Game On: A Beyond the Gates commentary by Soap Central founder Dan J Kroll for the week ending March 20, 2026.
That’s the way the ball bounces. Thanks to CBS Sports coverage of the NCAA “March Madness” tournament, we were shorted two episode of Beyond the Gates this week. This wasn’t an unexpected scheduling change, but that doesn’t mean that it’s any less annoying. Wait… do you hear that? I don’t think this has ever happened before, but I am about to sound the hypocrite alarm before I’ve even started getting into my column.
Back when I owned and operated Soap Central, I liked the sports preemptions. It was nice to have a breather every now and again. Two Scoops commentaries could be written a couple of days early, there were fewer recaps to edit, and, hopefully, that all meant that I would have some time over the weekend when I wasn’t working nonstop.
Now, though, I suddenly have an hour in my day that I need to fill and it’s too cold to go outside and play. I don’t like it.
Despite it being a short week, there are still some things to talk about. So let’s get ready to talk about the good, the bad, and the Leslie.
The Bill of Rights
I think it makes the most sense to start off this column with the week’s highlight. In fact, it’s a highlight that stands out as one of the best in Beyond the Gates’ 250something episodes to date. The scenes between Anita and Bill.
We weren’t privy to the kind of relationship that Bill and Anita shared when Bill and Dani were still married. That all happened before Beyond the Gates started airing. We’ve always been given the impression that Bill respected Vernon and Anita.
From the moment Timon Kyle Durrett’s Bill Hamilton saw Anita, something changed. Bill’s swagger vanished. His face ashened. His whole demeanor changed. For most of his conversation with Anita, Bill was unable to even look at Anita. I think we were supposed to believe that Bill was so taken aback by Anita’s frail state that he didn’t know how to proceed. At least that’s what I assumed.
Bill later revealed that for a moment, a very brief moment, he thought Anita was his mother. We haven’t been told a lot about Bill’s past. He’s mentioned on several occasions that his dad wasn’t such a great guy. And obviously we also know all about his sextracurricular activities while married to Dani. This, though, was the first time that he ever mentioned his mom.
What worked so well in this situation was that the strained relationship between Bill and Anita really allowed for Anita to demand that Bill be totally honest with her. He was no longer her son-in-law and there was no real reason that Bill had to be polite, other than general social decorum and manners. So when Bill urged Anita to fight cancer with every bit of her energy and to not try to be strong for everyone else? That landed.
Hitting Home, No Matter What Side of the Gates You’re On
Up until recently, I never had to experience the death of a loved one. I was a kid when most of my grandparents died, so I didn’t get to experience grief as a fully formed adult. Then I had three deaths in a little over a year. I felt all of those emotions again while watching Bill. His facial expressions, the tone of his voice, his movements, and even the way he breathed. I don’t know if he tapped into real-life emotions or something from in his real life for those scenes, but what I do know is that everything about Durrett’s acting was absolute perfection. If you check out the Comments section below the column, you’ll see that the praise for these scenes was pretty universal.
I also thought the encounter between Bill and Kat in the Dupree foyer was equally powerful. No words were exchanged, just looks. As Kat and Bill both sobbed and hugged each other, I just about lost it. Bill and Kat haven’t really crossed paths that much in the past year, so it was nice to see that they were able to come together in spite of their differences.
This is something that was missing from the previous scenes with Leslie, Anita, and Vernon. Those three obviously don’t like each other, and Leslie essentially called Anita’s cancer diagnosis a publicity stunt. There was no, “I don’t like you, but I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.” It could have been a moment, but instead it made Leslie even less humane. But more on her in the next section.
To Live and Die By the Inch
At one point in time, Leslie was one of my favorite characters on Beyond the Gates. I was still on the LSD train (that’s Leslie/Sherry/Dana, if you’re a new reader) when she started slapping on wigs and parading around town as other people. Lately, though, I’ve entered my B.B. King era because the thrill is gone.
Leslie is suddenly everything, everywhere, at all once. In and of itself, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. At the same time that Leslie has become ubiquitous, she’s also managed to go from playfully annoying to downright irritating.
I get it. Leslie is finally getting the chance to live the good life after having had to struggle for years on end. I get that she’s now trying to play the part of all the rich folks she’s seen in television and movies. Quick aside: I have a voice that I use that I call “the Deborah.” It’s sort of that rich, snotty voice that characters in films use when they look down from their privilege onto someone else. It’s meant to be silly and fun. Something like, “You mean you do your own cooking? You don’t have someone to do that for you? How dreadful.” I use it when I am trying to show that something is way over the top and it’s done strictly for comedic purposes.
The comedy has mostly gone from Leslie’s shtick – but not entirely. Leslie’s rant about the “Shouse” construction being shut down grated on me. I’d be upset, too, if my entire project was put on ice, especially over one inch. It was the way she berated the construction worker that got under my skin. It was that mix of meanness and that percussive baby talk that she does.
