Beyond the Gates Recap for December 12, 2025: Ted was Shanice's catch of the day and a new fish swam into Hayley's pond

Here's what went down Friday, December 12, 2025 on Beyond the Gates when Kat told Tomás why she didn't want to call U-Haul, enough wasn't for Vanessa, and the Hawthornes turned their minus into a plus.

What happened on Beyond the Gates

On Beyond the Gates, June greeted Ted at the Orphey Gene's counter and left to retrieve his lunch special – the last order of catfish for the day. Then Shanice arrived, and June realized she had also promised it to her. Shanice and Ted both graciously offered each other the meal, but bounced back and forth so much that June finally exclaimed “All right already!” in response. It was like Ted and Shanice were in a competition to see who could be nicer, she said. If they didn't make up their minds, she'd just cut the fish in half!

Ted decided splitting the order would be a good idea and invited Shanice to share it with him at a table, rather than him going back to his hotel room to warm up his half in the microwave; he joked that housekeeping would love the smell. Shanice accepted and wondered what it was like for Ted living in a hotel. Ted extolled the virtues of having housekeeping clean up after him, and rotating neighbors, but Shanice caught on, after which he said that the setting was as sterile as the hospital, and that eating every meal alone was the worst part.

Shanice found Ted's isolation odd, since he had plenty in the way of family and friends. Ted conceded that he occasionally saw family members, but he and Nicole had mostly hung out with other couples; the plastic surgeon described partner Carlton as a long-term friend, though he'd put little stock in the friendship since Carlton started acting on his attraction to Nicole. Shanice called Ted out when he balked that Nicole had attended WinterFest with a completely different guy on her arm, given that Ted had said he wanted Nicole to be able to move on. Ted joked that he had only been that magnanimous to impress Shanice, who said he still had a friend in her.

Kat was looking at the notification on her phone telling her that Tomás had called when the real thing entered her guest house. Ms. Richardson claimed she hadn't gotten back to him because she was busy, but after Tomás remarked that she had gone silent right after he'd asked her to move in with him, she admitted that she'd held off returning his call because she hadn't known what to say. Tomás couldn't understand why Kat was hesitating, since they'd just spent a whole weekend together. Kat said that wasn't the same as being together all day, every day.

Tomás correctly presumed that they'd just end up living together eventually anyway, so he didn't see the point in delaying that inevitability. When he asked Kat if she was afraid, she sassed, “I'm not basic, and I don't fold.” However, she did feel that Tomás was trying to up the intensity of their relationship by 1000%. Tomás grumbled that he wasn't used to women turning him away, which led Kat to ask how many there had been. Navarro deflected and said that it wasn't his history that was holding her back.

Kat finally repeated what she had told Martin – that Tomás wouldn't end up liking her if he was around her all the time. She knew she could be a lot and deemed it risky for them to be in constant close proximity. Tomás was okay with Kat being a handful and wanted to be able to determine for himself whether or not to spend that much time near each other. Kat went a step further and noted that it hadn't been all that long since she'd watched her mother fall apart over her father's affair. She was in love with Tomás, but she just needed to get to the next step of cohabitation on her own. Tomás gave her that space.

In Bill's office, Hayley chattered about cases until Bill seemed like he wanted to have a serious talk. Instead, Bill thanked his wife for helping him when he'd fainted from not eating, and for not using the incident as an excuse to further control his diet. Hayley decided they needed to get away and presented Bill with plane tickets to St. Bart's – but Bill was fine with going over the holidays like they'd planned, as he had upcoming trials and such he couldn't simply fly away from. Hayley smiled through gritted teeth but flashed back to increasing the amount of poison in Bill's tea before his collapse.

Hayley went to the country club – Leslie saw her but didn't hear her complaining to Randy about barely being able to keep Bill from getting checked out by a doctor after his blackout. For her plan to work, Hayley said, she needed for Bill to be isolated when he succumbed to the poison, hence the attempt to move up their trip to the Caribbean isle.

Caroline ushered a new client, Lynette Wise, into Bill's office. Lynette said she had chosen Bill because of his reputation for being dogged yet discreet. Bill looked over her situation, learning that she'd been recently released from jail for embezzlement and was facing a lawsuit from the bank she had allegedly stolen the money from. Lynette claimed herself innocent and Bill was confident that he could get the charges against her dropped. Soon after, Hayley returned to her husband's office and barely hid a look of recognition as Bill introduced her to Lynette.

