Beyond the Gates Recap for December 16, 2025: Tomás's mission was ambition and Hayley was a Val-ley girl

Here's what went down Tuesday, December 16, 2025 on Beyond the Gates when Anita played her Christmas cards close to her breast, Chelsea got a different peek than she hoped for, and...the Dupree mansion has a bowling alley?

What happened on Beyond the Gates

On Beyond the Gates, Joey was flicking playing cards across the room but was stopping to stare at the queen of hearts when Vanessa walked in, asking if he would be tossing her away or keeping her. Vanessa recounted how they each tended to switch back and forth between running away and chasing each other; Joey was happy to have Vanessa as the Bonnie to his Clyde, except she kept trying to cash in her chips. He didn't understand what was so urgent about their taking their relationship public when they had all the time in the world.

Vanessa remarked that Doug likely thought he'd have time like that as well. Joey didn't think a fate like Doug's would befall him, but Vanessa looked back and lamented how much time she had wasted with Doug. After finally taking off her wedding ring while vacationing with Joey in Puerto Rico, Vanessa had been ready to tell Doug their marriage was over the minute she'd gotten home. She was mourning the man and father, yes, but she had detached from her husband long before.

Becoming emotional, Vanessa told Joey how she had been what everyone else needed from her: supermom for Deanna and Donnell and the perfect doctor's wife for Doug. She had gotten a little of herself back by opening her real estate business, but she had still been trying to find fulfillment through a stream of meaningless affairs. Then she had met Joey, with whom she felt appreciated and respected, and Vanessa said she would crawl to get to him.

Joey didn't want Vanessa setting fire to her life just to be with him; while he understood that Vanessa was ready to move on with her life, he knew that her kids were still grieving their father. Joey didn't want Donnell and Deanna to lose their mother to him. Vanessa recalled how disillusioned Donnell had been in discovering the secret life Doug had led and wanted to be honest about the way she was living. Joey promised Vanessa that he wasn't going anywhere.

At Uptown, Lynette called Hayley “Val.” Hayley said that her name was Mrs. Bill Hamilton; Lynette was amused that she was going by Hayley “this time.” Sensing that Hayley had quit “the game” and found herself a “keeper,” Lynette was surprised, since “Val” had been the expert scammer, while she and Randy had simply followed her example. When Lynette said that Bill had seemed, to her, like all of Hayley's other previous marks, Hayley insisted that she had fallen in love with Bill. Didn't they deserve love after everything they'd been through, Hayley asked? Lynette sighed that they “probably deserved the opposite.”

Lynette promised that Hayley's secrets were safe with her. Hayley questioned the timing of Lynette approaching Bill for legal help, saying that the two of them “used to engineer coincidences.” Lynette assured that the embezzlement charges against her were real, and that she had been referred to Bill rather than seeking him out specifically. Although Lynette was innocent, she wondered if karma had finally caught up to her, then marveled that Hayley had found herself a rich man. Hayley remembered they had thought money would solve their problems; now Hayley had new problems “dressed up in designer clothes.” Lynette toasted her friend, saying she was getting everything she deserved.

Bill told Tomás about the charges against Lynette and wanted his subordinate to thoroughly investigate the new client, since they couldn't simply assume she was telling the truth about her innocence. Tomás was surprised but thrilled that Bill wanted him to run point on the case, since he had never handled a criminal proceeding before. Bill asked if Tomás was up for it, especially after his unfortunate penile injury.

Tomás was embarrassed but rebounded, asserting that he wouldn't accept anything less than winning. Bill admitted he had been testing Tomás and was impressed that Tomás had taken the heat and turned it into something positive. After pledging that he wouldn't tweak Tomás about the temporary incapacitation anymore, Bill advised him to take Kat out – because most of his time going forward would be dedicated to his professional life, not his personal life.

Chelsea and Kat shared a table at Orphey Gene's; Kat was annoyed that Chelsea was more interested in texting Madison than she was in ChelseaKat's sales figures, which were six months ahead of Kat's projections. Noticing that Kat hadn't been texting Tomás, Chelsea assumed he was “buggin'” because Kat didn't want to move in with him. Kat admitted that she was being a “scaredy-Kat”: with Dani having been betrayed despite giving up her career to be with Bill, and Nicole only now beginning to reclaim herself after Ted's infidelity, living with Tomás seemed to fit into Kat's vision of her future even less. There was also Tomás having slept with Eva to consider; Kat worried that, like Dani, she would snap if she twisted herself into being someone she wasn't for the sake of a man.