Send In The Clowns
There was a bit of humor when Leslie dolled herself up so she could flirt with the head of zoning and inspection only to find out that the “he” was actually a “she.” Rather than play the comedic beat, the scene skipped right over that and immediately went back into full throttle annoyance. It might have been funny to see LSD try to charm a woman. Nope, she went into bribe mode – and I know that Leslie had no idea that that’s what she was doing — and then started screaming when the bribe failed.
Another example of how Leslie can be entertaining came when Leslie was stealing all of the ideas that were thrown out for Chelsea and Madison’s wedding. On the surface, it was kind of funny. Leslie was struggling to come up with realistic ideas for Eva and Izaiah’s wedding. A wedding, it should be noted, that doesn’t even need to be planned. So, what does she do? She steals someone else’s ideas. There was a way to make this playful and funny, but it never materialized.
There was also a moment of levity when Izaiah had his talk with Leslie. First of all, with an apartment full of furniture, I am not sure why Izaiah chose to plop down on the couch right next to LSD and put his hand on her knee. I was amused that Leslie thought he was hitting on her. In Leslie’s mind, all men want her. She has a very… let’s call it a very healthy sense of self. It was clear that flirting with Leslie was an idea that didn’t even exist in the furthest recesses of Izaiah’s mind. So to see him flip out a bit when Leslie implied that he was hitting on her. It made for a fun moment.
Beyond the Gates | Photo: Chris Reel/CBS
Has the Wacky LSD Trip Come To an End?
The fun moments are becoming less and less when it comes to Miss Thomas. Even Leslie’s biggest ride-or-die, Eva, is over LSD’s antics. Leslie has become her own little island. There are only two possible routes forward for her. The first is that someone tries to off her. A “Who Killed Leslie?” storyline could be juicy. Every single character on the canvas has a reason to want Leslie to meet her maker. I think it’s more likely that we would get a “Who Almost Killed Leslie?” storyline than an actual murder mystery, but even that would be rewarding.
Equally likely right now is a storyline where Leslie is forced to come hurtling back to earth. She’s been tossing her money around with abandon, and I think the “red market” blood theft ring has a chance to hobble her. I don’t know exactly how it would all play out, but if the clinic is forced to shut down because of criminal activity, Leslie would presumably lose all the money she invested. The Feds might even seize all of her assets if they think she was in on the illegal activities. On top of that, the zoning mishap is going to cost Leslie a bunch of money to correct.
It’s possible that she might need to tap into her trust fund to make up for all the money she’s been spending. And maybe the return on her investments hasn’t kept pace with the amount of money that she has been spending. It’s entirely possible that Leslie could end up back where she started. At the very least, she might be humbled by how quickly her fortunes changed because her bad attitude.
Stake Out Fake Out
Had it not been for a misguided decision to scroll through my social media feed on my way to the living room to fire up Monday’s episode of Beyond the Gates, I might have been a little more shellshocked by Jacob’s “death.” The entire surprise wasn’t given away, but I saw a tweet that mentioned something to the effect of “Naomi’s dream was lazy writing.” That was enough to heighten my Spidey senses.
When I saw the tweet, it was only a few minutes into the show. I almost wondered if there would be a double bluff, a dream within a dream, if you will. We would see Naomi dreaming about Jacob being killed in the line of duty and then waking up to find out it was all a dream – and then to have her really wake up and find out that Jacob had been shot.
Circling back to that tweet, I don’t think having Naomi dream about Jacob’s death was lazy writing. Over the course of several months a few years back, I remember when every big moment on The Bold and the Beautiful turned out to be a dream, daydream, or fantasy. The first time? Really great twist. The second time? Ha ha, you got me. By the third and fourth time, I went into every surprise believing that what we saw wasn’t real. B&B had become the little soap that cried wolf – and then never tried to shock us by having one of the fake-outs turn out not to be fake.
Is This For Real Or Is It Just Another Dream?
I do think that Jacob’s not-death could have been written a bit differently for maximum impact. Jacob’s “death” would have been better crafted as an entire fake-out episode. Let the drama play out for an entire 60 minutes, or 40something if you account for the commercials. At the end of the episode, Naomi could have woken up for real.
Despite the fact that Jabri Hordges (Jacob Hawthorne) is on contract with the show, he hasn’t really had a “moment.” We were first introduced to him holding some fuzzy pink handcuffs. Since that time, he’s been second fiddle in storyline. There were sparks of purpose in Naomi’s pregnancy scare, but somehow even in this undercover mission I am missing the leading man energy. I find myself being more worried about Naomi and curious about DracLia’s involvement than Jacob and his mission. An entire episode devoted to his death – even if it wasn’t real – would have been able to really quantify Jacob’s role on the Beyond the Gates canvas.