Leslie spotted Vanessa in the country club lobby and summoned her to join her and Eva. Vanessa became nervous when Leslie inquired into her “services,” requesting “something big” – the procurement of which Vanessa knew more about than most. Eva saying the matter was less about her needs and more about the community's nearly had Vanessa in a faint until Eva brought up the free clinic she was looking to help establish. “Oh! This is about real estate,” Vanessa signed in relief, with Leslie telling “Barbie” that of course it was.

Eva explained about Samantha being moved to start the clinic because of her mother's experience being homeless without medical care. She felt out of her depth, but Leslie crowed that Eva had plenty of experience running her father's clinic. Vanessa stepped in and advised Eva to consider the cost of legalities before exploring real estate; the widow McBride also cautioned Eva to be careful with whom she aligned herself and to ensure the clinic's sustainability, along with getting the best return on the investment. Leslie deemed Vanessa a smart businesswoman and wondered if she'd ever considered other fields besides real estate. Vanessa slyly replied that it had “crossed [her] mind.”

Later, Leslie's takeaway from the conversation with Vanessa was that she and Eva would need to get a lawyer. Eva saw where Leslie was going and refused to contact Tomás for fear of making things even worse with Kat than they already were. Leslie figured that Eva was unwilling because she still had a thing for Tomás, but Eva was clear that she liked where things were going with Izaiah. There were plenty of other lawyers she could call; when Leslie learned who Eva had in mind, she was sure the attorney would say no, but Eva picked up her phone to get in touch anyway.

Vanessa met Joey at Uptown and kissed him, laughing that the buss didn't get nearly the reaction their country club embrace had. She loved that Joey had given everyone at Fairmont Crest an eyeful – though it was less about their shock than it was the signal Joey had sent her about their relationship truly taking off. Joey reiterated that he had only been trying to protect Vanessa with his clandestineness, but she didn't want his protection – just his love.

Joey openly held Vanessa's hand, prompting her to ask what was next. Vanessa decided that, should Joey be hospitalized or otherwise hurt owing to his hazardous line of work, they should arrange for Vanessa to be notified somehow. Joey didn't know if he could deliver on Vanessa's request to be his emergency contact and joked about simply making sure he didn't end up in a ditch somewhere – but Vanessa became increasingly unyielding. Armstrong worried that there were those who might take advantage of Vanessa being connected to him in that way; she sulked that if she really mattered to him, he'd see to it.

Not wanting another wife, Joey reminded Vanessa that his one attempt at marriage had failed. Vanessa still wanted a commitment, but when Joey observed that “your husband's barely cold in the grave,” she tried to hit him. Joey was fine with their relationship being known but felt that Vanessa needed to finish grieving Doug before they went any further. Vanessa accused Joey of running because his wife had cheated on him, causing him to inform Vanessa that she was pushing him too far; he paid the bill and left.

Jacob was annoyed that Trudy, the couples therapist he and Naomi were seeing, had given them “homework.” The Hawthornes acknowledged that they hadn't made love since before their dispute over children. Both Naomi and Jacob wanted to reconnect physically, as Trudy had asked them to work on; Jacob got an inspiration and took off, telling Naomi she'd be glad he did.

Naomi got a text from Jacob to meet him at the hotel, where he had sprinkled a bed with rose petals. Jacob guided Naomi into a kiss, but she stopped the interaction, saying it didn't feel natural because it felt like an assignment. They each concurred that they felt pressured and wanted to give each other more time, though were uncertain how, between Naomi's caseload and Jacob's overnight shifts at the station. Naomi wondered if they should go home, but Jacob decided they might as well take advantage of the paid room and watch a movie on Paramount Plus instead.

Trending

Relaxing on the bed, Naomi became tearful as the on-screen couple tried to hard to be together despite how much they had stacked against them. Jacob felt the same hope for the characters as Naomi did, which influenced the marrieds to kiss. Soon they were making love as the movie cast flickered light across their hotel room.

Beyond the Gates airs weekdays on CBS and streams on Paramount Plus.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback