The gates are open: Beyond the Gates Two Scoops for the week of February 24, 2025

Are y'all ready to go beyond the gates? This week's premiere of daytime's first one-hour soap to feature a predominantly Black cast introduced a biker mama who attempted roadkill to install her daughter in the house of an apparent former lover, a gay congressman with a secret that wasn't his sexual orientation, and a scorned gun toter of an ex-wife who made “hell hath no fury” seem like a mere suggestion! Let's unlock what happened inside and outside the gates of Fairmont Crest!

Dani's dilemma got the brightest spotlight in the premiere episodes of Beyond the Gates

U got the look

Before we get into characters and storylines coming from this new soap, how about we talk about the way this thing looks? We were told several times in the preview featurettes that ran last week that we would be treated to no less than 27 sets, and it's true: they're all gorgeous. For as opulent as anything connected to the main family of the Duprees is, more workaday locales like diner Orphey Gene's are equally impeccable but comfortable.

The production value overall is first-rate, and the unsung hero of any TV show or movie, the cinematography, really stands out. From the video quality to the camera angles, it's plain that a lot of thought and prep went into everything. But y'all don't wanna know about that. You wanna know who the characters are and why we should care about them!

The first couple of episodes were a bit of a slog in that we didn't really know who some characters were, by virtue of the fact that they were introduced without us being told what to call them. I found it an odd choice that not all names were slipped into initial conversations, which could easily have been done in natural ways. Plus, there was too much reliance on a dramatic tool that, too often than not, comes off as unnatural: exposition.

Exposition is when characters talk to each other about stuff they already know so that the audience can be clued in to events or traits. While exposition can be written in a way that doesn't feel forced, we mostly didn't start out with it being done that way. For example, Dupree matriarch and former recording artist Anita and her psychiatrist daughter Nicole spent their very first scenes not letting us know who they were, but going over how Nicole's sister Dani wasn't handling her divorce from Bill.

At Orphey Gene's, patriarch Vernon and his grandson Martin did talk about themselves, but largely by discussing Vernon's involvement in the civil rights movement in the 1970s, information that Martin, and certainly Vernon, having lived it, already knew. This was aided by a walk-on fan, Bessie, who filled in more blanks about Vernon's activism. It's tough to craft a pilot script, but the dialogue shouldn't sound like a tutorial.

Conversely, we met other characters through the preferable “show, don't tell” method. Example: hotshot lawyer Bill took on a client whose son was up on drug charges; Bill affably made the case go bye-bye but only by obligating the client to do Bill a solid sometime in the near future. See, that told us everything we needed to know about Bill in an organic way instead of feeling like we were at a lecture where we were required to take notes.

You down with OPP? Yeah you know me!

But indeed, the much-discoursed Dani clearly and immediately established herself as this sudser's main character. She threw coffee cups, slugged back vodka, and slugged Bill's fiancée, Hayley, all before Episode One's end credits rolled. And portrayer Karla Mosley (ex-Maya, B&B) proved herself a deserving standout as well. She got to express both rage and vulnerability with meatier material than she usually got hanging out at Forrester Creations.

Interestingly, Bill has been described by his family as cold, narcissistic, selfish, manipulative, etc. But he's not coming off that way. Yes, he broke off some hard truths for Dani over the course of the week, but nothing she didn't need to hear; Bill is very obviously not in love with Dani anymore, and the love he has for almost-bride Hayley seems quite sincere. He doesn't act like the arrogant mid-life crisis in designer shoes that he's made out to be.

Likewise, while anyone named Dupree has added a scarlet letter A to Hayley's wardrobe, Ms. Lawson does not at all seem like a vixen who set her sights on money and ingratiated herself to Naomi so she could steal Bill from Naomi's mother. Hayley had a miserable childhood yet appears grounded. Right now, it looks like Dani is the enemy s**t-stirrer and Bill and Hayley are her victims.

Now, the one thing I have to give Dani is that Bill buying a house for Hayley right down the street from Dani was not his best move. He claimed that Fairmont Crest had been his home for years, and the not-well-to-do Hayley deserved all that he could give her, but I agree with Dani that there are plenty of other places the new Hamiltons could live. Of course, it's a soap; Bill and Hayley have to be in Dani's close proximity. Anyone else getting Alexis/Blake/Krystle from the original Dynasty vibes from this trio? Because I sure am!

