The Tide is high: Beyond the Gates Two Scoops for the week of April 14, 2025

It was inevitable someone would have a pregnant pause on Beyond the Gates

Are y'all ready to go beyond the gates? This week #DrunkDani got two very cool lifelines – one she knows about and one she doesn't. Then, the deep-in-debt Doug broke one of his moneymaking hands (with the implication Joey might break other body parts) – plus, Naomi sayonara'd her way out of her case against Bill, and Tyrell got to see another way that his embarrassing picture developed. But who needs to wait for a commercial when you can get a commercial in the middle of your shows? Gather your “warsh” and let's find out what happened inside and outside the gates of Fairmont Crest!

A little bit of soap

Okay, it's not often I dole out a history lesson with my Two Scoops columns, but “school's in, sucka,” as MC Hammer once said. Take notes: The reason we call them soap operas is because, in the 1930s, radio started broadcasting serialized shows during the day. Naturally, housewives were home during that time, and therefore, they became the biggest audience of these programs.

So, advertisers thought, why not pitch products at these ladies that they would have use for? Procter & Gamble, which makes cleaning products we all grew up with and love, became the first – but not only – sponsor of these radio dramas, and P&G even got into the literal act by creating their own serials. The term “soap opera” showed up in major newspapers in 1940, and soon soap bubbles started popping up on that goshdarned newfangled device, television.

Faraway Hill was actually the first soap on TV, but the one you know is Guiding Light, which made the move from radio in 1952. And the rest is history. Now, let's be real – there's a reason it's called show business. Money's gotta keep flowing, and of course, a show's sponsors help make that happen. But this week, Beyond the Gates made its own history – at least to me – by casting its characters in inadvertent, in-story ads.

We had already seen Nicole spraying air freshener out of nowhere and reveling in its scent before she moved on to the actual story. She crossed into new territory, however, by name-dropping Febreze on Monday and telling Anita how much Kat loved it. I felt like the universe had just split in two. I mean, like...whaaaaat? I hadn't even fully recovered by Wednesday, when the afterglowing Jacob and Naomi spilled something chocolatey on a pillow. Oh, no! But don't worry, Naomi assured. That's why I bought Tide!

I think my jaw still hurts days later from where it hit the floor. Not only did the Hawthornes break into their story to rhapsodize about the laundry detergent, they basically had a three-way with it by virtue of a bottle hanging out in the basket at the foot of their bed. And, on Thursday, Smitty folded the wash with another bottle, making its presence known on a table.

I have two words. They are: “Ummmmm, no.” Look, again, I'm not naïve – ya gotta have sponsors. And, whereas shows used to slap tape over product labels to avoid their being identified, we've long since progressed to straight-up product placement. That's not even such a bad thing; it lends a strange realness to an otherwise fictional undertaking. It's just that GATES has gone too far with it now.

I've been informed it's not the only show to do this, but breaking the fourth wall with these ad hoc commercials is just not necessary. For one thing, it's jarring – it takes us out of the make-believe narrative we tune into these shows to see. For another, we're already up to 22 minutes of ads for each broadcast hour – that's 44%, nearly half. We don't need this kind of promotion eating up even more of our airtime. We just don't.

That opinion might be biting the hand that feeds to an extent, but I'm willing to make a compromise, Fairmont Crest. If y'all wanna show the products on camera, like with Nicole spraying and Smitty laundering, fine. I'm down. But please, no more having our fictitious folk waxing saponaceous (I just learned that word!) in the middle of an arc. Ironically, I right now actually am doing a load of wash with Tide, but only because they paid me – just kidding! (About the payola; I really am writing and doing laundry.)

Drunk in love

Remember last week when I found it odd/interesting that Dani suddenly wasn't drinking anymore? Well, girlfriend took me seriously, because after her father-daughter chat with Vernon (I am in love with their “Who's the best?” “Me” callback from the first episodes!) and her sociable appearance at Kat's B-Day bash, Dani ran right to her bottle and made slow, slow love to it.

We didn't have to hear about her wishing she were still modeling – we saw it, with her intoxicated working of an imaginary runway. Good thing the cameras weren't flashing, because first she lost her footing, then she fell on her couch, which was just when Andre, whom Dani had invited over earlier, arrived and witnessed her in her most recent stupor. He had to carry her to bed, but not in the way either of them would have liked.

