance with plenty of strong (and especially tragic) character beats as well. Sunday also featured a Tony Awards ceremony filled with incredible performances and plenty of deserving winners. The rest of the week’s TV offerings included another round of auditions on So You Think You Can Dance and another hilariously entertaining episode of Hollywood Game Night. The sports world also offered plenty of excitement in the form of NHL and NBA Finals, World Cup soccer, and U.S. Open golf. And Saturday’s episode of Orphan Black was filled with the plot twists, character development, and phenomenal acting that has made this show one of my favorites on television.

It was easy for me to pick the best TV episode I watched this week (that title belongs to Saturday’s Orphan Black), but it was far more challenging to pick just one moment from that episode as the single greatest one. Instead, I’m going to cheat a little bit and say that the best thing I saw on TV this week was a pair of moments that reminded me exactly why Tatiana Maslany is the greatest actress on television right now.

Sometimes we all get so wrapped up in talking about Maslany’s ability to seamlessly shift between clones that we fail to mention the real reason she’s such a good actress: Even if she only played Alison or Helena or Sarah or Cosima, she would still be deserving of critical recognition. She makes us care about each character on their own. Yes, sometimes I sit back in awe of the quantity of roles she plays, but this week, I was reminded that her true gift is in the quality she brings to each role. Watching Maslany, as Sarah, sit at Kira’s bedside as her daughter’s bone marrow was taken to give to Cosima, I found myself crying harder than this show has ever made me cry before. There was such real fear, love, and self-loathing in Maslany’s performance, and it was all shown with a subtlety that only the best actors possess. In that one moment, I forgot that there were other roles she plays on this show. I was so caught up in Sarah’s genuine and grounded emotions that everything else fell away, which is a hard thing to achieve on a show with as many plots as this one.

While Sarah’s bedside vigil reminded me that Maslany has a gift for making me care about each clone independent of the others, her turn as Rachel impersonating Sarah reminded me that the thing that really sets her apart from any other actress is the way she links so many independent characters together. From the slight changes in Sarah’s accent to the tiniest differences in her posture and gait, Maslany used her gift for subtlety to reveal to those paying attention that it wasn’t Sarah going up to see her daughter. Rewatching it again after the twist was revealed, I noticed all of those quirks, but in the moment, I was left with such a delicious feeling of eerie anticipation and total surprise. No other show gets the kind of visceral reactions out of me that Orphan Black does, and so much of the credit for that has to go to Maslany.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

After a couple of weeks away from my regular television viewing schedule while I was in Disney World, I came back to a TV week that didn’t feature a whole lot of new material (in no small way because last Sunday was without a new Game of Thrones episode), but what it did feature was fabulous. Monday nights in the summer are nights I spend with The Bachelorette, and last Monday featured a sweet date between Andi and Eric, which was ultimately heartbreaking with the knowledge of his tragic death after he finished filming the show. On Wednesday, So You Think You Can Dance returned with its first series of audition episodes. (For any of you wondering, I’ll be starting my SYTYCD recaps when they pick the Top 20.) And on Saturday, Orphan Black featured one big twist after another, ending on a shocking note that I don’t think anyone saw coming.

There’s nothing like Orphan Black to shake up a relatively slow TV week. Saturday’s episode will probably be most remembered for how it ended, but that wasn’t my favorite thing about it. Instead, I was drawn to the relationship between two characters who are now intrinsically linked though they have never actually met: Cosima and Kira. Cosima’s disgust and anger at finding out that Kira’s stem cells were put into her body without her knowledge and consent powered the episode’s most emotional confrontation. To see the way this woman cares for and wants to protect this little girl she never met was incredible, and it made me love Cosima even more. And then when Kira overheard Sarah and Cal talking about Cosima’s need for another of Kira’s teeth, that brave little girl pulled out her own tooth to help her sick “aunt.” Kira is a special little girl (and one of my favorite children on television), but she’s not just special because she’s the child of a clone with special healing abilities. She’s special because she can understand things far beyond her years and can act with empathy and level-headedness that even the adults around her don’t seem to possess. More than ever, I need Kira to meet Cosima, but I just hope it’s not because Dyad gets their hands on that incredible little girl.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?