In my house

But wait! There are other characters besides Bill, Hayley, and Dani on this show! They just don't pop quite as much as that trio – yet. Dani's sister, Nicole, is much more sensible and gets flak from Dani for trying to talk her down off the ceiling. In her own life, Nicole is an award-winning shrink who met her love, plastic surgeon Ted, at a convention on Maui years ago. The Richardsons seem pretty stable...or not. More on that in a bit.

Ted and Nicole have a daughter, Kat, who we're told has a head for business but spends more time snapping selfies and livestreaming than she does breathing. She's got personality, though; I'm curious to see how she'll develop. More intriguing so far, at least through backstory, is photographer Andre, the nephew that Nicole and Ted took in after Andre's parents were killed in a plane crash.

Doing the math, Andre was a kid when he was orphaned, which can only mean the effect of that double trauma is going to reverberate into the present. Maybe that's why he doesn't stay in any one place long enough, or why, unlike his cuz Kat, he is averse to having his picture taken, much less posted anywhere on social media. Now, what, as they say, could be up with that?

Kat and her other cousin, Chelsea, want to go into business together designing purses. Alas, Chelsea is rather stuck – or feels that way – in a successful modeling career, doing shoots for Ebony magazine and all that. But ya gotta feel for Chels – her mom Dani is her manager; make that micromanager. Dani controls what Chelsea eats and how her hair looks and what shoes she wears. No wonder Chelsea is miserable and wants out.

Indeed, Dani gave up her own modeling career at 19 when she met and married Bill, and so the indicator here is that Dani cajoled Chelsea into also working the runway as a way of reliving her abandoned dream vicariously through her daughter. No pressure there, right, Chelsea? Conflict aside, the love sisters Chelsea and Naomi have for Dani is super real, as evidenced when they showed support for their struggling mother.

Then there's Vanessa, one of the few non-Black characters, but so far she seems a little boring. A realtor who is staunchly Team Dupree, she did eye-roll her best wishes to Hayley while handing the soon-to-be Mrs. Hamilton the keys to her Fairmont Crest manse. And she did heads-up the Duprees that Bill and Hayley would be moving into the neighborhood so they wouldn't hear the news somewhere else.

The juicy tidbit about Ms. Van is that she met up with an apparently rando dude at a restaurant, role playing and looking to move the action to a bedroom set. Then there was her flirtation with the trainer at Fairmont Crest's country club. Only thing? Vanessa's married to a Doug McBride. All we know about him is that he shadily handed some other dude a keycard, which didn't look good. I hope we'll soon study the dynamic between Vanessa and Doug and dig deeper into their stories.

That's what friends are for

While Dani's younger daughter Chelsea is flashy and does the social media influencer thing (and picks up strange guys in bars), Dani's older daughter Naomi is tamer and lives a quiet life as an attorney, like dad Bill. But it's always the quiet ones! We met Naomi as she was rolling around in bed with her detective husband Jacob – a feat so nice, they did it twice! And no joking about handcuffs, please, because they do use them.

The only major hiccup in Naomi's existence so far is her spat with Bill over marrying Hayley. Turns out it was Naomi who inadvertently started everything by befriending Hayley and having her meet the family. Naomi didn't count on her eventual BFF taking up with Bill, or Bill leaving Dani in the dust for her. Naomi feels responsible, but also hella betrayed, and she's got more Dani in her than appearances would have you believe.

Bill tried to make peace with his aggrieved daughter, but Naomi declared she didn't have a father anymore and wondered where his concern for her was when he was “unzipping [his] pants for Hayley.” Oh, yeah; Dani would be proud. Naomi's own marriage to Jacob (who has a father in the police force he considers an “arrogant jerk”) seems pretty stable, though, as does her part in what I would label the show's Fantastic Four.

They don't have superpowers, but they do have bestie powers: Jacob and Naomi are fast friends with two-year couple Ashley and Derek, whom they hang out with. Derek is a hunky firefighter who starts fires by serving breakfast with an apron over his muscled bod; Ashley is a newbie nurse who isn't sure she can hack it but does her best with compassion and grace.

Ashley got a lot more development in this first week than Derek, but they both are still a little bland so far. Is it awful to say that, as of now, it's mostly the non-Black characters that lack spark? I'm sure that'll change, though it's only right that the focus is on our Black denizens of D.C. Can I just say how awesome I think it is that we finally have a show that puts Black characters in the forefront? We only haven't had this since Generations went off the air in 1991. What took so long?

