My View From Beyond the Gates: And the Award Goes To…

And the Award Goes To…: A Beyond the Gates commentary by Soap Central founder Dan J Kroll for the week ending October 30, 2026.

It’s Daytime Emmy weekend and I am feeling inspired. For only the second time since 1999, I will not be attending a Daytime Emmy ceremony. Of all the things I miss about owning and operating Soap Central, working the Red Carpet at the Daytime Emmys is at the top of the list. This year, the pang is particularly strong because I won’t be there to celebrate Beyond the Gates.

I’ve come up with a way to lessen the blow and still be part of the ceremony. I’m giving out my own awards. In years past, when the Daytime Emmys were held in June, I’d have all of my columnists do “Best and Worst of the Year… So Far” columns. It allowed everyone to submit columns early and I could fly to the West Coast without having to worry about posting columns, recaps, and everything else in the middle of covering the Emmys.

As an aside, I think having the Daytime Emmys in October is a really weird idea. The material submitted for Emmy consideration is, in most cases, over a year old. In the case of Days of our Lives, which films its episodes nearly a year ahead of their airdate, their 2026 Daytime Emmys material could have been filmed in March 2024.

Now, with no further ado, here are the winners of the inaugural Gaties. Tabulation of the votes were done by the accounting firm Kroll and Bunny.

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Dumb As A Box of Rocks: The Bradley Smith Award

Smitty may be a wonderful father and a prize-winning journalist, but he’s also dumb as a box of rocks. On what planet does it make sense for a man awaiting trial on homicide charges to leave the country to track down a potential witness? No planet. It doesn’t make sense on any planet.

And it’s not like Smitty had any idea where to find Max. He just knows it’s somewhere – maybe, possibly, hopefully – in Mexico. Mexico’s land mass tallies more than 750,000 square miles. Even if Smitty covered 100 square miles a day, it would take him twenty years to search the entire country. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I sympathize with Smitty – really, I do. He is being framed for a crime he didn’t commit. How do you prove you didn’t do something when all the evidence seems to prove otherwise? Though, I did propose a theory a couple of weeks ago (“So Much For Our Drama-free Day”) in which Smitty really did deliver the drugs to Lia.

There’s A Tie!

I still haven’t decided if Smitty is going to have his day in court. That’s mostly because the show doesn’t have a courtroom set. I also have concerns about all the policing, detectiving, and lawyering that is taking place. Let’s just say there are a lot boxes and a lot of rocks.

Heather is out and about and in plain sight. She has even started dropping clues, admittedly subtle, that she’s the Impaler and no one has picked up on it. Jacob turned to Bill for advice and summarily dismissed just about everything that he said. Naomi is getting nowhere with discovery and she initially refused Bill’s help to get involved. I understand that Naomi is furious at the “old boys club” politics involved, but would she really let her pride get in the way of giving her client the best defense possible?

Best Father-Daughter Moment / Worst Mother-Daughter Moment

I thought the moment between Smitty and Samantha in the living room was perfect soap. Samantha was terrified that her dad would go to jail and miss out on all the big moments of her life. To pre-compensate for that, Samantha wanted to be around Smitty as much as she could – even if that meant missing out on living in the present. We don’t really get a lot of these tender moments on soaps any more. Everything is often so rushed that there is no time for emotions to breathe.

I gritted my teeth when Samantha headed to Orphey Gene’s to talk to June about her troubles. Samantha was blissfully unaware of what she was saying when she remarked that “no one understands how it feels when you love someone and one day they’re just gone.” Yikes. Samantha still didn’t realize the impact of her words when tears started to well up in June’s eyes.

Thankfully, June also got to be a little sassy. Before Samantha showed up, June continued giving Jacob the cold shoulder. She also gave him very little coffee. I laughed when she filled Izaiah’s cup to the rim with Brim… and then poured out only a mouthful of coffee into Jacob’s cup.

Comic Con: Best Con Reboot

I’ve always found Hayley to be an entertaining character – even when I haven’t been rooting for her. I think the most amusing moments for me have been when she’s summoned her inner Philly girl and dropped her Fairmont Crest trophy wife routine.

I’m still not rooting for Hayley, but I have to say that I love this liberated, post-poisoning side of her. Let’s face it: the minute we learned that Hayley was some sort of cream of the crop con, we also saw that she was messy. She was reckless when it came to following Randy’s dosage instructions. She was careless about where and when she laced Bill’s food and drink.