Kat huffed when Tomás texted her, wanting to get together that evening. When he arrived, Kat told him that he and Chelsea would probably be working for another hour, but soon Chelsea had to take off. Tomás excitedly gushed to Kat about how Bill was trusting him to tackle a criminal case despite his lack of experience – and if he handled that well, surely partnership was next. Kat was less than enthusiastic because it would further tie Tomás to Bill, and Tomás was disappointed that Kat was expressing negativity about his potential advancement instead of celebrating with him.

Remembering how Naomi had idolized Bill only to be devastated by him, Kat didn't want the same outcome for Tomás, who was adamant that he didn't worship his boss. Kat winced when Tomás said he had gotten into law to be Bill Hamilton. Tomás explained that, back in Puerto Rico, people had looked down on his parents because of their poverty, and, as a child, he had been subjected to teasing and scorn because of his desire to better himself by becoming an attorney. Tomás had only been able to afford law school because of his stint in the Navy, and he refused to go back to being that kid, especially when he was thisclose to reaching “the promised land.”

Kat insisted that there were other firms at which Tomás could thrive – Tomás could even open his own practice, the way Naomi had. Tomás had no intention of starting over; he didn't think succeeding under Bill would change him and he still envisioned having Kat at his side. Kat sat motionless as Tomás declared that he was “all in” with Bill.

Hayley returned to Bill's office, though Bill noticed that Hayley hadn't had her planned manicure. Hayley lied that she had simply had the same color put on and attempted to get Bill to move up their trip to St. Bart's. Bill said their vacation depended on Lynette's case and whether or not she was actually innocent; Bill praised Hayley for her ability to read people and wondered what her take on Lynette was. Hayley said she hadn't spent enough time around Lynette to be sure and wasn't thrilled when Bill wanted Hayley to assist Tomás on the case once they got back from the Caribbean. Bill attributed Hayley's resistance to the probability that Hayley just didn't want to spy on her friend.

Bill reminded Hayley that she had tried to use Tomás to make him jealous. Relieved that Bill hadn't been talking about Lynette, Hayley understood that it was Tomás her husband wanted her to spy on. Maybe she could learn from the embezzlement case, Hayley said wryly – it might teach her how to not get caught when she fleeced Bill and took him for everything he had! Bill thought the “joke” was funny; Hayley smirked to herself.

Dani got a foot massage from Andre while she designed a Christmas card using the photo of their drunken wedding in Vegas, in which they'd posed with Anita Williams impersonator Jackie Tyree. After Dani swore to the private Andre that only family and friends would see the card, Andre still wanted to replace it with an image that showed they were certain of their love and offered to pose with her in a “sexy Santa” shoot. Dani was all for playing “reindeer games” with her husband – but first they needed to stop by her parents' house to discuss how they were going to organize Christmas.

Anita walked into the Dupree mansion, exclaiming to Vernon, “I leave you alone and you're cheating on me with Ada.” Vernon had been reading the poetic works of Ada M. Wright; he recalled how, while Anita's other suitors had showered her with finery when he'd met her, he had simply given her a book. “I couldn't sing to save my life,” the patriarch chuckled, but he had known what lyrics had meant to her. Anita became somber as Vernon quoted a verse – when Vernon noticed, Anita said she was just tired after all the work that had gone into WinterFest...and she was already tired thinking of how much had to go into Christmas.

Vernon suggested that they just fly off alone together to be somewhere quiet – with no construction; Leslie's “shouse” was still being built across the street – but Anita, thinking back to her biopsy, told her husband, “I can't relax just yet.”

Dani and Andre arrived to pitch in and take care of holiday prep. Vernon challenged Andre to a game of bowling downstairs in the mansion's alley, leaving Anita and Dani to go over details. Dani was concerned when Anita didn't want to partake in the usual family tradition of going door-to-door in Fairmont Crest, and when Anita suddenly asked Dani to take care of Vernon should something happen to her. When Dani noticed how tense her mother was, Anita smiled that she and Vernon were golden; she was allowed to have an “occasional fleeting emotional moment.”

Vernon emerged triumphant from the bowling alley, having beaten Andre handily. The men were good-natured about it, and Dani and Andre readied to depart, though Dani looked unsettled. Vernon was glad his daughter and son-in-law were gone, because he wanted to pamper Anita, unable to fathom what his life would be like without her.

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Chelsea snuck into Dani's house, searching cupboards and drawers for something. Dani and Andre arrived; Chelsea hid and heard them giggling about getting ready for their X-rated photo shoot. When Chelsea got pelted by undergarments, she gave up and revealed herself; Dani smiled that she knew Chelsea was looking for her Christmas presents. Then, Dani asked her daughter if Anita seemed any different to her. To Chelsea, Anita didn't; Dani felt that Anita had been cryptic, but also that she had been taught by her to trust her instincts. Something was off, Dani decided.

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

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