Because I already obviously have a crush on Derek (how can he be gorgeous but boy-next-door at the same time, not to mention so sincere in his love for Ashley? I need a Derek!), I know Andre cannot be making moves on his girl. To hear Andre tell it, he had a thing for Ashley until Derek “stole” her away. Not that Andre has let any grass grow under his feet, working in more locales than Taylor Swift's Eras Tour and basically having a girl in every port.

Even Ashley's new supervisor warned her that Andre was a player (what, did this news show up in the Enquirer?). Thankfully, Ashley only has eyes for Derek (me too), but Andre's eyes and other body parts are for everyone else, which worked out well for the rage-filled Dani. Andre cast his spell during Chelsea's photo shoot and got Dani to chill out, then he turned up the heat on her when she invited him to stay for a drink.

Hey – Dani needed it. She was simply crying out for the validation and compassion that Andre was showing her, before Andre showed her something else that she had basically been lacking in, that is. Good for her, and good for us; theirs was the hottest boot-knocking we've been treated to on the show to date. Dani didn't want to date, though; she didn't even want Bill to see Andre's car in her driveway. Lucky for Andre, he's got no strings to hold him down. Thank you, Disney.

Get UR freak on

Ashley had more visitors her first day at Garland Memorial than her patients did, which I'm surprised didn't get her in trouble. We met her mom Jan, plus their friends, the mother-and-daughter duo of Leslie and Eva Thomas. (Not that we got Leslie's name at first, but ya know.) And that all seemed innocuous – and warm – enough. The Thomas ladies hadn't known Ashley or Jan very long, but the friendship there felt real.

Leslie, tho. Whoo! She wasn't in the Richardsons' periphery at all; she just checked Ted out as he swaggered across the nurses' station. Then, completely unrelated, one of Nicole's assistants, the young Laura, was driving home with her jams up when she ended up ditching it because a motorcycle ran her off the road. And then the helmeted perpetrator took off their brain bucket...and revealed themselves to be Leslie! Ooh child!

What could possibly motivate Leslie to attempt to kill someone who had nothing to do with her? Random, right? Not really. Eva had been upset about what “they” had done to Leslie “years ago”, and whatever infraction had been infracted upon Leslie, Mama Thomas had a “plan” to make things right. I still didn't get it until Leslie called her friend Mona – Nicole's other assistant – and started planting seeds.

Oh! Of course! Mona needed to hire a temp to fill in the 6-8 weeks Laura would be recovering from a broken leg, and Leslie was going to place herself in the role to be close to Ted. But no! Leslie suggested Eva, who impressed Nicole during her interview and got the job. Leslie crowed that Eva was now going to be where she belonged...in her father's house! Like noh waaaaaay! Leslie is an absolute hoot, and I can't wait to see more of her machinations and just how deep her connection to Ted is.

The boy is mine

Congressman Martin may have started off only recounting Grampy Vernon's storied career as a senator and advocate for civil rights, but boy, did the layers start layering. It might have been easy to dismiss Martin basically condoning Dani's clocking of Hayley, saying there were times people deserved a punch in the face. But Martin seemed to have some anger and conflict in him, as relayed through his husband!

That's right, y'all! Inserted with no fanfare or sensationalizing, as normal as you please, Martin's spouse Smitty came padding down the stairs with a laundry basket (though we didn't get Smitty's name until his second appearance; the hell?). Martin and Smitty have two adopted children in teenagers Tyrell and Samantha, and Martin casually admitted that, like Tyrell, he was also secretive and moody at 17.

That might have been a throwaway line, except Smitty soon got into the subject of Martin having bad dreams – and indeed, Martin was later shown having a nightmare that included gun shots! Smitty worried that his hubby's subconscious was trying to deal with something Martin didn't want to remember, but Martin waved it away like it was yesterday's Bounce sheet. And even that could have been indicative of absolutely nothing.

It wasn't until Bill's unrelated act of pressuring the Duprees to attend his wedding so Hayley wouldn't be hurt by not having guests that whatever Martin's issue is began to have real weight. When Vernon told Anita about Bill prevailing upon him, Anita's kick-ass hair got even grayer as she realized they'd have to show up to the nuptials or else risk Bill finding out something or other about Martin. “We have to protect Martin at all costs!” Anita announced.