Now, though, we are getting a glimpse of Hayley in action. What’s different here is that Hayley’s con isn’t really a con. For now, she really does seem to be pregnant. What do you call a con that’s actually true? Working an angle? I’m not up on all of my criminal terms, so you’ll have to forgive me. Maybe I need to start watching more of the ID channel. Strictly for research purposes, of course.

What’s fun about Hayley’s pregnancy is that she doesn’t have to pretend to be anything. She can be her own true self, though I doubt she even remembers who that is after so many years of pretending to be other people.

Most Interesting Karmic Uncertainty

I’ve always believed that one should not taunt karma. Hayley pretended to have a miscarriage before, so I think the universe might feel that it is entitled to cause Hayley to miscarry. There are just certain things you shouldn’t make light of. Losing a baby is one of them. On the flip side of that, Hayley did not want a baby, so it’s entirely possible that her pregnancy is the universe getting back at her. Would the fates do a double bluff? Giving Hayley a pregnancy she didn’t want and then taking it away from her once she shows that she’s still an evil, horrible schemer?

I don’t see Hayley giving birth in however many months she has left in her pregnancy. It just doesn’t feel right for future story. Hayley as a mom? Um, no. Even if she were to follow through with her plan to have Bill “buy” the baby from her, I don’t see Bill’s future story involving him caring for a newborn.

On social media, I did make a joke that asked if Dani had complained about nausea lately. I mean, she and Bill did have sexytimes in the elevator and I’d bet a large chunk of cash that neither of them was carrying a condom. Hayley getting pregnant is already a soapy twist on its own. Would Beyond the Gates really have both of Bill’s ex-wives pregnant with his baby at the same time?! If they were to both be “with child,” I’m pretty sure that every single seasoned soap viewer would be anticipating a baby swap.

Best On-Going Name-Calling

Last week, I said that I wished I had kept a list of all the insults that have been hurled at Hayley since Beyond the Gates went on the air. I have a new one to add to the list that I haven’t been keeping, courtesy of Chelsea. She referred to Hayley as a “pint-sized poltergeist.” I love when these zingers run toward the light and into our lives.

Best Baby Reveal

I could not help but laugh at Leslie’s over-the-top reaction after learning that Hayley was pregnant. You’d think that Hayley would be happy that someone was on her side, but no, that would make too much sense. To be fair, it’s not like Hayley wanted Leslie to know. She just happened to be in the right place – or the wrong place, I guess – at the right time. Hayley did want Shanice and Ashley to know about her pregnancy because… why else bypass all the other ways to book an appointment with an OB/GYN?

Once Hayley kinda, sorta, maybe embraced Leslie being her baby’s auntie, she realized that Leslie might not keep her secret baby a secret. Surprisingly, Leslie did keep her mouth shut and no one else would have learned the news had it not been for Kat seeing the “diaper cake.”

Am I the only one who didn’t know what a diaper cake was? I went straight to Google… and I still don’t get it. Back in my day, there were birthdays, wedding days, baby showers, graduation parties, housewarmings, and the usual suspect holidays. Now there are push gifts, parties when kids finish any grade, divorce parties, housewarmings every time someone moves… it’s a lot.

There was no better person to learn about the pregnancy than Kat. She naturally assumed that the diaper cake meant that Eva was pregnant. She was wrong, but Eva was the natural first choice. Kat tried to use her Dupree upbringing to politely ask Leslie who the cake was for. When that didn’t work, Kat snatched the card off the “cake” and got her jaw-dropping answer.

Worst Purse Launch Party Ever

I realize that the launch party for the latest ChelseaKat bag was a last-minute thing, so I won’t hold that against anyone. It’s important to remember that it’s not the size of the party that matters. It’s the quantity and quality of the snacks that are served. And I didn’t see a whole lot in the way of tasty morsels being served.

On top of that, it seemed like everyone in attendance was in a less than celebratory mood. Vanessa felt that she couldn’t talk about Joey because his name might not be welcomed. She also couldn’t talk about finding a new home for Ted and Shanice. Ashley was her usual ball of nerves because she knew that Hayley was pregnant and couldn’t talk about it. Samantha was moping around over her fear that one of her dads might head to prison and the other might be booted from Congress. Naomi was miffed that she was getting nowhere with her defense of Smitty.

Then, before Chelsea could make her big announcement, Kat burst in and proclaimed, “Hayley’s pregnant!” I did appreciate that Dani laughed at the news. Sadly, it was not the set-up or punchline of a joke.

