My View From Beyond the Gates: A rollercoaster on top of a skyscraper

If life is like a box of chocolates, then soap operas are like a rollercoaster. There are ups, downs, and twists and turns. Several Fairmont Crest residents are about to have their lives turned upside down, while others are about to see their rides completely derail. Please keep your hands inside the car until this column has come to a complete stop.

In last week’s Beyond the Gates column, I talked about how I have gone from intrigued to annoyed and back to intrigued when it comes to Martin’s secret. I’m pretty sure at this point we all want to know what happened that night on a dark road. But something interesting happened this week: We learned a whole lot about the players involved in covering up whatever happened. To me, that might actually be even more rewarding than finding out exactly what they’re working so hard to keep under wraps.

I’ll start with Vernon since he’s the patriarch of the Dupree family and doesn’t generally get a lot of attention in my columns. That’s not because I don’t like Vernon. He’s just been very much under the radar since Beyond the Gates kicked off back in February.  If you remember, a few weeks ago I was worried that Vernon might be a goner because of all of his “I will always be here for you” comments to Anita. It seemed like a foreshadowing that the end was nigh.

Over the past week, we’ve gotten to see a whole different side of the man. He is still very much the doting husband, father and grandfather, but he is also incredibly shrewd. It’s not that I doubted that he had a more… business side to him. I just hadn’t seen it. Now I can’t unsee it. Without so much as batting an eye, Vernon went from brunch at the country club to squaring off with Bill and sizing up Kenneth for a nice pair of cement shoes.

A piss-poor attempt at a pimp walk

The Bill and Vernon face-off was everything it needed to be and more. Timon Kyle Durrett and Clifton Davis are amazing scene partners. Each gave as good as they got. You knew things were going to be good when Vernon greeted the cane-toting Bill with, “Having fun with your new toy?” and “You didn’t think I summoned you so I could witness your piss-poor attempt at a pimp walk?”

There were so many good one-liners in the face off scenes. An angry Bill claimed, “I’ve always been your personal janitor.” When Bill pushed back against helping Vernon, I knew it wouldn’t be long before Vernon claimed that Bill would be nothing without the Dupree family’s help. “My influence is woven into your success, stitched into every seam, a thread you can’t pull without unraveling everything you built,” Vernon said icily. That’s really got to irk Bill since he views himself as a self-made man.

The Fixer

Ordinarily, I’d side with Bill on this one. Sure, Vernon may have helped make all the connections, but if Bill was a crap lawyer there’s only so much that the Dupree name could do. However, lately we’ve seen far too many examples of totally incompetent failing upward, so… Still, even Vernon has admitted that Bill has cleaned up a lot of messes, so I am going to continue to believe that Bill has to have some legal eagleness on his side.

So much has been made about Bill wanting to walk away from the Dupree’s sphere of influence, but I suspect that at least some small part of Vernon wants to keep Bill around – even if he won’t admit it. The opportunity for both sides to make a clean break has come and gone or, as Vernon put it, “That ship did not just sail, it hit an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the sea.”

Much has been made about Big Bad Bill, but we haven’t really had a chance to experience it. When Bill and his towering 6’5” frame confronted KKKenneth at the casino, it all made sense. Bill made it clear that he didn’t need to dirty his hands by killing Kenneth as there were plenty of other things that could be done to make Kenneth’s life miserable. “Untold dangers… and accidents,” I believe Bill called them.

Bill warned that going against the Duprees wasn’t a wise decision. “In your trash heap language you might say they run the rodeo around here,” he growled.

I’ve shot people and been back on the force within days

It’s interesting to watch the so-called “men’s men” react to Martin’s secret. While I don’t think that Marcel is necessarily homophobic, I did sort of see that old school “Oh, the gays” expression on his face when he learned that even after two years, Martin was still struggling with what happened on the night in question. Marcel’s off-the-cuff remark spoke volumes: “After two years? I’ve shot people and been back on the force within days.”

Chief Elon Hawthorne didn’t exactly appreciate Marcel’s comment. I am less inclined to think that Elon is a crooked cop now. I’m thinking he’s just caught up in this one particular morally grey area. I hope I’m right because I’d hate to see Jacob have to deal with finding out that his dad isn’t the man he believes him to be.

Betty Crocker would never

Then there’s Joey Armstrong. We’ve been led to believe for months that he’s a smarmy, ruthless mobster. Sure, we’ve gotten glimpses of a saucier, if not softer, side through his repartee with Vanessa. That, though, was often muddied with threats against Doug – or at least Doug’s body parts.

