Manifestations of malice: Beyond the Gates Two Scoops for the week of May 26, 2025

Joey and Vanessa gave in to their passion on Beyond the Gates

Are y'all ready to go Beyond the Gates? This week, one Articulette seemed to carry more weight than two, Joey and Vanessa finally acted on weeks' worth of flirtation, Hayley announced that she is (probably) pregnant, and Martin's violent impulses popped up to pay Smitty a visit. Elsewhere in D.C., Leslie tried to fertilize the seeds she'd planted about Ted taking her back, and Kat and Eva separately got their hands on evidence that could land Leslie in the hoosegow for waylaying Laura! If you're ready for the drama, let's find out what happened inside and outside the gates of Fairmont Crest!

Won't you take me to Funkytown?

TIDE WATCH: 1

FEBREZE WATCH: 1 (2)

I can't quite decide if the bottle of Febreze that moved from Nicole's coffee table to her counter counts as one appearance or two! So I'll give y'all your own freedom to decide. In the meantime, over at the Dupree manse, Tracy raised such a stink that Anita probably wished she had some samples of Nicole's air freshener collection to make her home smell all flowery clean again.

Tracy seemed to go back and forth between showing softness to Anita and showing her a particular manicured finger. At one point, Tracy screamed that Anita was the “queen of Cabrini-Green!” (For those not in the know, Cabrini-Green, made famous in '70s sitcom Good Times, was a Chicago neighborhood of low-income apartment buildings partially paid for by the government, otherwise known as “the projects”; almost all of them have since been demolished.)

As the singers argued, and Anita tried to explain that she had fallen for the idea of breaking out as a solo act without really thinking about how it would affect Tracy and Sharon, Tracy referred to Dante Green, who I presume was their manager, as “the devil himself.” Based on that, I don't believe for a minute that this dispute is simply about Anita breaking off from the group. Dante did something. I know it.

My current working theory is that Dante assaulted Sharon, but Anita didn't know about it, leaving Tracy to support Sharon alone. Tracy telling Anita that she left at the worst possible time would seem to lend credence to this hypothesis. Plus, Sharon would not be this pissed unless something deeper happened besides The Articulettes breaking up. And this is a soap: former singers sparring over one member going solo is okay, but it doesn't generate high enough stakes to really bring the drama.

Anyway, having learned from Vernon that Anita had truly been missing Tracy, Tracy let her barriers down and not only agreed to do the reunion concert with Anita (though Vernon later mentioned a tour? When has this been anything but a one-off show?), she outright volunteered to work on Sharon on Anita's behalf. I hope this show does happen. The karaoke thing was slightly cringe, but a Supremes-like trio taking the stage again could be epic.

Anita later cried to Vernon that she had been ruthless in her career, yet they both acted like this was some kind of revelation. Hasn't Anita already been shown to be ruthless? Look how she decimated that charity by taking down the woman who had booted Dani off the board and creating her own organization just to put Dani at the head of it! Plus, all the talk from Bill, Leslie, and even Ted about the Duprees being cutthroat couldn't have come from nowhere.

Tracy met Sharon at Orphey Gene's, and Sharon was amenable until Tracy pointed out their album cover on the wall and their music on the jukebox. Sharon copped an attitude bigger than D.C. itself, so Tracy told her longtime friend to get over it. Like, move on already. Sharon hinted she might – if Anita showed sufficient remorse. And La Dupree may get her chance, because we left her with a scowling Sharon on her doorstep. Ish about ta git real!

Letter to my unborn

Hayley, who is finally able to go into the country club without being completely shunned by its wait staff, sat down to a meal with a chip on her shoulder. She was upset that her wedding had been interrupted and that her honeymoon had ended early. She felt shortchanged! I can understand her still having feelings about that, especially the former, but it just seemed odd that she was bringing this up now.