In the '80s or '90s, I would have said that Bill learning that Martin is gay would have put Martin's political career in jeopardy. But if Martin is in Congress and has both a husband and adopted children with that husband, Martin's sexual orientation would already be public knowledge, and therefore, that info can't be the threat. This seemed confirmed when Anita added that she and Vernon had vowed to “never speak about that night”, which implies that Martin did a bad, bad thing that he's completely blocked out.

The danger to Martin was so grave that the elder Duprees called their clan together and gave the order that they would all be attending Bill and Hayley's wedding...including Dani. Naturally, Dani, who had already endured the humiliation of the ceremony being at FC's country club and Bill moving his “child bride” into Dani's neighborhood, was as “hell no” as one can “hell no” — until Vernon appealed to her.

Vernon and Dani have a wonderful rapport, a really sweet father-daughter connection that brings out a light-heartedness in the usually heavy Dani. It was only because of this that Dani capitulated and assured her attendance, even though it left her feeling like the hits kept on coming when it came to Bill and Hayley. I can't say I blame her. Even though put-upon heroine Dani is emerging more as the show's villain, those around her really are doing her dirty.

Goin' to the chapel and we're...

Waking up next to Andre, Dani couldn't deny his assertion that their sex had been “mind bending,” but the rollicking night had impressed upon Dani even more that she still felt married. Dani's first altercation with Bill earlier in the week had seen her playing through the items on his desk with his golf club, brandishing it threateningly, and slapping him, but Dani went with a different approach for their second visit. She got real.

The ordinarily volatile Dani (a trait substantiated by her daughters Naomi and Chelsea) admitted that she had given everything to their marriage and still wanted it. She asked Bill to cancel the wedding and come home to her! She was willing to do the work to repair things and would even forgive him for his dalliance with Hayley. In fact, she would do all the work. And Bill seemed moved by this proposition.

The lawyer recalled how he'd met Dani at a party and how he'd been captivated by the way she ruled the room. Bill's reminiscences were full of tenderness, and Dani's walls began coming down. And just when it seemed Bill might actually dump Hayley and reunite with Dani...Bill told Dani that her reunion gambit smacked of desperation. He reminded her that he hadn't made her the bitter woman she claimed he did, that she was a grown woman with free will.

I was surprised, given Dani's established M.O. of the previous four opening episodes, that when Bill told her he had long been out of love with her and was happy to marry Hayley, she didn't bust a hotel room accent chair over his head. She did stomp out menacingly, and all I could think of was how Alexis reacted on Dynasty in 1986 when Blake similarly rebuffed her reconciliation overture. Writer/creator Michele Van Jean has been watchin' some old-school prime-time soaps!

Fuming, Dani stood on her chair in her giant walk-in closet (I had two apartments in SoCal smaller than that!) and pulled out a fancy zippered bag. The scene blurred and faded out as she opened it. Then, at the pre-wedding gathering with all the Duprees dressed in black (nice touch), Dani publicly said she couldn't let her ex's daughters face the new marriage alone but privately told Chelsea and Naomi that no matter what happened, Dani loved them.

If you're reading this, you're soap savvy enough – as I am – to sense that we were leading up to Dani livening up the wedding with some gunplay, especially as we kept seeing her clutch her clutch. Suspense went along with it, but with so much telegraphing coming in ahead of it, were we really going to go with the obvious conclusion that Dani was about to get some target practice with Bill and/or Hayley as the targets?

The party itself...again very much so Dynasty – in the best way – and a soap opera event par excellence, with multiple characters and overlapping developments as prevalent as their champagne flutes. Not for nothin', Dani continued to do her best Alexis Colby and threw her bubbly in Bill's face when he tried to apologize for coming down so hard on her in his hotel room. “Dahmn you, Blake! Dahmn you!”

Then we went around the circle of the building canvas. Vernon sassed that everyone was wearing black because the Duprees were finally burying Bill's influence over the family. Smitty took a phone call with him saying it was nice to be wanted but assured Martin he was the only guy for him. Vanessa got her first scene with her own husband, which indicated she and Doug rarely are able to spend time together.