When Dani woke up, full sobriety had not yet come to her, which was probably why she was so nasty when Andre got real and told her she couldn't keep destroying herself just because Bill had traded her in for Hayley. Andre took the insults, though, and cracked the bitchy façade just long enough for Dani to see that her sometime lover was right about her having lost her fire – and that it was still possible for her to get it back.

I keep sayin' it! You want fire? Dani and Andre are fire! Their relationship keeps deepening – friends with bennies or not, he really cares about her, and you can tell she is not unmoved by his support and presence. The 'Dre comes alive around Dani, even when she's at her worst – he didn't have a single scene with Ashley this week, and the character was so much better for it. At least Dani wants him, in some capacity.

Dani had at least three other opportunities this week to knock more vodka back, all interrupted. The main interrupter was Pamela, Dani's “ride-or-die” bestie (we know you are, Pammy; you don't have to keep saying you're ride-or-die), who we don't really know all that well. All My Children/As the World Turns veteran Cady McClain is legendary, but I don't think she's had much meat yet with this character.

That said, we did get another layer of backstory with her and Dani. Pamela had been Dani's manager when she was a model! Just like Dani was Chelsea's manager! So we now know these two go all the way back to when Dani was 17, and I calculate that as pushing 35 years ago. Plus, Pamela may not be aware that Dani is verging on making Smirnoff her middle name, but Ms. Curtis was clued in enough to realize that Dani needed a new attitude, like Patti LaBelle.

It was great that Dani had taken Andre seriously enough to reference his fire-replenishing concept, and it was one that Pamela jumped on. She proposed “Operation Gemstone” to get Dani shining again like the diamond she was. It would have been a cute idea without the follow-through, but two episodes later, Pamela made one helluva proposition: that she and Dani start a modeling agency together!

How did I not think of this? I've thought all along that Dani needed to model again (regains her identity, gives middle finger to ageism; win-win), but an agency keeps her in the thick of the vocation just as much. Dani and Pamela do have a world of experience between them, and Dani could control freak up-and-coming models all she wants, because they'd be paying her to do so! It's brilliant. I hope the show goes through with it!

A change is gonna come

As I've mentioned in previous columns, the saga of Naomi's lawsuit against Bill's firm on behalf of the three women sexually harassed by Mike has had some frustrating twists and turns. It went on and off like an old fluorescent bulb in need of changing. Naomi was strong, then she was indecisive. The scene had been set for a Naomi/Bill courtroom showdown, and all the dickering was watering down the suspense.

We began the week with Naomi calling Bill out for trying to circumvent their deposition date, and the horns were butting. At least, until Naomi asked about Bill's hand, which you may recall went numb a while back. We never found out exactly why, but it wore on Naomi, and, after a discussion with Jacob, she made what seemed to be a final decision: she was out. She went to Bill and told him she was out.

He didn't seem to accept the decision, and, as she later described it, he kept cross-examining her to get into motives. Ultimately, Naomi relented, brought up Bill's hand, and professed that their fractured but legitimate relationship was more important than going at it in court. As a result, an uneasy truce was formed. Which I thought was going to get upended when Naomi's former clients approached her and said they preferred her to the lawyer Naomi had replaced herself with!

Oh, lawd, I thought. Here we go again. But...psyche! They just wanted her help in gaining more power for the committee assembled via the settlement, on which the trio would strive to make Bill's firm a better place for women to work. Naomi called this latest round of assistance a parting gift, but I was afraid we were going to start another bout of back-and-forth with her and Bill. Thankfully, GATES spared us that.

It didn't look good when Bill met Naomi and asked what would be in it for him if he altered the settlement, and then he balked about adding more money, which wasn't even part of what the clients wanted. But Naomi checkmated him, he signed off on the deal, and that was that. It's over! And I'm just as well glad. If we weren't going to get an ugly but deliciously dramatic trial, we did need to put an end to the whiplash of not having one.

Shake it like a Polaroid picture

Much as Tyrell wanted to keep the disgrace of his chessboard undie pic and its ensuing adolescent fallout from his folks, some reporter finked to Martin about it, and Tyrell's humiliation was complete. He finally had to own up about the snap being texted to popular girl Jessica, and about Jessica's jock boyfriend clocking him. Martin, who seems to have inherited Dani's flair for taking immediate, but not thought-through action, wanted to high-tail it to his office in Congress and start making calls.

