Season MVP Challenge: Who Is The Year's Best?

Jon Bernthal, The Walking Dead

Even though his character's death was the worst kept secret of the season, Bernthal's mixture of intensity and sadness during Shane's swan song was the beating heart of the back half of The Walking Dead's second season. Though it is easy to write off Shane as a loudmouth and a hothead, Bernthal's layered, tortured-soul performance always reminded viewers that whether Shane was sacrificing Otis or plotting to kill his best friend Rick, he was really doing it for only one reason: to protect Lori and Carl, the only people he had left to love.