Beyond the Gates Recap for Tuesday, March 25, 2025: Bill got served and Martin defied his grandparents

Here's what happened on the March 25, 2025 episode of Beyond the Gates

On Beyond the Gates, Anita stared longingly at a photo of herself singing on stage. She was surprised to see the arriving Chelsea, knowing that her granddaughter had a meeting with Dani about the upcoming fashion show. Anita sensed that Chelsea was bristling at not having enough input in the event, but instead, Chelsea showed Anita a prototype of one of the purses she had designed. Anita was impressed and listened as Chelsea shared her dream of establishing a fashion house with Kat, but the elder Dupree wondered how Chelsea would be able to balance designing with modeling...until she realized that Chelsea meant to give up modeling – and that Dani didn't know about it yet.

Chelsea fretted that she sounded ungrateful, knowing that other girls would kill to be on the runway like her. Anita was amazed that Chelsea had gone from doodling as a child to the level of design talent she exhibited now. Chelsea recalled how she'd always had an affinity for clothes and had agreed with Dani that it indicated she was fated to model – at least until it had dawned on Chelsea that she was far more interested in the design and production side of fashion. She outlined how she and Kat had gone from talking about working together to making tangible plans, but Chelsea didn't know how to tell her mother.

Anita recommended that Chelsea do like she did with her: show Dani the designs. Chelsea knew she was Dani's last connection to the modeling world and hated to take that away, but Anita recalled how her own mother didn't want her to get into music and how she and Vernon hadn't wanted Dani to model. Anita proclaimed that Chelsea would be the third generation of Dupree women to strike out on her own – and, if Dani had a “dynamic reaction” (“She will,” Chelsea sighed), Anita and the fam would help talk Dani down. Chelsea decided to go and confront Dani before she lost her nerve.

At the country club, a server offered Dani a cocktail; she deferred to orange juice, but then asked for a splash of vodka to be added. Dani took a call from bestie Pamela and informed her that, despite their efforts to mask Dani's presence in the Hamiltons' living room, it had been discovered. Dani admitted that when Hayley had stormed into her house and reciprocated Dani damaging her wedding photo by breaking a picture frame of Dani's, Dani had been shaken.

Vernon stopped by Dani's table and wanted to talk about Bill and Hayley. “Bill and Hayley who?” Dani singsonged, but Vernon acknowledged it couldn't be easy for Dani to forget about her ex and his new wife. Vernon also had to admit that Dani had been a handful in recent days, but she was his handful; grandfather let granddaughter know that he was there for her if she needed him. Vernon was also proud that Dani was building her own legacy with Chelsea after having spent years building Bill's.

After Dani left, her “orange juice” came; not wanting to waste it, Vernon had a sip and quickly knew it wasn't just OJ. Dani returned for her beverage and took off, leaving Vernon worried. Dani met with the event planners, who cheered on her shotgun wedding “performance”. “Bill or the flowers?” Dani asked when the planners said “they” had deserved Dani's gunplay. “Both,” they replied, and everyone laughed. Dani intuited that the viral video of her outburst could ultimately help her brand.

Chelsea arrived and met the planners but tuned out, troubled, as Dani went over specs for the fashion show. Once alone, Dani regaled Chelsea with the pressures she was under but conceded that she loved every minute of it. Dani felt like a new woman. When Dani began talking about Chelsea building her own brand, Chelsea assumed that Dani had been told about her clothing and accessory line goals only to have Dani hand her a contract, making Chelsea the headliner representing a certain company for three years. Dani cheerfully gave Chelsea a pen to sign it, but Chelsea finally got out that she didn't want to model anymore.

While working on his child tax bill, Martin had a flashback seeming to involve police or traffic lights. For Smitty's sake, Martin wrote it off as frustration over not being able to get his figures to add up. The subject changed to the kids, and Smitty was concerned that Martin was missing the last moments of Tyrell and Samantha's childhoods over being buried in work. Martin insisted he needed to build his base, but Smitty reminded him he wasn't in an election year. When Smitty casually said it sounded like Martin wanted to run for higher office, Martin looked away and recalled Vernon warning him off of running for president during Nicole's awards gala.

Smitty stressed that Martin needed to know more of the details of their children's lives. Martin felt the future was more important – he wanted to do things that would make Smitty and the kids proud. Smitty wondered what Martin meant; Martin would only say he didn't have any immediate objectives. Martin turned things around on Smitty, saying that Smitty should hold off on going back to work if he was so worried about losing time with the kids. Smitty reminded Martin that they had agreed that both parents should be fulfilled.

Martin told Smitty that he wouldn't have made it as far without him and that his dreams included Smitty. When the former investigative reporter concurred but pointed out that he'd put his writing on hold for too long, Martin opined that perhaps fear stopped change. He then declared that fear would stop them no longer; they would get what they wanted in the present and the future.

Anita met Vernon for breakfast, where they discussed Dani and how her energies were no longer simply going toward reacting to Bill. Before Vernon could elaborate on how good the fashion show was for Dani, Anita stopped him and told him what Chelsea's plans were. Afterwards, Vernon had to admit that Chelsea had at least given her next move a lot of thought – unlike their other grandchild, Martin, who was heading straight into danger: he wanted to run for president. “No!” Anita contended. “Not now, not ever.”

The Duprees remembered how they'd wanted Martin out of politics “when all of this began” and how they'd come to realize that an abrupt resignation would have been suspicious. Anita shared Vernon's unease about the scrutiny Martin would endure; Vernon added that the secret was explosive enough to decimate Martin's life – and Smitty, Samantha, and Tyrell would all be collateral damage. Anita granted that Martin had been raised to follow his dreams, with Vernon saying there should have been a caveat: “Make no mistakes.”