I suspect that his involvement in the secret will show us that he isn’t totally bad. Sure, he probably did something highly illegal – but he did it for a good reason. The same could be said of all of the men involved in this saga. Two conflicting ideas can both be true at the same time.

Joey did have another great quip during his few moments on-screen. “You’ll be making gin in a prison toilet. I do have an excellent recipe, though.” Joey’s culinary talents know no limits. I wonder if he features this recipe on his YouTube channel?

SIDE BAR: In my notes leading up to writing this week’s column, I scribbled, “What happened to Randy? Has he been demoted, run out of town, or…*gulp*?” Well, we got to see Randy before the week ended and it’s looking not-so-good for him.

Reparations

Martin is very, very high-strung. On top of that, he has a hard time listening to what other people are telling him. I’d like to know what he was like before all the drama from the past started getting dredged up. Who is the man that Smitty fell in love with?

We’ve seen flashes of rage from Martin, the most notably coming on the night of the anniversary party when he shoved Ted and threw books around his living room. It seems like that rage might have bubbled up during Martin and KKKenneth’s “encounter” once the busboy started something and came out on the losing end. That is bolstered by Bill mentioning that Kenneth needed “some work” done after said encounter. He also mentioned Kenneth having “surgically improved ears.”

To look at Kenneth, he doesn’t appear to be particularly menacing. His words, however, tell a totally different story. He didn’t just feel the need to blackmail Martin. No, he had to add his racist bile to the mix. “Why don’t we think of it as… oh, what’s the stupid term you people use? Right. Reparations.”

Here’s an interesting dilemma: If Kenneth does take the money and run, does that mean we might not learn what transpired between him and Martin? That would be an incredibly bold writing decision and something soaps do not typically do. I know that would probably outrage a lot of traditional soap viewers, but… I kind of like the idea. It could always be revisited down the line.

And then there’s Maude Smitty and Jacob

Jacob sure is a good partner… just to everyone but, you know, his actual partner on the police force. I am sort of amused, though, that everyone else is doing the hard detective work for Jacob. Katlock has been leading the charge in the crusade against LSD (That’s Leslie/Sherry/Dana for the uninitiated), and now Smitty is the one with all of the dirt on Marcel Malone.

Smitty seems destined to find out what happened. The question is, will he piece it together himself or will Martin tell him? Martin is thisclose to the truth, yet, somehow, still so far away from it.

The only thing she is pregnant with are her fantasies

I’ve been skeptical about Hayley’s pregnancy from the beginning. Granted, my skepticism has paled in comparison to Dani’s. Actually, let me dial that back a bit. I was perhaps more dubious that Beyond the Gates would introduce a baby to the canvas this early in its run.

I first believed that Hayley’s pregnancy tests would be a false-positive because of some underlying medical condition. When that didn’t seem to be the case, I moved more toward believing that Hayley would have a miscarriage.

That seemed to be the case when Bill rushed to Hayley’s hospital room and found her sobbing uncontrollably. But because the Beyond the Gates writers love to mess with us, it turned out that Hayley was crying happy tears. She assured Bill that their baby was fine and about the size of an apricot.

The invisafetus

But the moment the doctor entered the room and said, “I’ll make sure those papers are being generated” with no mention of a baby – my spidey senses started tingling. Though that tingling could also have been a result of the chili I had made for dinner. Something just seemed off.

Once again, though, the writers played with my emotions by having Bill later reference an ultrasound when he and Hayley bumped into Dani in the waiting area. Was the ultrasound shown off-screen?

Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one that wondered about the ultrasound. Ashley couldn’t find record of the ultrasound in Hayley’s file. When she asked one of her fellow nurses, the nurse revealed that Hayley had declined the ultrasound.

Boom!

Of course, this doesn’t prove that Hayley is faking her pregnancy. Goodness, I’ve spent too much time listening to Jacob. All it proves is that she didn’t have an ultrasound. You’d think she’d have wanted to know that her baby was okay, right? Maybe she just faked the pain and didn’t ask for an ultrasound because she knew there was nothing wrong with her and assumed that the baby was okay, too.

Obviously, Ashley cannot tell anyone about Hayley not getting an ultrasound… so does this bombshell just die right here? Will Ashley get tipsy on her date with Andre and spill the beans that are not in Hayley’s oven?