You’re Such a Character: Seeing More, Seeing Less

Randy has been on-screen since the beginning of Beyond the Gates, and I still cannot figure him out. We know he has no trouble being bad, but he also seems to have a soft side. What’s really going on? Maybe that’s the point. Characters are far more interesting if they exist somewhere in that gray area.

Randy’s reaction to Hayley’s pregnancy was… unexpected. Before his mind went all twisty and devised a plan for Hayley to use her unwanted child as a meal ticket, he almost seemed to revel in the idea of being an uncle. Randy has spoken in the past about his son, but we’ve never seen Randy do anything that makes him look like a proud papa. Shoot, we haven’t even seen a picture of the kid.

Randy had no trouble providing the poison to help off Bill Hamilton, but Randy also did everything in his power to try to prevent Doug from trekking into the danger zone with Joey. He’s had no issue with stealing and breaking a whole lot of the other “thou shalt not”s, but he also has found time to go to church with Mona Wilson.

I feel like Maurice P. Kelly (Randy Parker) could definitely hold his own if Randy were given his own storyline rather than being a supporting player in other people’s stories. The question, I suppose, is do the Beyond the Gates writers want to give him one?

Character I Wanted to See More Of, But Now…

I have to always remind myself that you need to be careful what you wish for. I know that in the early days of my Beyond the Gates columns, I said that I wanted to see more of Shanice. And I wasn’t alone. A lot of Beyond the Gates fans expressed a similar desire.

Now, Shanice is involved in a front burner story with Ted… and I almost wish my wish wasn’t granted.

I still very much like Shanice and I think Ernestine Johnston is absolutely perfect for the role. It just feels like Shanice has been different ever since she got involved with Ted. I can’t really explain it. It’s more something that I feel. She’s no longer the same gossipy, take-charge nurse version of Grey’s Anatomy’s Miranda Bailey. Now Shanice is talking about rainbows and unicorns and she isn’t even around to stop attempted murderers from barging into patient rooms.

Best/Worst Wedding That Will Probably Never Happen

It’s not just Shanice’s morphed personality. I think another part of the problem is that I strongly suspect that Shanice and Ted will never get married. Their impending union has all the hallmarks of a soap opera disaster. In the early stages of dating, Shanice made numerous mentions of men she was dating going back to their ex-wives/former girlfriends. That’s strike one.

Ted and Shanice got engaged way too soon and then decided that they needed to tie the knot on a hyperspeed timetable. That’s probably strikes two and three, but let’s be conservative and call it strike two.

On top of that, they bought a house… but the house won’t be available until after their wedding. To me, that means the wedding isn’t going to happen and the scenic design team will not be creating a new set for Ted and Shanice’s new home. Strike three.

Add in Nicole’s unease with Ted moving on and everyone in town telling her that she needs to hurry up and realize that she’s still in love with Ted. You don’t need the Rosetta Stone to translate that into meaning that Nicole is probably going to speak up during the “speak now or forever hold your peace” part of the ceremony.

Messiest Songbird

It is quite clear that Sharon Winger is the messiest of the Articulettes. I don’t know how much she had to drink in the back of the Dupree limosine/car, but it was enough for her to start trash-talking Dionne Warwick and the Spinners. The nerve! I’ll have you know that “Then Came You” is a song I will never get tired of listening to.

We’ve seen Anita let loose in the past. Remember when she spit a few bars Cardi Z and Megan the Mustang style? But other than that, she seems to be more strait-laced. I don’t know if it is by design – having to carefully craft a public persona to make it big in the entertainment business – or if she has always been more measured. This may be an unusual take, but I almost feel like Vernon is the silly one in the marriage. Dani was the daughter with the closest bond to Vernon – and look how she turned out. Nicole was closest to Anita and Nicole is (most of the time) the calmer and more reasonable of the two.

That’s why I was surprised when Anita punked her Articulettes sisters with her fake vocal recovery gag. If I am being honest, she got me, too. I thought maybe Anita has psyched herself up to believe that she sounded better than she did. I chuckled as I watched the grimace of pain on Sharon’s face and Tracy trying desperately to form her lips into a polite smile. I’m sure the look on my mug wasn’t much better.

Beside, Behind, and Beyond The Gates: The Speed Round

Here are some of the thoughts and observations about other things happening on Beyond the Gates.

