My View From Beyond the Gates: The person I thought you were

When someone shows you who they are, believe them. Unless, of course, the person they showed you never truly existed. It’s an unusual case of personality disorders in the Beyond the Gates commentary for the week ending August 29, 2025.

With age comes wisdom, or so they say. That doesn’t mean that even the wisest of us won’t make a few mistakes here and there. Since I am spouting pearls of wisdom at the start of this week’s column, there’s another adage that seems appropriate. “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”

But what if the someone in question shows you an entirely different version of their true self? How do you know which to believe? The person who showed you that they were romantically disinterested might actually be obsessed with you. The person who pledged their undying love to you and gave you no reason to think otherwise might have been carrying on a secret life complete with a secret child. Then there’s the town baddie who seemed to be nothing more than a flirty, bawdy sidepiece.

People can and do change, but the changes aren’t always for the better. And, like clothing that magically turns inside out in the laundry, many people simply revert to their original form when put through the wringer. A form you might not have been around to see.

I’ll show you crazy

Normally, I do a slow burn into my commentary. I sort of set the scene with a folksy story or a bit of background on a character or storyline before telling you my opinion. I’m going to cut to the chase this week and just jump right in with the Chelsea kidnapping storyline: Brianna Roberts (Allison “Allistan” Bailey) has been absolutely amazing.

Not that I think this needs to be said, but the Internet being the Internet, I’ll say it anyway:  Kidnapping is wrong. Chaining someone to a bed (without their permission) is wrong. And in spite of enjoying Brianna Roberts’ work, I do not want to see any harm come to Chelsea.

Now that that’s out of the way, I usually feel removed from the action when watching certain movies or television shows where the protagonist is in peril. Why? I feel like the ending is pretty much already written. You just know James Bond isn’t going to die in the middle of the movie. Sure, Meredith Grey has her hand on a bomb inside of a man’s body, but you know there’s no way the title character will be blown to smithereens midseason.

Interestingly enough, I didn’t feel that way this week while watching Beyond the Gates. I was 98% certain that Chelsea would not be seriously harmed or killed by Allistan. Still, there was that 2% chance that Michele Val Jean might have decided to throw us for a loop and do something twisted and dark.

Love is not a hostage taking event

Getting back on track here, Allistan ranks very, very high on my crazy soap opera villainess list. I love a good soap opera whackadoo and all the over-the-top antics that they bring with them.

I saw on social media that some people were griping about the unrealistic things that Allistan was doing. People, the woman stalked Chelsea’s socials for years and then chained her to a bed. Anything she has done falls squarely under the header of whackadoo and does not need to be microanalyzed. To me, everything she said and did was exactly what an obsessed stalker would do.

What did sort of take me out of the moment was Chelsea not once trying to move the bed to which she was chained. It might have been bolted to the ground, but that should have been shown on-screen at least once. Every time Chelsea stretched to reach for something, I found myself screaming, “MOVE THE BED!”

Speaking of, um, “interacting” with the show… I don’t know if you are anything like my household, but me and my secret first-time soap watcher were hollering at the screen this week. “Choke her!” may or may not have been shouted at least three or four… hundred times over the past five episodes. The chain was begging to be used as a weapon. What was the point of Chelsea daydreaming about the defense lessons Bill had given her if she was not going to use them!? There were two things that Chelsea did do that surprised me. The first was when she called Allistan an “abusive prick.” I am not a prude, contrary to what the Evil Richard Simms might tell you, but that was a term I did not expect to hear on a CBS daytime series.

Happy comes later

American soaps have become very, very tame in recent years for a variety of reasons. Love scenes are almost nonexistent. I remember a bunch of years ago Guiding Light, which was also a P&G-produced soap, showed Shayne Lewis’ bare butt. From the reaction, you’d have thought he’d dropped trou in the middle of a big sporting event.

That explains why I was stunned when Chelsea bit Allison’s lip during a forced kiss. It was totally realistic, but yet somewhere I didn’t think a soap would go. Soaps seem to be so worried about alienating the audience and losing ratings that they tend to stay very middle of the road. As a result, fans tune out because they’re bored. But at least they aren’t offended!

