Beyond the Gates Recap, April 18: Dani got an intriguing opportunity, and Joey targeted Vanessa

Here's what went down Friday, April 18, 2025 on Beyond the Gates when Chelsea resisted Kat's marketing idea, Joey took matters into his own hands, and Anita got wistful about her long-gone singing career.

What happened on Beyond the Gates?

On Beyond the Gates, Vanessa popped by Nicole's office with a bottle of wine to RSVP in person for Nicole's anniversary party. Nicole asked about Joey, joking that it couldn't be easy for Vanessa to find a house for a dead woman. Vanessa wrote off Joey's story as a fib, but Nicole replied, “Children fib – men lie.” Vanessa reluctantly explained how Joey's vanity had caused him to pretend the senior accessible home he'd been searching for wasn't for himself. Nicole called the excuse a load of bull, while Vanessa championed how Joey had opened up to her about his cheating wife.

Nicole wasn't surprised that Vanessa's heart had gone out to the casino owner; she called Joey's moves calculated and asked if he had done his opening up before or after getting caught in the lie about his mother. When Vanessa wouldn't specify, Nicole deduced that an “after” would indicate he was trying to deflect from his deception. The shrink had a hard time accepting that a realtor-client relationship would get so personal and asked straight out if Vanessa had feelings for Joey. Vanessa attempted to pivot, but finally admitted that she did.

Vanessa wouldn't describe her feelings as romantic – in fact, she was more excited by the idea of selling Joey his house. Nicole cautioned that Joey was powerful, and that power could be quite the aphrodisiac; Vanessa had her friend concerned when she talked about being turned on by how Joey had run his wife's side piece out of town. Nicole understood the appeal of the bad boy but didn't want Nicole to fulfill her unmet needs with a short-term relationship. Vanessa was adamant that she still cared for Doug, even if their marriage now lacked passion – and after her conversation with Shanice about Doug working himself too hard, Vanessa had come to share Shanice's disquiet.

At the casino, Joey cut off his own diatribe about the incompetence of his employees to grill Randy about Doug. Armstrong was sure that McBride couldn't have just quit gambling cold turkey. Randy was of the opinion that his friend had gotten his addiction under control, but Joey demanded that either “you get his ass back in that chair, or I do.” Randy tried to convey to Joey that Doug would be able to pay off his debt with all the surgeries Doug was performing – yet Joey wanted Doug to stay in the red...so Joey could get Doug's wife – more specifically, her real estate business, which would be the perfect money-laundering front.

With Doug in so deep, Joey told Randy, Doug would have to go to Vanessa, which would lead to Vanessa opening her books to Joey and giving him room to use her as a cover. Randy didn't think the scheme would work, since Doug would never bring Vanessa in to clean up his mess, and Vanessa wouldn't play along with Joey. However, Joey's counterargument was that Doug would have to work around Vanessa as part of his debt to him. Joey threatened Randy's ex and their child if Randy squealed about the game plan to Doug or Vanessa.

Doug approached Ashley at the nurses' station and asked her how much money she had on her. Shanice came down on the surgeon for playing “childish betting games” with the nurses; Doug pshawed that he'd won the hefty sum of $3.75 that day. Doug bet Ashley a quarter that he could get a ball of crumpled paper into a faraway wastebasket and he made it, boasting that he was on a lucky streak. Later, Doug confronted Shanice about her talking to Vanessa; Shanice let the doctor know she was troubled about him handling his overloaded schedule. Doug responded that he was doing what was best for everyone.

Randy tried to lure Doug back to the casino with a fancy bottle of scotch, but Doug held firm about having given up gambling. When Randy pushed, Doug realized that Joey was pulling the strings and insisted that he would repay Joey somehow on his own. After Doug hung up, his hand started shaking again. Meanwhile, Joey looped Randy in with his incompetent staff and decided to coerce Doug himself.

Doug lost a patient and took it out on the observing Ashley, who worked to convince the doc he had done nothing wrong. Shanice backed Ashley up by saying the deceased had been high-risk and waited too long to seek help. Doug's reaction to Shanice's consolation was to smash his fist into a station shelf, which caused Doug to break his hand. Shanice later apprised Doug that he would be unable to perform surgery until the bone healed and encouraged him to find the silver lining – he had been pushing himself too hard, and now he could recuperate. Upon seeing Doug's injury, Joey determined, “We have a problem, don't we?”

