Heroic actor of the week: Grant Gustin and Jesse L. Martin

This week’s installment of Heroic Actor Of The Week takes a look at not one but two actors who broke our hearts with their emotional offering in the latest episode of The Flash.

It’s that time of the week again, as we take some time to look back and appreciate the best performance(s) across superhero television over the past week (11/28). Last week’s Heroic Actor Of The Week was none other than Arrow‘s leading lady Katie Cassidy – who delivered a stunning performance as Earth-2’s Laurel Lance.

Having set the bar immensely high, we wondered who would dare to follow that. However, that didn’t stop some strong offerings rolling in this week from Supergirl‘s Melissa Benoist, The Flash‘s Sendhil Ramamurthy and Arrow‘s Willa Holland and Katherine McNamara.

However, while those were all incredible performances, there were two that stood out among the rest, meaning that, yes, for the first time ever, we have two Heroic Actors Of The Week.

Grant Gustin & Jesse L. Martin – The Flash

While we had anticipated that, at some point, our Heroic Actor Of The Week column would explore more than one performer (even more than one from the same show), we always imagined that it would be in two separate sections – one devoted to each amazing actor. What we didn’t expect, however, was for both of those performances to come from the very same scene.

Grant Gustin and Jesse L. Martin have always been two of The Flash‘s heaviest hitters when it comes to powerful moments, but they’re always at their best when they’re together. But not even a reputation like that could have prepared us for the moving scene that the two shared in the closing moments of this week’s episode “There Will Be Blood.”

In the payoff to a narrative that had been playing out through the whole episode, the final scene saw Martin’s Joe West finally break down after spending the majority of his screen-time this week telling others how they need to be strong for Barry because that’s what the Scarlet Speedster would want when he’s ultimately gone. Only in doing so, he realized just how much he was going to miss Barry too – and that finally got to him in the end.

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Martin made us wait for it too, having Joe exhibit a somewhat quiet anger as he recalled all the good that Barry had done during his time as The Flash, telling him what we already knew: It wasn’t fair that he had to pay the price of his life now. However, when Barry reminded him that he was the one who forged him into a hero long before he was a speedster, Joe (and us viewers) couldn’t hold back the tears anymore.

It’s hardly surprising to be honest, because every time Grant Gustin gets sentimental or emotional, we find ourselves reaching for the tissues. He’s just such a natural at it. You remember how he had us bawling in the Season 1 finale? That’s the kind of raw emotion he brought to the table here, building towards an outburst as Barry fondly remembered all of the things we was grateful for in his life.

That’s the thing about these two: They’re the best criers on the show. And once they lose it, we’re all off. But seeing them lose it together hit us in the feels much more than anything The Flash has given us in over two years. It was a moving scene that reminded us that, even in a world full of metahumans and anti-matter Crises, it’s these authentic moments that make the show what it is.

By the time that Barry was consoling his father-figure, we had all lost it, for this was a truly beautiful moment shared between a father and son.

Give them the awards. Give them all the awards.

The Flash airs on The CW on Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Come back next Sunday to find out who the next Heroic Actor Of The Week is!