If you’re not into it, you can say no

Speaking of Ashley and Andre… actually, let’s not. I mean, I guess we have to talk about their upcoming date. What is really going on here? I’ll tell you what: people making bad decisions.

Andre has made it clear that he wants to start something meaningful with Dani. So why agree to go out on a date with Ashley. Maybe he doesn’t view it as a date date. You know who will? Dani. No, Dani and Andre are not exclusive, but Andre has repeatedly said that he does not intend to hurt Dani.

Ashley is also not being fully honest. She tried to downplay her “date” with Andre by saying she just wanted to dip her toe in the dating pool so that she knew she could get back out there. She conveniently left out the little sex dream that she had. I don’t know how you work that into a conversation, but I’m sure there’s a way. “Hey, baby. I’d like to have dinner with you so that afterward we can go back to my place and see if sex with you is as hot as it was in the dream I had.” See, it’s simple. And I came up with that without the help of AI.

Goodbye, delulu Dani! Hello, nutty Nicole!

It was a rough week to be Nicole. Not only did her estranged husband give her a talking to, but her own momma did, too.

I was surprised by how effusive Anita was in her support of Dani seeing/dating/sexing Andre. Her initial silence made me think that she was going to side with Nicole in the spat. “Oh, I have words. It’s whether or not it’s appropriate to use them [that] is the issue,” Anita said after she gathered her thoughts.

I don’t think that Anita believes the “Dandre” pairing is the best possible pairing, but I like that she isn’t trying to yuck someone else’s yum. I also really liked that Anita wanted to know if Andre was kind. Kindness is a too often underrated commodity. I’ve always said that I’d rather be remembered for being kind than hot. Of course, I’m remembered for being both. Just kidding!

When it came time for Anita to hold court with Nicole, Anita refused to buy into Nicole’s pity party. “People have been lying to protect the ones they love since time immemorial,” Anita said sagely. Nicole pushed back by saying that people like to protect themselves from having to face the consequences of their own actions. Again, two things can be right at the same time.

Apologies need not apply

Anita urged her daughter to aim her vitriol in the direction of the people that had really hurt her.

If, like me, you were expecting a quick patch to the rift in Dani and Nicole’s sissy continuum… you didn’t get it. I thought for sure the little summit at Uptown would result in some sort of cease fire, if not actual peace.

Dani seemed to believe that, too. She accepted Nicole’s apology before it was even offered. “Is that what you think is happening? You are as far away from an apology as you can get,” Nicole snapped.

Funny moment: I chuckled when Nicole took her drink directly from the server’s hand rather than wait for it to be set on the table.

Come down off your pedestal, princess

If Anita’s words sounded familiar, it’s probably because Ted had something very similar earlier in the week. He was, I think we all assumed, poised to tell Nicole about the trouble that Martin was involved in. Before Ted could tell her whatever he wanted to tell her, Nicole dinged him for not having told her that Andre and Dani were sleeping together.

But like Anita, Ted also wasn’t going to be attending Nicole’s pity party. As Nicole raged against all of her loved ones lying to her, Ted turned things around. “Here you are devastated to find out that we’re all very flawed and human.” Ted continued on, saying that Nicole would never treat her patients the way that she was treating her family and loved ones. “That façade you wear might fool the neighbors, but we’re just like everybody else.”

Turtleneck Ted would never!

But Ted wasn’t done. He warned Nicole that if she didn’t come to her senses, she risked losing everyone in her life. He concluded with,  “Come down off your pedestal, princess.”

These scenes were so, so good. For weeks, Ted has been sending flowers and apologizing profusely for sleeping with LSD. This was the first time that he showed a little backbone and stood up for himself. Ted didn’t try to engage in any revisionist history and diminish his role in sleeping with Dana.

Playing leap frog

I am so glad that Madison and Chelsea both admitted what I feel we’ve all been saying: They are moving way too fast. I’d love for this groundbreaking soap couple to find long-lasting happiness, but I would also like them to take some time to get to know each other.

I no longer think that Madison has a deep dark secret, though I reserve the right to change my mind at a later date.

Why Chelsea decided to chat it up with Allison instead of enjoying her date with the recently de-puked Madison is a mystery to me. I politely applauded when Chelsea told her former hookup partner that it wasn’t a good time to talk. Allison wasn’t about to take no for an answer and Madison made up some story about needing to get up early so that she could politely extricate herself from the situation.