Beyond the Gates had done a really good job of trying to be a little more edgy and not falling into the easy soap clichés. Like back-from-the-dead stories. Whereas most soap villains live to see another day even when they’re dead, I don’t know that those odds are in Allistan’s favor. That large butcher knife is practically on contract with the amount of airtime that it’s gotten. There’s a really good chance that Chelsea might take Allistan up on that “’till death do us part” part of the vows.

Welcome to my Ted talk

IamMskye made a very interest point on TwitterX. “Listen, Allison done put in more work to get her girl back than Ted has. He could take notes.”

I mean… she’s not wrong. Obviously, Allistan should never be a role model for anyone, but Ted is the whole other side of the pendulum swing. He sent a few FTD Sympathy bouquets to his wife of 20something years to apologize for having an affair and fathering a child with another woman. Flowers die, Ted, just like your marriage.

I kid about the whole Febreze thing, but a Costco multiflavor pack would have shown more thought than the flowers. Your husbandship right now stinks, Ted. It’s time to freshen things up by breaking out the Sea Salt Caramel & Maple – available in stores now!

Everybody gets a house!

Even when Ted tries to make an effort it’s half-assed and misguided. On what planet does giving his house to LSD (that’s Leslie/Sherry/Dana to the uninitiated) make any kind of sense. In his mind it was a great way to keep Leslie from moving across the street from the Duprees. To him, this is the ultimate gift of love. I am pretty good at solving riddles and I have a pretty good track record of figuring out the Murder, She Wrote killer before Jessica Fletcher did. But Ted? Nothing about this plan is making any sense.

He didn’t so much as reach out to Vernon or Anita to tell them what he was planning. He didn’t give Nicole a heads-up. No, he sat quietly in his hotel room and allowed LSD to wander over and break the news to Nicole. Now, hours after finding out that Ted wanted a forensic account of martial assets, Nicole is finding out that she is being kicked out of her home so that Ted can give said house to his mistress.

Ever since Ted stopped wearing turtlenecks, he’s become increasingly unlikeable. Maybe it will make for good story down the line. Removing Ted from the Dupree orbit could set him up to interact with new characters at some point. He could become a new nemesis for the Duprees since Bill seems to be less hated than he was a few months ago.

Speak of the devil and he (or she) shall appear

It was comical (at least to me) to see Bill finding out about all of the things that Chelsea had kept from him… in the middle of a kidnapping drama. Thrupples. Girlfriends. There were other moments that amused me amidst all of the drama. One of them also involved Bill. When LSD showed up with a sympathy cactus, it didn’t take long before she started badmouthing the entire Dupree family. Enter Bill, who picked up Leslie and carried her out of the house. As he did, LSD shouted, “Unhand me, demon!” And I got a really good chuckle.

I was tickled when both Ashley and Andre showed up separately at the Dupree home. Ashley got to see Andre and Dani in an embrace. For his part, Andre got to see Dani and Bill holding hands and hugging. This is why I don’t leave the house. If you stay home, you don’t have to see things that you don’t want to see.

Hayley also got an eyeful when she showed up unannounced, but unlike Ashley and Andre, Hayley was obnoxious. Somehow, Hayley made Chelsea’s kidnapping all about her. She was not wanted nor needed at the Dupree home – and Caroline had tried to warn Hayley. Hayley didn’t listen to her BFF’s sage advice and, well, she got what she deserved. It didn’t need to go that way. Hayley and Caroline were cute as they watched their Idris Elba programming. There were ways that Hayley could have shown her concern without being so irritating. But, no.

I have an insatiable appetite for the fire

I mused earlier about Allistan’s knife getting a lot of air time, but I noticed this week that another non-contract character seems to have his fingers in just about every storyline: Joey Armstrong. Actor Jon Lindstrom is on recurring status with Beyond the Gates. Without getting technical, the short version is that he is not obligated to the show – and the show is not obligated to him. Beyond the Gates is free to write for Joey as often as they want, and Lindstrom is free to pursue other acting opportunities if he wants.