Maybe it was hormones, because she suddenly blurted out, surprise! She was pregnant! Didn't that just seem out of nowhere? I mean, I know she and Bill were trying to conceive on every available surface of their home, but I would have liked to have seen Hayley finding out for herself first before telling Bill. Though there's something to be said about it not being telegraphed seven ways to Sunday like some soaps do. (ahem*B&B*ahem)

Maybe there's a reason we were only given Hayley's word for it, but we'll get to that in a bit. First, Chelsea happened upon the scene and was ready to blow chunks in response to the fact that Hayley was going to give her a half-sib. Chels was so rude in scoffing that Hayley wouldn't know what it was like to be a child wanting her parents back together since she was an orphan that Bill actually stepped up and reprimanded her.

Chelsea's first move after leaving the club was to run straight to Dani with the news, which may not have been Chelsea's smartest action. I must give Dani credit for holding it together – at first. But she soon whipped out the tequila and prophesied that either Hayley wasn't pregnant by Bill or she wasn't pregnant at all. Well, growth isn't linear, is it? At least Dani made the effort before she completely backslid.

Dani made a beeline for the Hamiltons' abode and lobbed any number of accusations at Hayley. For her part, Hayley told Dani that if she didn't stop coming at her, she was going to regret it. I'd personally love to see that! Hayley has rather been lying down like a lamb where Dani is concerned. Dani's never going to stop unless Hayley puts a firm foot down with action. (Where's that restraining order she promised?)

However, to flip it...what if Dani is right? Hayley hasn't come across as nearly the minx the Dupree family has framed her as, but maybe the reason we didn't see Hayley get confirmation of being enceinte is because it isn't actually true after all. There was this moment when Hayley told Dani that she had guessed it – there was no baby! But ha ha ha, Hayley was just yanking Dani's chain. Or...was she?

Bill seemed to have a moment of doubt, but he quickly dismissed it and suggested that perhaps he and Hayley move out of Fairmont Crest. Interesting that he would bring it up! Of course, Hayley didn't want to be seen as having been run out of the gated community, and of course, we can't stop using this set. But it was a nice layer to have mentioned. What do you guys think – is Hayley expecting or faking?

I get so emotional baby

Smitty, here's my advice to you: go directly to divorce court, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Because Martin is losing it, plus he can't stop lying. Smitty finally got Martin to sit down long enough for him to tell his husband about Bill dropping hints about Martin having done something. And Martin's answer was that Bill was only trying to add investigative reporter Smitty to his corral in case Bill needed him.

Then Martin excused himself, saying he had to take care of some legislative congressman whatnot. Instead, he tracked Bill down to the country club and got in his face – publicly – about Bill having been so senseless as to drop bread crumbs regarding Martin that the curious Smitty was sure to find. Bill reminded Martin of his surroundings and taunted the hothead that he could easily lie his way out of things, since he had gotten good at doing that.

“Do you have a death wish?” Martin snapped. Whoa! I've been convinced from the beginning that Martin went out of his head and probably killed someone – which Bill obviously covered up – but for him to threaten Bill with witnesses around? Not very smart for an established politician. Bill backed this up by telling Martin that his impulsiveness never ended well. Run, Smitty, run!

And it might be “run, Martin, run!” as well, because the bearded fellow who had been surveilling Martin, and also Leslie, at Orphey Gene's a while back was out of his leather jacket and into Fairmont Crest wait staff attire. Rut-ro. Hayley, after having been summarily dismissed by Martin (and gotten her offer to resume a friendship with Naomi refused), came back to the table and mentioned that she was having a baby.

You know what they say about loose lips! In this case, Martin launched into sarcastic applause and trumpeted to any and all patrons that the Hamilton child would be “the prince of moral bankruptcy.” He might have done something horrible one night, but Bill had used it as a business opportunity! Then Martin slammed his hand on the table and warned Hayley to exit stage left before her kid turned out to be a bastard like Bill!

Bill rushed Martin and gave him a necklace of fingers! Oh, the humanity! But psyche – it was only a fantasy of Martin's. (GATES does good fantasies!) Martin simply congratulated Hayley and took his leave, but that he visualized a violent scenario at all – even if he was the recipient of it and not the one doling it out – is worrying. And in both daydream and reality, Beard Guy was watching. (How weird that Martin ended up including him in his imagination?)

