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\u2019t working nonstop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, though, I suddenly have an hour in my day that I need to fill and it\u2019s too cold to go outside and play. I don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite it being a short week, there are still some things to talk about. So let\u2019s get ready to talk about the good, the bad, and the Leslie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bill of Rights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
I think it makes the most sense to start off this column with the week\u2019s highlight. In fact, it\u2019s a highlight that stands out as one of the best in Beyond the Gates\u2019<\/em> 250something episodes to date. The scenes between Anita and Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We weren\u2019t 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<\/em> started airing. We\u2019ve always been given the impression that Bill respected Vernon and Anita.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the moment Timon Kyle Durrett\u2019s Bill Hamilton saw Anita, something changed. Bill\u2019s 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\u2019s frail state that he didn\u2019t know how to proceed. At least that\u2019s what I assumed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bill later revealed that for a moment, a very brief moment, he thought Anita was his mother. We haven\u2019t been told a lot about Bill\u2019s past. He\u2019s mentioned on several occasions that his dad wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019t 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\u2019t 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019t really crossed paths that<\/em> much in the past year, so it was nice to see that they were able to come together in spite of their differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is something that was missing from the previous scenes with Leslie, Anita, and Vernon. Those three obviously don\u2019t like each other, and Leslie essentially called Anita\u2019s cancer diagnosis a publicity stunt. There was no, \u201cI don\u2019t like you, but I wouldn\u2019t wish this on anyone.\u201d It could have been a moment, but instead it made Leslie even less humane. But more on her in the next section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At one point in time, Leslie was one of my favorite characters on Beyond the Gates.<\/em> I was still on the LSD train (that\u2019s Leslie\/Sherry\/Dana, if you\u2019re a new reader) when she started slapping on wigs and parading around town as other people. Lately, though, I\u2019ve entered my B.B. King era because the thrill is gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leslie is suddenly everything, everywhere, at all once. In and of itself, that\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing. At the same time that Leslie has become ubiquitous, she\u2019s also managed to go from playfully annoying to downright irritating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s now trying to play the part of all the rich folks she\u2019s seen in television and movies. Quick aside: I have a voice that I use that I call \u201cthe Deborah.\u201d It\u2019s sort of that rich, snotty voice that characters in films use when they look down from their privilege onto someone else. It\u2019s meant to be silly and fun. Something like, \u201cYou mean you do your own <\/em>cooking? You don\u2019t have someone to do that for<\/em> you? How dreadful.<\/em>\u201d I use it when I am trying to show that something is way<\/em> over the top and it\u2019s done strictly for comedic purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The comedy has mostly gone from Leslie\u2019s shtick \u2013 but not entirely. Leslie\u2019s rant about the \u201cShouse\u201d construction being shut down grated on me. I\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u201che\u201d was actually a \u201cshe.\u201d 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 \u2013 and I know that Leslie had no idea that that\u2019s what she was doing — and then started screaming when the bribe failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s wedding. On the surface, it was kind of funny. Leslie was struggling to come up with realistic ideas for Eva and Izaiah\u2019s wedding. A wedding, it should be noted, that doesn\u2019t even need to be planned. So, what does she do? She steals someone else\u2019s ideas. There was a way to make this playful and funny, but it never materialized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/em> I was amused that Leslie thought he was hitting on her. In Leslie\u2019s mind, all men want her. She has a very\u2026 let\u2019s 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\u2019s mind. So to see him flip out a bit when Leslie implied that he was hitting on her. It made for a fun moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fun moments are becoming less and less when it comes to Miss Thomas. Even Leslie\u2019s biggest ride-or-die, Eva, is over LSD\u2019s 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 \u201cWho Killed Leslie?\u201d storyline could be juicy. Every single character on the canvas has a reason to want Leslie to meet her maker. I think it\u2019s more likely that we would get a \u201cWho Almost Killed Leslie?\u201d storyline than an actual murder mystery, but even that would be rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Equally likely right now is a storyline where Leslie is forced to come hurtling back to earth. She\u2019s been tossing her money around with abandon, and I think the \u201cred market\u201d blood theft ring has a chance to hobble her. I don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s possible that she might need to tap into her trust fund to make up for all the money she\u2019s been spending. And maybe the return on her investments hasn\u2019t kept pace with the amount of money that she has been spending. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s episode of Beyond the Gates<\/em>, I might have been a little more shellshocked by Jacob\u2019s \u201cdeath.\u201d The entire<\/em> surprise wasn\u2019t given away, but I saw a tweet that mentioned something to the effect of \u201cNaomi\u2019s dream was lazy writing.\u201d That was enough to heighten my Spidey senses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u2013 and then to have her really <\/em>wake up and find out that Jacob had been shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Circling back to that tweet, I don\u2019t think having Naomi dream about Jacob\u2019s death was lazy writing. Over the course of several months a few years back, I remember when every<\/em> big moment on The Bold and the Beautiful<\/em> 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\u2019t real. B&B<\/em> had become the little soap that cried wolf \u2013 and then never tried to shock us by having one of the fake-outs turn out not to be fake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do think that Jacob\u2019s not-death could have been written a bit differently for maximum impact. Jacob\u2019s \u201cdeath\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the fact that Jabri Hordges (Jacob Hawthorne) is on contract with the show, he hasn\u2019t really had a \u201cmoment.