Both Smitty and Tyrell did their best to scrape Martin off the ceiling. (Rather high-strung, isn't he?) We've already seen, through action and the telling of the Richardson-Smith adoptees, that Smitty is the more reasonable, chill parent. But what we hadn't seen, until now, were hints of what Tyrell and Samantha's lives were like before said adoption.

Though Samantha backed Tyrell up by confirming that their pre-Dupree existence had been difficult – as had been their adjustment to their new situation via the reaction of the kids they'd grown up around – in a separate scene, Samantha told Kat that she'd had to protect Tyrell, even with her being the younger sister, because he'd caught crap from schoolmates about being a sensitive type. (Right there with ya, Ty.)

Tyrell went further by talking about how the kids looked down on him, specifically, for being babied by his congressman pop, who always ran interference for him. Plus, the teen was considered “bougie” for having been raised up out of a lesser financial bracket by Smitty and Martin. Because of all this, Tyrell reasoned, his well-meaning dads were part of his problem at school.

I kinda ragged on Samantha last week for her very teenage resolve to suddenly become a model when she had just barely been exposed to the runway, but Tyrell's experience, though we could only be told about it, felt a lot more real. And for all of Martin's blustering, we got a glimpse into his own childhood as a sad young gay boy from within the gates who was shunned by boys who thought he was lame and girls who knew he wasn't into them.

GATES has been very good about not overplaying the gay card – for the most part, Smitty and Martin are a normal couple – albeit affluent and in the world of politics – having to deal with fairly commonplace conflicts and the ups and downs of raising children. But it was also nice to hear Martin speak of his lonely youth as an outcast, both on his home turf and at school. Definitely not unrealistic – and I can testify!

But it wouldn't be a soap if Martin hadn't made things worse for Tyrell by tattling to Tyrell's principal about the photo and the resulting bullying – Tyrell had to endure an entire school assembly on the subject, which never mentioned him by name, but the kids weren't stupid. They knew Daddy had come to Tyrell's rescue again, and therefore laid on the harassment even thicker. The poor kid. I did feel bad for him.

Smitty seems good at grabbing Martin by the shoulders and guiding him onto less rocky roads. The hubbies sat down and thought up some contingencies, one of which was to transfer Tyrell to either a private school or a different public school. And this time, Smitty reinforced, instead of making the choice for him, they would let the 17-year-old make his own choice. And Tyrell might have made a different one had he not jetted over to Orphey Gene's.

He was just sitting there eating his fries and trying to get away from all the drama when who should show up but Jessica – the recipient of the undignified skivvy photo. Now, that could have gone wrong in so many ways; the popular crowd is usually the worst when it comes to put-downs of the commoners! But Jessica surprised me, and certainly Tyrell.

She revealed that not only had she tried to stop her friends from distributing the pic and trolling Tyrell about it, she had dumped the boyfriend who had punched him! She expressed an interest in chess – Tyrell's bag – and let him know how courageous he was for taking all the punishment with a stiff upper lip. Well, didn't Tyrell light up! So did Jessica, really; were they cute together or were they cute together? Jessica might want to be careful not to rebound from Jock Face, but a possible Tyrell/Jessica pairing would not be without its intrigue.

The wrap-up seemed a bit ABC Afterschool Special, with Tyrell being all happy and not wanting to change institutions because of Jessica, and Tyrell's sudden decree that Duprees didn't run from anything. But the latter development is pretty much a GATES throughline, plus the extra touch of Tyrell finally being able to relate to Martin because of his ostracization – and finding strength in Martin having overcome it – was as sweet as an ice cream sundae from Orphey Gene's. Good show!

Can't knock the hustle

Well, we knew by Doug cheerily boppin' around Garland Memorial that he was gonna fall on his ass sooner than later. After all, a gambler typically doesn't just hang up the dice or the cards or whatever tool of choice is used in their betting and go on as if they had never been addicted to betting in the first place. Even Randy and Joey knew Doug still had the bug, and that eventually, that bug would bite. Hard.

Doug managed twice to resist Randy – who was working on Joey's orders – trying to lure him back to the poker tables, which was admirable. And even when the hunky Dr. Wilkes (can't you see I'm burnin' burnin'?) unwittingly tempted Dr. McBride with sports betting, Doug was able to stay resolute. But then his hand started shaking again, which may or may not have been due to his back-to-back-to-back surgery schedule, which got Shanice's attention.