Playing for petty points

Madison earned huge petty points from me for dropping that she had “an early morning in neurology tomorrow.” That’s right, chick! Let her know! Petty points can be redeemed in the lobby for things like those fuzzy monsters you put on the eraser end of a pencil, embossed Orphey Gene tumblers, and, of course, Procter & Gamble products.

But back to Allison… lady, you had your chance. Chelsea has moved on. She doesn’t need an explanation about how or why you could or couldn’t see her without Craig. I am, however, a little worried now that Allison has made it known that Craig has a temper and can be prone to violence.

While not nearly as high on the danger scale, Allison did something that totally turned me off. When Allison talked up Madison to Chelsea, Allison asked, “Is she yours?” The implication of ownership instead of partnership is ick and I thought Gen Zers were more “aware” than that.

Not playing leap frog

While Chelsea was juggling women, Kat was ready to give up the kitty. In a strange twist of fate, though, Tomás wasn’t ready to have sex with her. I’ve been in enough locker rooms during my short-lived tennis playing career (that’s another fun fact that will be in the memoir that I will never write) to have heard more than a few men prattle on about being the one or wanting to be the one to take a woman’s virginity. Tomás wasn’t quite as vulgar as some of that locker room talk, he has made it clear that he is (or was) quite fine with being Kat’s first.

The Internet seems to believe that Tomás recoiled because he is really interested in Eva… but I am not sure that’s the whole reason. Perhaps Tomás is having performance anxiety. Maybe he is worried that someone in Kat’s extended Dupree family could make life hard for him for deflowering Kat. Or maybe he’s just a bit confused by Kat’s sudden change of attitude regarding sex.

Now, all of that said, I think Tomás and Eva are a spicier pairing. Sorry, Kat. I absolutely love, love, love Kat but I don’t get the same sizzle vibes from her and Tomás. Kat and Tomás are beautiful together. They should be the couple on the cover of the Fairmont Crest brochure waving politely from their golf cart.

Random musing: Since things didn’t work out with Derek and because Chelsea might want to explore her options a bit, I propose that we form another Beyond the Gates couple. I hereby give you Ashley Madison.

Beyond the Gates Speed Round

Here are some rapid fire thoughts about some of the other action from the week gone by.

Lollipops to prune cakes

So we have a little good news, bad news situation here. Beyond the Gates will not be airing any new episodes next week. Instead, the show will rebroadcast its first week of episodes. It’s not clear why, but I assume it has something to do with the holiday — though The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful will be airing new episodes all week.

I think this is a terrible idea that could mess up the momentum that the show has been building. I will be doing my part to keep the fireworks burning by presenting the First Annual Lollipops to Prune Cakes Awards. It will be a look at what’s been hot and what’s been a miss since the show premiered. The name was inspired by a game that Eva and LSD apparently played. I hope you’ll check back next week for the special mid-year report card.

Best of the Best

If you are still needing proof that Beyond the Gates is one of the best shows on television, look no further than Entertainment Weekly’s The best TV shows of 2025 so far list. It ranks BTG among shows like CBS’s Matlock (no relation to our Katlock) and the streamer Severance. Bravo to the entire cast and crew.

Lines of the week

The Beyond the Gates writing team is once again having a little too much fun. Here are some of the lines of dialogue that tickled my funny bone over the past week.

“I was like a rollercoaster on top of a skyscraper. I was the ride of his life… and not just in bed.” — Dani, telling Hayley that Bill would soon tire of her.

“Didn’t you officially resign from being armed and dangerous?” — Pamela to Dani Oakley.

“Just which bitch were we talking about?” — LSD, who might be seen as three bitches in one.

“You two even roll your eyes in sync” — Ted after his daughters reacted to his belief that they might one day be friends

“Everything is dimmer when you’re away.” — Vernon in a mushy gushy lovey dovey remark to Anita.

That’s all I have for this week’s My View From Beyond the Gates column.

I’ll be tuning in and I’ll continue to share my thoughts on Beyond the Gates as long as you’re interested in reading them. Thank you for reading and, as always, please feel free to share your thoughts on my column or Beyond the Gates in the Comments section below.

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Life outside the gates

My former Two Scoops columnists Liz Masters and Tamilu have joined me here on my personal web site — and they are still writing about General Hospital. Liz is on deck with week with a new column called, Storms are brewing in Port Charles

To read more thoughts, opinions, rants, and raves about daytime television, be sure to check out our Editorial section.

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