\u201d We were first introduced to him holding some fuzzy pink handcuffs. Since that time, he\u2019s been second fiddle in storyline. There were sparks of purpose in Naomi\u2019s 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\u2019s involvement than Jacob and his mission. An entire episode devoted to his death \u2013 even if it wasn\u2019t real \u2013 would have been able to really quantify Jacob\u2019s role on the Beyond the Gates<\/em> canvas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All that said, I still don\u2019t think Jacob is out of danger. A month or two ago, I mentioned that I wasn\u2019t sure if it would be Jacob or Smitty that found themselves in serious peril. For a while, I also had Kat in the mix<\/a><\/strong>, but I think she\u2019s moved to the \u201csafe\u201d column. Like Jacob, Smitty isn\u2019t really a character that\u2019s had a chance to shine on his own. There were moments during Martin and Smitty\u2019s rough patch, but other than that, Smitty is basically the character that totes around the bottle of Tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some of the thoughts and observations about other things happening on Beyond the Gates<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another week, another fun encounter with a non-regular cast member. This time it came from wedding planner to the stars \u2013 and Leslie Thomas \u2013 Bijou. As Leslie was feeling herself and talking about wedding plans, she started to do a little gyration. Bijou (played by Shaquita Smith)<\/strong> 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I had even more praise for the show’s extras in last week’s column. You can check that out here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought it was interesting that Kial showed up unannounced in Nicole\u2019s office to apologize for his poor behavior the day before. Why? Normally, on soaps, men don\u2019t apologize for anything. By extension, women seldom have control in relationships unless there is some sort of blackmail involved. That\u2019s always struct me as odd since the soap viewing audience is predominantly female, but it\u2019s been this way for decades and decades and I guess it won\u2019t be changing any time soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2026 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019ve 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 \u201cSledge\u201d Hammer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. \u201cI have only begun to push. Game on,\u201d he said icily. This was the first time that we\u2019ve really seen Vernon acting like this. I have to say, I kind of like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Duprees apparently have a “garden room” in their home. As an avid gardener and plant parent, I want to see it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was more than a little cringe to hear Kat ask Kial what his ex-wife was up to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Fractured Clavicles is…an interesting name for a band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Beyond the Gates<\/em> 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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey would grill him like a burger at a barbecue.\u201d<\/strong> \u201cI don’t want my wedding to look like a Skittles commercial.\u201d<\/strong> \u201cPlease… I have seen it all. Front, back, upside-down, hanging from a ceiling fan covered in baby oil…\u201d<\/strong> \u201cYou are so full of it. I don’t know whether to hand you toilet paper or a plunger.\u201d<\/strong> \u201cKarma’s an even bigger bitch than you.\u201d<\/strong> \u201cYou gotta love the irony that a woman who takes a mile when given an inch is thwarted by that very same inch.\u201d<\/strong> I love interacting with other Beyond the Gates fans. So I thought I\u2019d create a section to share some of the comments I\u2019ve received on my columns and social media posts. If you\u2019d 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<\/strong><\/a>, Instagram<\/strong><\/a>, Threads<\/strong><\/a>, Facebook<\/strong><\/a>, and\/or TwitterX<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was also some unexpected praise from one viewer in what might be seen as a “Has hell frozen over?” moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am not the only one that is wondering if a whodunnit will soon be upon us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And while Daemon is thinking ahead to a mystery, another viewer has a much more pressing investigation going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And proving that there is always a hussy amongst us, Ramona is outraged that one measly inch could keep her from seeing greatness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I love interacting with other Beyond the Gates fans. So I thought I\u2019d create a section to share some of the comments I\u2019ve received on my columns and social media posts. If you\u2019d 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<\/strong><\/a>, Instagram<\/strong><\/a>, Threads<\/strong><\/a>, Facebook<\/strong><\/a>, and\/or TwitterX<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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<\/em> in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’ve enjoyed my column this week and want to see what I have written about Beyond the Gates<\/em> in previous weeks, you can check those out in the My View From Beyond the Gates<\/a><\/strong> archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have a penchant for gardening, interior design, or fixing up old houses? Check out my Manor Makeover series<\/a><\/strong> where I write about all of the things I’ve been up to here at Kroll Manor in Allentown, PA, over the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To keep up with all of the shenanigans I engage in on social media, please consider giving my a follow on Bluesky<\/strong><\/a>, Instagram<\/strong><\/a>, Threads<\/strong><\/a>, Facebook<\/strong><\/a>, and TwitterX<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHitting Home, No Matter What Side of the Gates You’re On<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
To Live and Die By the Inch<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Send In The Clowns<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Beyond the Gates | Photo: Chris Reel\/CBS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nHas the Wacky LSD Trip Come To an End?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Stake Out Fake Out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Is This For Real Or Is It Just Another Dream?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Beyond the Gates | Photo: CBS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt’s Not Over<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Beside, Behind, and Beyond The Gates: The Speed Round<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Extra extras — an extra helping!<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Kial It Back A Little<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Pseudo-Papa Don’t Preach<\/strong><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Let’s Play Some Basketball!<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Quick Takes<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Beyond the Gates: Lines of the Week<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Shanice explaining to Monica why Ted would not be joining them at a family gathering.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Chelsea voicing her <\/em>opposition to a colorful wedding palette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Leslie, when Eva asked her mother to step outside while she and Izaiah put some clothes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Derek to Leslie<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Kat to Leslie as she reveled in the glow of Leslie’s construction project being shut down.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Vernon <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nGatecrashers: Reader and Viewer Feedback<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFollow my Random Acts of Dan<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Life outside the gates<\/h5>\n\n\n\n