Shanice may be a gossip, and one who never outgrew yapping on a landline as a girl, but when it comes down to it, she is dedicated and caring. She put her blabbing talents to good use by alerting Vanessa to Doug overworking, and she brought her concern to the doc himself, even acknowledging that she was risking overstepping. Doug blew Shanice off, but no one could say her solicitude wasn't genuine.

Vanessa's was, too, which almost seemed incongruous considering how flagrantly she cheats on him! Sidebar: She's been so awful to Diego, rejecting his overtures and play acting at being the loving wife in front of him! Diego, you deserve better! And I'm right here. Anyway, Vanessa fully recognized the elephant in the McBrides' bedroom by conceding they were no longer madly in love, and let Doug know how worried she was about him pushing himself the way he was.

Vanessa even wondered – perhaps hypocritically – if Doug was being extra distant because he was getting love elsewhere. He shot that down wholeheartedly, but got in a zinger about Vanessa not hurting for dinner companions (he knows!). Doug decided he should tell Vanessa the truth, but before he could, she started blathering about real estate and pretending at perfect homes...a true soap confession blocker, of course.

Doug didn't get a chance to tell his truth when duty came calling again – only this time, his patient died under his care. The doctor was so plagued that he punched a section of the nurses' station, only to break his hand. And that means, no more surgery for you, Dr. McBride! Of course, no more surgery meant no more dough, and the likelihood of taking much longer to pay Joey back. Which Joey realized when he came to the hospital, heard that Doug was out of commission, and declared it “a problem!”

It's a bigger problem than Doug thinks, because this week we not only got into Joey's darker side, but the specifics of his plans for Doug and Vanessa. Armstrong wants to break Doug financially so he'll have to go to Vanessa about his gambling debts, at which point Joey predicted Vanessa would open up the books of her real estate firm to pay Joey herself. And then, Joey would swoop in and turn the place into a money laundering operation.

Hope they don't end up laundering that money with Tide! Oh. That's not how that's done. I digress. Randy has been trying to intervene on Doug's behalf for weeks, and Joey's getting tired of it. Joey didn't outright say he suspected Randy would run to Doug and/or Vanessa about Joey's plan, but he did suspect it enough that he threatened Randy's child and ex-wife if Randy squealed. Dang! Joey didn't come to play!

Now that we know what Joey has in mind, it just ups the tension in this whole storyline, and I am super here for it. I'm still sure Joey will end up bedding Vanessa, and I'm even more sure Doug will slip further down the well when he starts gambling again. But the stakes have gotten super real here. Just how far will Joey get in manipulating the McBrides? And will big, strong Diego come to save the day? Can't wait to find out!

Kitty Kat

Kat was the first character to mark a birthday on this soap, though whether she blows out her candles on April 14 again next year is anyone's guess. (Look how often dates of birth get moved around on B&B!) The slow-moving romance between Kat and Tomás took another step with the attorney's thoughtful gift of a calculator pendant, you know, to represent the dough she was going to have to count in Chelsea's purse line bakery.

And how much do we love cousins Kat and Chelsea, already? I couldn't stop smiling as they used cake as an allegory for sex in discussing whether or not Kat was going to give up her virginity to Tomás. “But do you have to love the cake to eat the cake?” Chelsea challenged, a big grin on her face. Kat wanted to know the cake, at least – otherwise it would just be empty calories. Has virginity ever tasted so good?

When we first got the breakdown for GATES's characters, it sounded like Kat was just going to be a snob, which didn't sound very entertaining. Lucky for us, the show did a course correction early on, because Ms. Richardson is just delightful – with everyone but Eva! Which tells you they are totally going to be battling half-sisters! Eva showed up at Kat's birthday bash accidentally, but she never got the cake Nicole promised her.

Instead, Eva got served, all right – with an eviction notice. Eva was nearly in tears when she tried to make a dignified exit from Casa Richardson, only for Ted to find her. He understood that all the familial camaraderie must have made Eva long for her “dead” mother, and for the father she'd never known. That Eva was standing right in front of her pop just made things worse, and she declared that she didn't belong there.

