Beyond The Gates Weekly Recap 03/09–03/13/26

Last week on Beyond The Gates, Jacob continued to make poor decisions, Deanna arrived full of smoke, Vanessa received the tongue-lashing she deserved, and Kat moved in with the grands. Let’s discuss.

Monday

Smitty tried to help bratty Samantha with her essay, but he kept getting distracted by Jacob’s texts. Insert a gif of me looking frustrated because at this point, Smitty has become his partner.

Meanwhile, Martin showed some empathy toward Bill over what happened to Hayley. He was picking up a cake for Samantha and offered Bill advice based on his own experience with trauma responses. It was one of the more grounded moments of the episode.

Kat was missing Chelsea, so she went to see Nicole to talk about it. Somehow, Nicole pivoted into talking about Kat’s vendetta against Leslie and Eva, which felt like it came out of nowhere, but it also made my point for me. Nicole told Kat that she was behaving just like Leslie. She made some fair points, but the writers are still consistently beating up on Kat to make Leslie look better. At this point, we know Joey, Leslie, and Ashley are the favorites in the writers’ room, and it shows. It should never show. Still, Nicole gave Kat solid advice when it came to Chelsea, and Kat actually took it. The result was that she and Chelsea made up.

Vanessa and Joey talked about the dedication ceremony, and Vanessa made it clear that she wanted Joey to meet Deanna. I am sorry, but I do not get Vanessa, and I do not get this storyline. Joey was right to question whether this was the right time for her grieving daughter to meet her lover, especially when Deanna was taking Doug’s death harder than anybody. What also does not work for me is that Vanessa’s desperation for Joey did not just begin. She has been desperate for that man, even when Doug was alive, and I will never forget the way the writers treated Doug on his way out. You do not have to assassinate one character to lift another. If the story works, it works. Vanessa, however, remained determined.

Elsewhere, Chelsea helped Naomi get ready for a night at Uptown, only for Naomi to disinvite her and tell her to go fix things with Kat. Kat and Chelsea made up, and Grayson met Ashley at Uptown.

Tuesday

Jacob called Grayson and asked him to meet. Want to guess where? Go ahead. If you said the alley, here is your cookie. At this point, I expect half the population of Fairmont Crest to be conducting business back there by next week.

At the hospital, Ted and Shanice flirted, and I still cannot help but think Shanice deserves better.

Nicole went to visit Smitty after Samantha called because she was worried about him. What stood out to me was that Nicole seems to have softness and compassion for everyone except her daughter. There is actual material there for the writers to explore, but they stay too busy trying to make Kat look irrational in response to Leslie’s actual crimes.

Jacob, with his hat turned backward and his pants respectfully still up, tried to put on a tough-guy act with Grayson. He insisted that he was not undercover, just down bad financially. Grayson understood that because it was the same reason he was doing what he was doing, but he did not really believe Jacob, and honestly neither did I.

Vanessa was still pressing Joey about dinner with Deanna, while Pam returned to tell Dani about the photo shoot. Dani was not exactly excited because the photographer is ageist. Pam and Andre talked her into approaching it with confidence, and I hope she kills it. Also, why are we not seeing more of Andre and Dani? We love them.

Later, Pam wanted to feature Vanessa in a women’s power conference, but Vanessa had to turn it down because of the vetting process. Imagine risking your career and your life for a criminal and then not even being able to attend a power conference because your own bad choices might come back on you. Vanessa turned it down, and Joey felt bad.

Shanice gave Ted physical therapy, and during the session, they talked about his game and about Nicole.

Later on, Nicole joined Dani and Andre at the club, and Dani was delighted to talk about the basketball game. Andre being visibly uncomfortable throughout it was adorable. Again, why are we not seeing more of Dani? Yes, she is my favorite, and yes, I am biased, but she was on once last week and once this week. What are we doing? The scene itself was funny, with talk of reverse harems flying over Nicole’s head and Dani joking that Andre did not have a scratch on him because Nicole’s men were old and busted. I laughed.