Tom, the last major character to be namelessly introduced in the fourth episode, introduced himself to Kat as Tomás and wasted no time in asking Kat out on a date. She didn't look unintrigued. Bill had a somewhat confusing chat with Martin, offering the congressman his help and reminding him that he knew how to handle delicate situations. “I'm sorry, is that overkill?” Bill emphasized.

I say confusing because Vernon and Anita made it sound like Bill was totally in the dark about whatever Martin had done, but Bill's convo with Martin – and Martin's reaction – suggested that Bill already had something over him. Either way, Martin's darkening saga is turning out to be one of the more interesting ones, behind Dani's and Leslie's, that is.

I felt like it diluted the anticipation of the wedding for the scene to cut away to Leslie's glee over Eva being hired by Nicole (Eva had apparently lied and told the shrink that Leslie was her guardian, not her mother; wonder why?), and then to Andre going to see Ashley again, acting all smooth and whatnot. The nurse and the shutterbug got into the elevator, which seemed like much ado about nothing...until they got trapped in the lift, and the pregnant woman with them went into labor! Cliffhangers!

Of course, as you'd expect, the real cliffhanger was the wedding, befitting of the soap evolving before our eyes. Followed by her bestie and matron of honor, the Asian Caroline (more props to BTG for the breadth of their inclusion), Hayley came down the aisle wordlessly shocked that so many people were there – especially her nemeses the Duprees, who remained seated while everyone else stood; Bill had to motion Hayley to proceed with her procession.

As the preacher lady extolled the virtues of marriage and celebrated Hayley and Bill's imminent entry into it, the time naturally came where she asked for anyone who had an objection to speak now, and you know the rest. Well, guess who spoke? Answering the “does anyone” query with an icy “Me,” Dani whipped a gun out of her purse! Bill and Hayley backed away hurriedly! The gun went off! The screen went black! Screams rang out!

And that's Beyond the Gates' first Friday cliffhanger! But...it can't be. The lead-up made Dani going gun moll so predictable that it would have taken only one of the Hardy boys to figure it out. There was no mystery; it was on the nose. Which tells me that what we saw can't be what happened. Plus, why make tacit main character Dani a criminal before the soap's first week is even out?

We don't know much about Dani, but I wasn't seeing her as a killer. Besides, between threatening that she was going to make Bill as miserable as possible and warning Hayley that she would be so awful to her, Hayley would be calling U-Haul right away to move out of Fairmont Crest, it would seem Dani had a prolonged revenge in mind, not the instant gratification of killing Bill and Hayley in cold blood.

I would be willing to bet all the Best & Worst issues of Soap Opera Digest that I have – going back to 1994 – that, when we return on Monday, the shooting will all have been part of Dani's imagination, and the wedding will continue apace. Either that, or maybe Dani shot blanks as a way to taint the ceremony; still possibly illegal but at least not deadly. Because if BTG really goes the Annie Oakley route with Dani, it would be a serious misstep, and a potentially fatal one for a show trying to capture viewers with its innovation – soap viewers with decades of being able to prophesy plot twists who want something different.

Overall, I think Beyond the Gates is off to a good start. Some characters overshadow others, but they're all likable. The cast is talented, even the newbies – which I admit I worried they wouldn't be in the weeks running up to the premiere. As I mentioned, not identifying characters by name was a strange choice, and it might be too soon for our ladies to change their hairstyles from soap day to soap day, at least until we can recognize them no matter what kind of hair day they're having.

My final quibble is I find that some of the parents look too young to have children as old as they are, which was especially noticeable in the scene with Dani, Chelsea and Naomi. But I quibble. There's been enough compelling groundwork laid here that I definitely want to keep tuning in to see how the show solidifies over the next weeks and months. Every series has growing pains – remember how clunky Star Trek: The Next Generation started out and yet became hailed as a masterful show? Even my oft-mentioned Dynasty was pretty stilted in its first season until Alexis came along and changed the tone in the second! BTG is in good company.

What did you think of Beyond the Gates' first week, Scoopers? I really do wanna know what your verdicts are. Tell me what you loved and what you thought could be better in the comments below!

Stay tuned for the character profiles I'm working on that will help you keep track of all these new fictional folks. And make no mistake, history was made this week – congratulations to Michele Val Jean and the cast for the successful launch of this groundbreaking show! Until next we meet, my soapy reader, live your life beyond!

(Purchase Adam-Michael James' books on Amazon)

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