There was absolutely no reason for Joey to be connected to the kidnapping storyline. Yet, he was. Remember how shocked we were (read: I was) when Joey let Vanessa know that he knew all about her sextracurricular activities with the escort service because he owned it? That came back into play when we found out that Allistan used Joey’s escort service to hire Craig to pretend to be her husband.

A loose end

Speaking of Joey, he took Vanessa breaking things off with him pretty well. I mean, he took it better than I thought he would. For whatever reason, Vanessa seems to have her own idea of who and what Joey is. I’m not sure what flipped the switch for her because she always seemed turned on by the danger. Maybe it was Joey’s threats toward Doug that sealed their fate.

Joey didn’t seem to believe that he and Vanessa were truly over. That might be because Vanessa knew some of his secrets. He called Vanessa a “loose end,” which to me implied that he could fit her for cement shows and toss her in the Potomac. Joey also peacocked a bit, telling Vanessa, “Now that you’ve had a taste of the real thing, you’ll be back. I just can’t promise that I’ll still be interested once you figure out what it is you really want.”

Beyond the Gates Speed Round

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

This is not how I thought this would go

Last week I suggested that someone other than Allistan could have kidnapped Chelsea. Even after they showed Allison in the cabin, I wasn’t convinced she was the kidnapper. I thought that Chelsea might have dreamed Allison’s appearance the same way that she did the visits from her loved ones. I was fully prepared for an end-of-show shocker. Someone on social media even said that they thought that Madison could have been the kidnapper (or working with Allison) since Madison admitted to stalking Chelsea’s socials, too. That would have made for a jaw-dropping twist.

Rinse and repeat

Another holiday means… another week of repeats. There’s still no official word from Beyond the Gates about why they choose to air an entire week of repeats when a holiday comes around. None of the other soaps do this. With the exception of General Hospital, the other soaps even air original episodes on Labor Day.

I suspect it has something to do with budget or, perhaps, lower ratings on certain holidays. There has been no mention of any kind of holiday since the show premiered, so maybe there was uncertainty about when the show would actually hit the airwaves and they didn’t want to make references to things that might not match up to the real world.

I’ve heard that Beyond the Gates will acknowledge Christmas, but I sure hope that we don’t get repeats between Christmas and the New Year.

Your family corners the market

I appreciated that the Monday, August 24, episode was all about Chelsea’s kidnapping. There were no “B stories” cycling in and out of the episode. Single family/character/story episodes do not always work on soaps, but this was an instance where it didn’t only work but was absolutely necessary.

On top of that, I thought the performances were strong all week. Some scenes required actors to ping-pong between an array of emotions. There were no performances that killed the moment. I thought Kenjah, who plays Madison, had a standout moment when Madison broke down at the hospital.

It must have been an emotionally draining week for RhonniRose Mantilla, who plays Chelsea. She may have had to portray every single soap opera emotion within the five episodes that aired this week. She did it in a way that made me unsure of what Chelsea was going to do next. RhonniRose and Brianna Roberts are great scene partners.

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 or that I found memorable over the past week (and haven’t already been mentioned in this column).

“You call being a manwhore legitimate?!” — Kat to Craig upon learning that he wasn’t quite who she believed him to be.

“Would you like a spot of tea for that thirst, darling?” – Hayley, in some sort of British accent, while teasing Caroline about her lust for Idris Elba.

“Chelsea and her phone have a long-term, committed, codependent relationship.” — Kat, trying to explain why it was a big deal that Chelsea’s phone was found in their living room.

“I don’t even want to know what that’s about.” — Vernon when he spotted Vanessa and Joey being cozy-ish at another table at Uptown.

“We’re Duprees. We don’t do failure.” — Anita Dupree.

“Who the hell is Edie?” — Kat said this upon finding the social media account that Allison set up as a decoy, and it wasn’t meant to be funny, but for some reason it made me laugh.

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.

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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. Tamilu is on deck with week with a new column called, All Tied Up.

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

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