Beard Guy checked his phone and followed Martin out of there, but that may be the least of Martin's worries. Because Smitty's no dummy and he easily found out that the vote Martin said he was attending wasn't even happening that day. And Martin was cheesed that Smitty found him out! At least Smitty took him to task for lying, but it's not Martin's first time being dishonest, and Smitty might want to reevaluate his marriage.

Even more so because, after Smitty got Martin to admit that he had gone to see Bill, Martin escalated in relaying how angry he was that Bill had tried to use his husband to get at him. Why, he could just...Martin gestured as if he were choking someone, and Smitty was visibly uncomfortable. Maybe Smitty better put his reporter hat on tight and find out what the hell Martin did before he ends up in a chokehold himself!

Never gonna get it

Pamela arranged for Dani to meet Adam, a cute divorcé who ran a jewelry company and whose idea of a date was to go shopping. A match made in Dani heaven, right? Nah, Dani wasn't into it. And when Pamela began making noise about how Dani needed to move on and stop living in Bill and Hayley Land (so true), Dani finally let it out – she was already seeing someone.

In fact, the terms used were Pamela saying Dani needed to get back on the horse and Dani saying she was enjoying her ride. Saucy! Also saucy was when Dani demanded that Pamela not open her mouth about it (because Dani didn't want Nicole to feel betrayed?), and Pammy cracked, “My mouth isn't the issue in this particular situation.” I see what y'all did there! Talk about Rated R in the afternoon!

Meanwhile, after the miserable Ted challenged playboy Andre to name one woman he had ever been even remotely serious about, Andre clapped back, “How about Dani?” Ted was surprised, and the show took care to remind audiences from both Ted and Dani's perspectives that, while Andre is Ted's nephew and Dani is Nicole's sister, there wasn't actually a blood tie between them.

Better than B&B, which purposely puts couples together because they have dubious family ties! As Andre described his growing friendship with Dani, and how he felt protective of her, Ted focused on Dani still not being over Bill and was concerned about Andre's feelings being stronger than hers. Andre intuited that Dani's emotions actually ran deeper, but allowed that he just might be the king of wishful thinking, thank you Go West.

As for Ted, he was at a loss for how to communicate his regret and love to Nicole, who wanted him dead (?) and had a moat of Duprees keeping him from gaining access to her. After advising Andre, Ted took the grand step of...sending Nicole flowers? Gee, you'd think that would have been the first weapon in Ted's conciliatory arsenal instead of waiting a whole month to try something so wispy.

The gesture made an impact on Nicole, though. Ted included a note that spoke of how he'd fallen for her as soon as they met on Maui, and how he had never stopped loving her, even now. Nicole took one of the Hawaiian flowers and tucked it behind her ear, echoing that meeting where she was wearing such a bloom. I'm guessing she liked the smell of that flower better than her ever-present Febreze! You may be in luck, Ted.

Inner city blues

Around town, Derek took Ashley out on his promised date, and Derek made the stumble of twice commenting how Ashley's world was “neat and tidy.” She called him on it, but he recovered by saying...he was making fun of himself. Sure, Derek. Sure. Ashley bought it, though, and conceded she was overcontrolling. In fact, if they agreed about everything, Ashley mused, they'd be “the most boring couple ever.”

“Wait, you mean we're not?” Derek replied good-naturedly. But dude! If a couple itself is acknowledging that they're boring through the pens of the script writers...well, it means even the show knows they're boring! And...they are. However, I will give Derek full marks for his insight that “Happiness has different blueprints for different people,” uttered when Ashley wondered if there was something wrong with their not going with the societal expectation of living together. You saved it, Derek!

In Teenville, Jessica came over to the Richardson-Smith condo, apparently without Tyrell knowing she was going to arrive. Jess approached Samantha – you know, the expert in love who has never been on a date – to ask what she should do about Tyrell, because she liked him. Sam asserted that Jessica would be “old and alone” if she waited for Tyrell to make a move, so Jessica took matters into her own lips.