Naomi popped in on Anita, who was playing piano and harmonizing. They discussed Naomi's settled case, and Naomi confessed that while she had believed in the women who had hired her, she did indeed also file the suit to get back at Bill – a fact she had previously denied. Naomi had come to a place where she couldn't dispute that Bill was still her father; Anita was surprised to learn Naomi had surrendered the settlement's finalizing to a new attorney. When asked if she was disappointed, Anita instead expressed pride in Naomi and how she had stepped up. Naomi couldn't be sure if the experience had brought her and Bill closer together or driven them further apart; she surmised that they may be somewhere in the middle.

Seeing Naomi admiring a photo of her time in The Articulettes, Anita reminisced that the joy of those days weren't just from being young – it was how much she'd loved performing for an audience. One minute she and her friends were girls from the projects singing into their hairbrushes and the next, they were superstars. Anita rhapsodized about the elements coming together onstage and how each performance was a moment in time that could never be repeated. Anita had to admit she missed those times; Naomi wished she could have seen Anita and her group live. Anita declared that those days had been over for quite a long time.

Anita laid out the present-day fulfillment she had found with her charities and her family – which included making sure Dani “didn't self-immolate.” Naomi advocated for a family night out to distract Dani from herself – that night, at Uptown. Anita loved the idea and agreed to help make the arrangements, vowing the entire clan would be there.

Sitting at Uptown, Chelsea decided Samantha would be the perfect face for a teen purse line and counted Samantha's own social media following as a good omen. Kat reasoned that they'd be marketing a brand-new line with a brand-new face, but she planned to meet the challenge by bringing in someone Chelsea might not approve of: Dani, as their head of marketing. Chelsea had to agree that Dani did things all the way when she took something on, but that was also the problem. Given how demanding and controlling Dani was, Chelsea predicted that, if they worked together again, one of them would have to die.

Kat pitched that Dani's coarse qualities could work in their favor, but Chelsea didn't want Dani's vibe in her company and impressed upon her cousin that, while Dani never purposely tried to be mean, the constant criticism made Chelsea feel like a child. After finally being free, it was a door Chelsea didn't want to open again. Kat pointed out that Chelsea would be Dani's boss this time, not the other way around. Chelsea was not opposed to the idea of karmic payback and knew clients wouldn't be able to say no to her mother. Kat added that giving Dani something to focus on and having Samantha on the team would make the business a Dupree family project, which Kat labeled as “always lit.” Chelsea was still unsure but agreed to consider it.

Dani was about to pour herself a drink when she was interrupted by Pamela, who wanted to know how Dani was dealing with “the Chelsea situation.” Stone-faced, Dani said she had made the right decision for her daughter in letting her quit modeling and go into business for herself, but Pamela pried out of her that it was difficult to get back up after so many knockdown punches. Pamela had a proposal: she and Dani could start their own modeling agency, Curtis-Dupree. They would be an unbeatable combination, with Dani having managed Chelsea's career and Pamela having managed Dani's.

Intrigued by Pamela's suggestion, Dani conceded that she had once again felt alive on the runway during Chelsea's show. There was only one issue with Pamela's idea – Dani needed top billing; the agency would have to be Dupree-Curtis. Pamela asked if Dani was in – Dani promised to think about it and thanked her “ride-or-die” for lifting her up. After Pamela left, Dani ran right to the bottle, but Naomi called before she could pour from it. Naomi wanted her mom to arrive at the Duprees' dressed for a night at Uptown. Dani tried to refuse, which Naomi advised was not an option: the event she'd planned wasn't to buoy Dani, it was to buoy Anita.

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Once Dani arrived, mother and daughter had to agree that Anita would eighty-six the excursion if she knew it was organized for her. Anita caught Naomi and Dani trying to rehearse one of Anita's routines; Naomi lied that they had tried and failed to do a dance laid out in a viral challenge. Anita, thinking she was coming to Dani's aid, acted surprised by the idea of a night on the town and headed out, with Dani and Naomi high-fiving behind her.

Beyond the Gates airs weekdays on CBS and streams on Paramount Plus.

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