Beyond the Gates | Photo: CBS
It’s Not Over
All that said, I still don’t think Jacob is out of danger. A month or two ago, I mentioned that I wasn’t sure if it would be Jacob or Smitty that found themselves in serious peril. For a while, I also had Kat in the mix, but I think she’s moved to the “safe” column. Like Jacob, Smitty isn’t really a character that’s had a chance to shine on his own. There were moments during Martin and Smitty’s rough patch, but other than that, Smitty is basically the character that totes around the bottle of Tide.
I fear danger is lurking and, I feel bad for saying this, I will be really disappointed if, after all this foreshadowing, nothing bad actually happens.
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.
Extra extras — an extra helping!
Another week, another fun encounter with a non-regular cast member. This time it came from wedding planner to the stars – and Leslie Thomas – Bijou. As Leslie was feeling herself and talking about wedding plans, she started to do a little gyration. Bijou (played by Shaquita Smith) wanted to get in on the good vibes, so she started doing what Leslie was doing. Just as Bijou was getting her celebration on, Leslie frowned up her face and told her to stop.
I had even more praise for the show’s extras in last week’s column. You can check that out here.
Kial It Back A Little
I thought it was interesting that Kial showed up unannounced in Nicole’s office to apologize for his poor behavior the day before. Why? Normally, on soaps, men don’t apologize for anything. By extension, women seldom have control in relationships unless there is some sort of blackmail involved. That’s always struct me as odd since the soap viewing audience is predominantly female, but it’s been this way for decades and decades and I guess it won’t be changing any time soon.
Back to Kial, though, it was a dramatic escalation when he offered Nicole a key to his yet-to-be-furnished-or-lived-in home. Kial and Nicole went on their first date during the Winterfest celebration. That was… three months ago? And he is already giving her the key to his place? Maybe he feels more secure doing so because Nicole is a respectable woman of means. Me? I am not giving a key to my house to anyone.
Pseudo-Papa Don’t Preach
I really like the relationship between Izaiah and Joey. Joey has sort of a pseudo-paternal thing going on. It makes a little more sense now that we’ve learned about the relationship Joey had with his own dad. With no kids of his own (that we know of), Joey seems to relish the chance to be a father figure for the younger men that come into his life. We saw it with Donnell, Izaiah, and even Wesley “Sledge” Hammer.
Let’s Play Some Basketball!
It would seem that even the great Senator Dupree has a limit on his pacifism and patience. When Leslie tore into Vernon for interfering in her house-building plans, Vernon stood up straight, took a step toward her, and stared coldly into her eyes. “I have only begun to push. Game on,” he said icily. This was the first time that we’ve really seen Vernon acting like this. I have to say, I kind of like it.
Quick Takes
It was funny watching Dani be mesmerized by what was under hubby Andre’s towel. And when Andre told her, “Eyes up here!” It was even funnier.
The Duprees apparently have a “garden room” in their home. As an avid gardener and plant parent, I want to see it!
Speaking of gardens, I couldn’t help but laugh when Bill revealed that Leslie is planning on having a replica of Michelangelo’s David at her house — with one ever so slight adjustment. It will be done in the form of Idris Elba.
It was more than a little cringe to hear Kat ask Kial what his ex-wife was up to.
The Fractured Clavicles is…an interesting name for a band.
I chuckled when Leslie groaned about the “ungodly hour” of her meeting with the construction manager. She and I might be the only ones that don’t schedule anything before noon.
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).
“They would grill him like a burger at a barbecue.”
Shanice explaining to Monica why Ted would not be joining them at a family gathering.
“I don’t want my wedding to look like a Skittles commercial.”
Chelsea voicing her opposition to a colorful wedding palette.
“Please… I have seen it all. Front, back, upside-down, hanging from a ceiling fan covered in baby oil…”
Leslie, when Eva asked her mother to step outside while she and Izaiah put some clothes on.
“You are so full of it. I don’t know whether to hand you toilet paper or a plunger.”
Derek to Leslie
“Karma’s an even bigger bitch than you.”
Kat to Leslie as she reveled in the glow of Leslie’s construction project being shut down.
“You gotta love the irony that a woman who takes a mile when given an inch is thwarted by that very same inch.”
Vernon
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.
Most of the feedback I received this week had to do with the Bill and Anita scenes. The realness was something that hit home for a lot of viewers.
There was also some unexpected praise from one viewer in what might be seen as a “Has hell frozen over?” moment.
I am not the only one that is wondering if a whodunnit will soon be upon us.
And while Daemon is thinking ahead to a mystery, another viewer has a much more pressing investigation going on.
And proving that there is always a hussy amongst us, Ramona is outraged that one measly inch could keep her from seeing greatness.
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.
To keep up with all of the shenanigans I engage in on social media, please consider giving my a follow on Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and TwitterX.
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.
To read more thoughts, opinions, rants, and raves about daytime television, be sure to check out our Editorial section.
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Kat to Leslie – at Orphey Gene’s post the housing inspection debacle: “I’m here for the tea….”