Game Of Thrones Season 4: 10 Actors Who Knocked It Out The Park

8. Alfie Allen €“ Reek

On the subject of B-Team storylines, we can all agree that Alfie Allen didn't have the best time of it last year. Spending the majority of his season propped up on a flaying cross and acting as the foil for Iwan Rheon's psychotic monster shtick, Theon's arc was nothing but monotonous misery for the poor bloke. Being fair to the showrunners, this was a necessary evil €“ what happens to the Iron Prince is so unpleasant that even GRRM shied away from explicitly showing it, instead drip-feeding the reader with inferences and cutaways. However, television is a visual medium, and people will ask questions if a character disappeared for ages before coming back completely transformed. As such, we had to see what was happening to Theon, emasculations included. But now unfettered from season three's necessary set-up, Allen and Rheon (who himself enjoyed a much-improved season) were able to really get to grips with the twisted dynamics of their 'relationship.' and Allen played his part with aplomb. It helped that he had more to do but scream and beg for mercy, but his portrayal of a broken, traumatised husk of a man was superb, all glassy eyes, nervous tics and sheer, paralysing fear of disappointing his master. All this came to a head when he had to pretend to be the man he once was for the Ironborn at Moat Caitlin. Ignoring the fact that Allen's pulling off a superb piece of actor-ception (playing a character who's playing a character who's playing another character), the almost-immediate collapse of his Theon persona into panic-stricken quivering was a horribly arresting piece of TV.