Vernon relayed how Martin was confident he could keep his secret buried, but Anita found that impossible in this day and age and wondered how Martin could be so naïve. “Arrogant” was the descriptor Vernon preferred, and he decided he needed to be the one to head Martin off.

Smitty found Martin's new resolve sexy, but their kiss was interrupted by Vernon, who called demanding to see Martin right away. Cleaning up after Martin later, Smitty found Martin's phone and rushed off to the country club to deliver it to him.

Martin met with his grandparents; seeing their grim mood, he asked who had died. “Your career, if you even think about running for the presidency,” Anita hissed. Realizing Anita had been brought up to speed, Martin expressed his certainty that he could control the flow of information about his secret. Vernon stipulated that Martin wouldn't be able to prevent an opponent from spending millions to dig up dirt on him. Anita whispered that there were people who knew what Martin was hiding and that “at least one of them cannot be trusted.”

Vernon pleaded with Martin to let that particular ambition go. Martin became agitated, not appreciating his grandparents' attempt to quash the dream they had instilled in him. Vernon laundry listed a historical group of people who had had an impact on the world far greater than anyone in the Oval Office, including Martin Luther King, Jr., whom Martin had been named after. Anita pushed Martin toward causes and/or foundations through which Martin could make lives better, which she and Vernon would support. Martin called it throwing money at the problem, with him as the problem; he believed Anita and Vernon didn't consider him presidential material. Smitty, coming in with Martin's phone, overheard Martin's intentions and ducked back out.

Vernon didn't like Martin's tone, but Martin decried not having his grandparents' blessing, telling them they could still sleep in the Lincoln bedroom during visits before leaving in a huff. “That went well,” Anita deadpanned as she and Vernon drank their coffee.

Martin returned home looking for his phone, which Smitty came in holding up. Smitty relayed how he had tried to bring it to Martin at the country club; Martin figured they must have just missed each other. Smitty revealed he must have missed something else where Martin was concerned. “Now who's withholding career plans, Mr. President?” the peeved Smitty asked.

Partners Bill and Mike settled into a meeting about a case, with Tomás asked to sit in. Mike told a dirty joke; Bill scolded, “We talked about this,” adding that their female partners and employees wouldn't find Mike's humor funny. Mike went on to bring up naked models and protested when Bill and Tomás again took exception. Bill didn't care what Mike did off the clock but didn't want any stories about the “aging bad boy” coming back to him. Mike found Bill's stance hypocritical since his live-streamed, weapons-grade wedding had generated its own heightened share of negative publicity.

Mike promised he could be good, though that was difficult around certain women who could “test a man's resolve” – like Hayley. Bill blew up, warning that if Mike said anything else similar about Hayley, Mike would find himself “on the other side of that window dangling by your ankles.” Mike scoffed that Bill was getting as heavy as “those mandatory HR seminars” and found it ironic that Bill was schooling him on what was appropriate in the workplace after marrying an employee. Mike missed the old Bill and found the new one “sensitive”; unable to keep other untoward things from coming out of his mouth, Mike excused himself.

Bill apologized to Tomás on Mike's behalf, remarking that if Mike wasn't so successful in court, Bill would have already bought Mike out. Bill added that he wasn't sensitive; Tomás deemed Bill a man in love and snarked that it wasn't his place to say what Mike was. Bill was angry that Mike had been out of line and determined not to let anyone disrespect Hayley.

Talk turned to how Bill and Naomi used to try cases over dinner; Bill had been wowed by Naomi's brilliance. Tomás remembered how Naomi had long looked up to Bill, who had wanted to bring Naomi into the firm. Bill regretted how distant he'd become from both of his daughters, telling Tomás that Chelsea showed glimmers of coming around while Naomi had declared him dead. Bill flashed back to the conversation he'd had with Naomi before the wedding, during which she had told him as much.

The women who had been sexually harassed by Mike met with Naomi at Orphey Gene's and told her they'd decided not to have Naomi file the suit after all. They still wanted justice, but they didn't want to pit Naomi against her dad and could tell that Naomi had doubts. Naomi confessed that she had, but because she knew how to take Bill down, she was ready to take on the case if the ladies wanted her to. One of them said Naomi would have to be a shark; Naomi said she'd seen Jaws a trillion times because it was Bill's favorite film. Another woman sarcastically thought Bill identified with the shark.

Naomi assured the victims that they were wrongly fired and deserved damages, but alerted them that sexual harassment cases could be brutal – they would have to go into explicit detail about what Mike had done. They would also have to prove that Bill's firm overall knew about Mike's actions, but either ignored them or punished the women for broaching them. This meant that Naomi would have to put Bill on the stand as a defendant. She ascertained that her relationship with Bill would only become irretrievable if she won...which Naomi planned on doing. She got explicit consent from the women to put the wheels of justice in motion and was ready to serve Bill with the complaint.

Later, Naomi received a text from Bill, who told her he loved her. Naomi surprised Bill by showing up at his office, overhearing the tail end of a phone conversation with Hayley during which he told her she was the moon and the stars to him; this irritated Naomi. Before Naomi could state the purpose of her visit, Bill waxed nostalgic on how much Naomi meant to him and proposed repairing their relationship. Tomás entered, keeping Naomi from replying and stating that there was a problem. Tomás was followed by a process server, who handed Bill a summons. With Naomi watching, Bill was shocked to see her name on the document. “I thought you came to reconcile,” Bill professed, deflated. “And you're suing me?”

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