After Tyrell accidentally found an associated riddle in her notebook that just happened to open the door to the subject (what would have happened if Ty hadn't seen it?), Jessica followed the charged cue between them and planted one on him, but good. And whaddaya know – Tyrell kissed a girl and he liked it. Until he didn't! Out of the clear blue, Tyrell decided that the popular Jessica was probably only setting him up for some new embarrassing photo the whole school would “clown” him over!

Jessica tried to explain herself, but her patience turned out to be pretty thin. She stalked out, nearly ran Smitty down in the process, and dubbed Tyrell “toxic, insecure trash!” Wow. I know teens have melodrama down to a science, but that was pretty extreme. Sounded like Jessica's cliquey, snotty side was coming out. Maybe Tyrell's better off without her after all. Sorry, Samantha. No insta-sis-in-law for you.

Joey and Vanessa had better luck – figuratively and literally – when Joe-Joe brought Van-Van to his casino for a game of poker. This was on the heels of Doug answering a call from Joey and intimating that Joey wanted him to settle his debt by letting him take Vanessa. Joey still hasn't had Doug beaten to a pulp? And what happened to all that shady business with Marcel and the police department?

Guess Mr. Armstrong has been solely concentrating on Vanessa, and it would seem, from having confessed to Doug about getting with other men, Vanessa gave herself permission to take the brakes off. And other things. First Van struck it big at the table, then she struck it big on the table, when Joey shuffled her, er, deck. The tension was pretty thick there. Even though Vanessa is awful, from a viewer perspective, it was time for it to rain.

Then there was this interesting scene with Doug and Dani drowning their sorrows at Uptown! This was only their second scene together – obviously Dani knows Doug through her friendship with Vanessa, but it's another character combo that felt fresh. I wonder if this was a random scene share, or if something is going to happen between these two? Not necessarily romantically. It's just got me curious.

Finally, Kat felt ganged up on because both Chelsea and Tomás felt that Kat was being way too hard on Eva, branding her Evil Eva and all. Tomás was bummed because Kat wanted to channel all her energies into nailing Eva, not getting to know him. Kat relented and asked him questions about himself – we learned that he likes fantasy romance novels and salsa dancing, plus he's a Big Brother to a kid named Ramón.

Kat joined in the revealing: she wasn't a spoiled rich kid; she had just learned to erect a wall around herself because being a peripheral Dupree had resulted in people wanting to know her and/or date her on the basis of that name. I still don't know how I feel about these two, but at least they took a big step this week. Remember, Kat, Tomás wants you to like him. He doesn't really care if you like Eva!

Have you seen her

Sometimes significant things happen on this show that...happen off-screen. Such was the case with Hayley (presumably) learning she was pregnant, and Kat suddenly getting a hold of hospital security footage showing Leslie-as-Lulu making her way into Laura's room just before Laura had her (also off-screen) heart attack. It made sense, though: Andre, working on his nearly-forgotten documentary, had obtained the clips for potential color in his project.

Too bad for Kat that Mona couldn't be absolutely sure Leslie was the star of the screenshot. But Jacob had gone to the other hospital that “Lulu” had supposedly transferred in from, and uncovered that no such nurse had actually worked there. Then, at Nicole's house, Kat was going through boxes of clothes to be donated to charity with Mona.

I was confused. From the nearly-new finery included, I assumed Kat was just giving away her own stuff; maybe Nicole was, too. (Used wedding dress, anyone?) But Kat examined one box and found a leather jacket she was rather keen on. Little big for her...but the real find turned out to be several pieces of paper in the pockets. And they all seemed to link Leslie to the time and place of Laura's “accident.”

Now, before I go on, how could Leslie be so stupid? If she wanted to pitch the jacket, why donate it to the very church she attends/attended? And even then, why didn't Leslie empty the pockets first? She's been so careful and water-muddying in covering her tracks, it seems amazingly careless for her to overlook the telltale receipts and parking ticket. Or amazingly cavalier in her thinking no one would care about them.