On the subject of Ted, it's getting harder for him to keep from Nicole the secret that he cheated on her with “Dana” (as Ted knows Leslie) back in the 2000s. When Andre came over for a yap, he and Nicole discussed him augmenting the tribute video he did for her gala and editing it to be more about the Richardsons' marriage. But Nicole didn't want Andre placing them on some pixelized pedestal.

No, she and Ted had weathered their share of problems, Nicole emphasized, especially when she had pushed Ted away by obsessing on having a baby after enduring several miscarriages. She'd been angry at her body and at Ted for not being able to give Martin a sister. But Ted suddenly stood up and yelled that she hadn't been responsible for their woes! He had!

Both Nicole and Andre nearly fell through the floor – but Andre, now knowing the secret of Ted's infidelity, waved off his uncle's outburst by chalking it up to it being late, and everyone being tired. Nicole bought this – a bit odd since she's a shrink – and when she went up to bed, Andre warned Ted to be more strategic if he wanted to confess his sins to his wife. Just emotionally vomiting about it wasn't going to work.

Now, circling back to Kat, she came up with solutions for both the problem of Samantha not having gotten Martin's approval to model (which Sam 'fessed up about this week), and the issue of Dani having nothing to focus on but her self-pity. First, the lady Samantha: Kat and Chelsea could have her apprentice with them by modeling the purses and creating content for their socials!

Gotta agree with Kat – it's the perfect answer. How can even the uptight Martin disagree with keeping it in the family? Samantha gets her experience but stays in school. It's only great. As for Dani, Kat suggested that she and Chelsea make Dani their marketing manager. It's also an appropriate fix, even if Kat doesn't know about Pamela's modeling agency offer, which is honestly the better of the two choices. Chelsea will likely agree, since she is not exactly what you'd call on the fence about bringing Dani on, even if it would mean flipping it and being Dani's boss!

Ain't no love in the heart of the city

All right, gotta wrap this up, so, about town: Leslie was bummed because, while Eva was pivotal to her revenge plan against Ted, it meant the Richardsons got to see more of Eva than Leslie did. (Bish is crazy, but she did throw Eva a sweet unbirthday party to compensate for Kat's chronologically accurate one.) For Eva's part, she expressed worry that her new fam would reject her when the truth came out because of her own deep deception, which is legit.

I can't tell if I just love Anita or I love Anita because I love Tamara Tunie so much, but Grams finally spoke to someone about how much she missed singing – Naomi, her granddaughter, who also sings. And it gave Naomi something new to do – she thought up a family night to distract Dani, which Anita was all for...but La Dupree didn't know the real reason for the fete was to cheer her up. Apparently, it's going to involve a dance routine, since Naomi and Dani got caught practicing their steps. Sounds like fun!

Finally, have you noticed that this soap has no kids? Well, sure, Samantha and Tyrell, but they're practically adults. I mean teeny babes who drive drama but spend most of their time off screen, like most soap kiddies! It's not official, but Hayley may end up having Beyond the Gates' first child. Because this week she told Bill that she might be expecting! I'm glad I'm not doing spoilers for this show, because for several minutes all I could do was clap my hands with glee and shout, “OOH GURL YOU PREGNANNNNT! OOOOOOH!”

I do have to say that Bill came around to fatherhood rather quickly. He chafed immediately upon learning that he might've busted Hayley out with his super sperm (thank you “Rapper's Delight”), reminding his wife that kids weren't part of what they'd mapped out. But when Bill realized he might end up with a son after raising two daughters, he got into it. Borderline cliché, but all right. We'll take it.

But will Bill stick around long enough to be a daddy before ending up a sugar daddy to a new side piece? If we're to believe Jacob and Dani, it could well be the latter. Detective Jacob had enough clues to piece together that Bill would probably cheat on Hayley, and, separately, after Dani saw Hayley at the club and Pamela challenged her to handle it like the old Dani, the ex-Mrs. Hamilton gently told the new Mrs. Hamilton that Bill would hit repeat and ditch Hayley when he got tired of her. And it's not even the first time Dani has told Hayley that.

Only time will tell if these predictions come true – but for now, Dani actually got the wait staff to let Hayley order her dinner! Will wonders never cease? And holy soap scribes, I'm running hella long and now I gotta put my damn laundry in the dryer! (With just store brand dryer sheets; ain't no product placement in this house!) I know you've got thoughts about Beyond the Gates, so tell me about 'em in the comments below! Because I need to hear 'em! Until next we meet, my soapy reader, 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.)