Funniest Baby Names

I know Hayley was just riffing, but her suggestions for baby names were so bad that they were funny. She seemed to stick with “Bill, Jr.” if it were a baby boy, but her ideas for girl names? Billerina and Billyanne. This child will have enough issues by having parents that hate each other. Should she really have to be saddled with a horrible name, too?

Best Party Entrance

The purse launch party might have been a flop, but Dani Dupree sure had the best entrance. Nicole and Kial were in the middle of having some one-on-one time when Dani showed up early and let herself into the house. “I didn’t know it was a clothing optional party! Trick or treat!” Dani chirped merrily.

Best Synchronized Out-of-Water Swimming Routine

Kat and Chelsea may be cousins, but they have the same mental telepathy that twins supposedly possess. During their Uptown hang with Naomi, both Kat and Chelsea were in perfect synch with their responses, their questioning dodging, and their shadiness. When Naomi asked if she was “so bullheaded that that people just go along” with what she wants, Chelsea took a sip of her drink and Kat diverted her attention to her phone. Granted permission to answer truthfully, the two young women replied, “Yeah.”

Best Weirdest and Shortest Friendship Ever

It looks like the honeymoon phase of Hayley and Leslie’s friendship is over. Leslie was not having any part of Hayley flirting with Izaiah. Things got so heated that both women trotted out their criminal past in some sort of weird peeing contest. Leslie said she’d run over Hayley — hypothetically speaking, of course — if Hayley had so much as an impure thoughts about Izaiah. Unphased, Hayley warned Leslie that she might have to watch her drinks if she kept talking like that. Leslie fired back that she was “a thousand times more lethal” than Hayley could ever hope to be.

Strangest Halloween Celebration

“What in the stripper ho trick-or-treating mess is this?” That’s how I live-tweeted Kial’s unexpected entrance at Nicole’s house. It was even funnier that Anita and Dani were unwitting witnesses to… whatever it was that Kial was doing.

BTG: Behind the Graphic

Wondering what this week’s column artwork means? You don’t need someone to rip open an envelope to get the results. The fish is a salmon, and it’s what Sharon referenced when talking about Anita’s less-than-sterling vocals. The “How To Con Rich Guys” manual is what Bill said Hayley must have read. The diaper cake is a stand-in for the “cake” Leslie got for Hayley. The plate of French toast made it to the graphic because it seemed like everyone was eating it this week. The boat is a Battleship and it was the high-end of the disaster scale that Kat came up with when asking Naomi to rank how badly her marriage was falling apart.

Beyond the Gates: Lines of the Week

The Beyond the Gates writing team seems to be having a little too much fun. Here are some of the lines of dialogue that tickled my funny bone or that I found memorable over the past week (and haven’t already mentioned in this column).

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“Blood is thicker than water… or our friendship.”
Vanessa when Randy explained that he had to support cousin Hayley.

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“This is more like a fancy Lunchable.”
Heather, describing Joey’s one-appetizer “meal.”

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“The scales on the salmon [Tracy] had for dinner last night were more buttery than what you were just singing.”
Tipsy Sharon when Anita practiced singing some scales.

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“I just need some time to plan my next move.”

“Well, how much choreography does that take when you only have one? Gold-digging, little tramp screws her way into a cushier life. If you really wanna switch it up, take a yoga class, learn to throw your knees behind your head, and horizontal mambo your way out of town..”
Dani’s colorful response when she spotted Hayley having brunch at the country club.

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“This is your reality, babe. You better suck it up, Cinderella — the Brandy version, of course.”
Ashley playfully mocking Shanice’s unease with living in a big house in Fairmont Crest.

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“Huge pay days come in small packages.”
Randy’s way of describing Hayley’s unplanned bundle of joy.

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Gatecrashers: Reader and Viewer Feedback

I love interacting with other Beyond the Gates fans. So I thought I’d create a section to share some of the comments I’ve received on my columns and social media posts. If you’d like to see your comments shared here, you can scroll down to the Comments section below this column and post away. You can also chat with me on Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and/or TwitterX.

Follow my Random Acts of Dan

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

If you’ve enjoyed my column this week and want to see what I have written about Beyond the Gates in previous weeks, you can check those out in the My View From Beyond the Gates archive.

Have a penchant for gardening, interior design, or fixing up old houses? Check out my Manor Makeover series where I write about all of the things I’ve been up to here at Kroll Manor in Allentown, PA, over the past decade.

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Life outside the gates

Two of my former Two Scoops columnists from Soap Central, 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, Dial K For Killow.

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

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