Jacob later called Smitty to talk about Grayson and told him Grayson was on board. Meanwhile, Grayson was clearly questioning everything.

Wednesday

Leslie returned and immediately got to clowning, confusing one of the country club staffers. Vanessa suggested Leslie did not need to make the speech because she could handle it herself, and the two went back and forth.

Joey told Marcel that he needed to put more effort into satisfying his crazy girlfriend because he was tired of her flirting with him. I definitely had thoughts about that conversation, but I am going to leave them right there for now.

Kat noticed that her grands looked tired and decided she wanted to move in, partly to help them out. That was actually a sweet beat.

Deanna met Vanessa at the country club while Eva tried to play mediator between Vanessa and Leslie. Deanna spent some time walking down memory lane and admitted she had not realized just how sad Doug had been beneath everything else.

Meanwhile, Lynette decided she wanted to pursue Bill while openly flirting with Randy. Randy warned her against it. She admitted that she missed Hayley, then fed Randy, and of course Mona showed up, got jealous, and slapped him upside the head. They exchanged words, but I really did not like how this made Mona look so simple and desperate. I did not get it. Mona and Randy actually had some potential, but that scene ruined it for me. Lynette and Randy, however, have fire.

Eva and Derek met to discuss the clinic, and Leslie came by just to rant.

Thursday

The only note I truly wanted to take from this episode was Deanna verbally wearing Vanessa out, because it was deserved. That was the episode for me.

Deanna was great. The actress can act, and naturally, this was her last day because she left. She and Donnell had real sibling chemistry, which makes the decision even more frustrating. I do not understand these showrunners. Hopefully, she comes back, because I would actually like to see her and Donnell become part of the college set Tyrell is drifting into.

In fact, they really need to age Samantha up. Twitter and Bluesky have already dubbed her Gramantha because, well, she is the oldest of the bunch, technically. There is a younger set here they could actually build up and give real stories to if they wanted to.

Friday

Kat met Donnell at the café, and they talked about cotillion and a few other things. These were nice scenes. Too bad he is too young for her, because the consensus is that no one likes Tomas.

Vanessa wanted to know more about Joey, and we got the Sonny Corinthos sob story version of his past. Quite frankly, I was not interested.

And once again, we were told what happened instead of being shown. The clinic opened. Patients were visiting. Supposedly, all of this was happening. But there is no clinic, and by that point, I was done. I barely even wanted to finish the episode.

Weekly Wrap

The best thing about this week was Deanna’s verbal smackdown of Vanessa. Beyond that, I had more disappointments than highlights, and I am sure you can guess most of them.

First, this show still has a serious problem with telling instead of showing. Why build a story around a clinic if we never actually see the clinic? At some point, the audience has to stop filling in the blanks for you.

Second, balance is still an issue. You can have more than one storyline going at a time, and you can spread focus around the canvas. We are seeing less of Andre, Dani, and the Duprees while getting more Joey, Vanessa, and Ashley. Speaking of Ashley, why is she being centered again? Everyone keeps warning Grayson not to hurt her like she were some great emotional stake for the audience. Ashley is not, and has never been, an interesting enough character to center this much around.

Then there is Undercover Paw Patrol. I wanted to love this story, but they have Jacob moving through this plot like a cartoon detective instead of an actual cop. Nothing about it feels smart. Nothing about it feels layered. And the show clearly does not have enough locations to give the story room to breathe. A backwards hat is not an undercover strategy. It is not even the current fashion.

And finally, these stories are dragging. The Kill Bill story has been going on since October. Joey killed Doug sometime in the fall, and it is starting to look like he will never pay for it. Leslie is not paying for her crimes either, and now they seem intent on sweeping everything under the rug while turning what used to be a favorite villain into a clown.

I do not have much more to say about this week other than that I was hugely disappointed.