Kat linked the “Cherrie C.” listed on the coffee shop receipt to “Sherry Carter,” Leslie's guise when she first confronted Nicole on the hospital roof, remarking that baristas often spelled names wrong. (Nice touch, GATES! That happens all the time!) Mona agreed to help Kat follow up on their leads...and Nicole offered to join them. About time! Nicole has been far too into herself post-Ted, and she never even looked into her own suspicions about Laura's potassium spike, despite promising Laura she would.

Unbreak my heart

Leslie made another trip to Ted's hotel room...as a redhead? I couldn't tell if it was another of her parade of wigs or if she had legit dyed her hair. It wasn't obvious until she had her regular hair back on Friday's episode. Why do I even care about Leslie's tresses? Because so much has been made about her changing her look! That's usually part of her plots; this time, there didn't seem to be a reason for it.

Ms. Thomas toyed with Ted on multiple levels until she finally passed on that Eva had been wondering if they were ever going to get back together. Except...Eva never said that! Nay, it was more of Leslie's trickery, only it didn't work – Ted was so vehement in his rejection of Leslie that she dropped all pretense and profoundly asked, “Was there ever anything real between us, Ted?”

Leslie did not get the answer she wanted, but she did get some closure when Ted apologized to her for giving her false hope during their affair. Plus, he consented to stepping up to co-parent Eva with her. (Um, Eva's a grown-up?) This kind of cooperation was not what Kat expected when she arrived and saw Ted and Leslie together, and of course, Leslie tried to play it up like Ted was trying to get her into bed.

I half expect Leslie's mirror to talk back to her à la “Snow White,” it's become such a character within itself: “You are, my queen,” I can see it replying when Leslie coos, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the baddest of them all?” Leslie fell onto her couch and kicked her legs in the air with glee – it's no wonder I crowned portrayer Tricia Mann-Grant this week's GATES Performer of the Week.

Don't get caught

Now, what was that I was saying about Leslie being unusually careless? She got rid of the jacket she was wearing when she kamikazed Laura into a hospital bed, but for some strange reason she kept the gloves – and the helmet she had donned. Why? As a sort of trophy? And what possessed her to keep them in her apartment? After she unintentionally knocked the box containing the items off her closet shelf, she carried it to the living room and took the incriminating objects out of the mothballs.

Oh, Leslie honey, you slippin'. Because at that moment, Eva let herself in with the key she still had and saw Leslie gazing at the helmet. Eva shrewdly retreated and called for her mom from the outside – unfortunately for Eva, once Leslie let her in, she found the remainder of her belongings that she had stopped by to pick up unceremoniously stuffed into a heavy-duty garbage bag.

I'm surprised a box of Glad Bags wasn't sitting nearby! (Apparently, the scented versions featuring Gain and Febreze are Procter & Gamble products.) Leslie offered Eva the use of a box – if she brought it back. Cold-blooded! But Leslie's icy resolve melted in spots. Though she ordered Eva to go back to her rich family because they were better than her, Leslie couldn't stop tears from flowing.

It was good stuff. I don't recall ever seeing Leslie cry before – it made the scheming provocateur strangely human. But you don't teach your daughter how to deceive without having it bounce back on you. Although Eva had returned her key to Leslie at her demand, it turned out Eva had had a second key made, and she let herself into the apartment when mama wasn't home!

And, what, to Eva's wandering eyes should appear? Two gloves and a helmet, evidence to be clear! Eva slinked out of the pad with the telltale box, but you know what would be cool? How about if Eva took the stash to Kat, and they teamed up to take Leslie down together? That would be so wild. And they are half-sisters; it would go a long way toward establish that relationship, which I would assume will have to happen eventually.

This brings us to the end of another Two Scoops, D.C. Edition. How did the past four episodes of events strike you? (Note to CBS: stop pre-empting GATES! What did I tell you before about a new show needing for its momentum to not be interrupted?) Reveal all in the comments below. And, until next we meet, Scoopers, live your life beyond!

(Purchase Adam-Michael James' books on Amazon.)

(Listen to isletunes, AMJ's podcast featuring nothing but music from the artists of Prince Edward Island, Canada.)