Beyond the Gates Recap, June 19, 2025: Vernon sprung into action and June was busting out all over

Here's what went down Thursday, June 19, 2025 on Beyond the Gates when a lawsuit helped bridge the gap between Chelsea and Bill, Kat's virginity wore thin on Tomás, and Smitty may have dug himself past the point of no return.

What happened on Beyond the Gates

On Beyond the Gates, Vernon noticed that Martin had barely touched his country club breakfast. Conversation turned to Anita's progress rehearsing in Chicago with the Articulettes, but Martin kept watch on the busboy, “Kenneth,” who had whispered the phrase from his nightmares to him. Vernon decided that if “Kenneth” was indeed gaslighting Vernon, something needed to be done about him. Martin was all right with Vernon's idea to speak to the club's manager and have “Kenneth” assigned to another area, though he wanted to be careful about not antagonizing him.

Former Senator Dupree dissented to a degree, noting that they might have to risk rocking the boat to find out if the busboy was toying with them – Vernon suggested simply confronting the man together. Martin didn't think that “Kenneth” would tell them anything he already hadn't during his encounter with him; Vernon would have been ready to think no harm was intended if Martin hadn't relayed how “Kenneth”'s face had worn a sneer at one point. Though Martin predicted the man would continue to play dumb, Vernon wanted to put a stop to whatever was being stirred up and called “Kenneth” to the table. Martin had another flashback...which featured Elon, the chief of police – also Jacob's father.

When Vernon inquired into whether or not “Kenneth” had seen them before, “Kenneth” replied that he couldn't be certain, “with so many of your people looking alike.” “Kenneth” corrected that he meant the large Dupree family, and said that it wasn't possible for him to have seen any of them outside of the club, as they, being “Black royalty,” traveled in richer circles than he. After “Kenneth” was excused, Vernon frowned, “That's him.” Martin was in agreement.

Vernon wanted confirmation, however, because while “Kenneth”'s voice was familiar, his face wasn't. Martin said the emergence of the man wasn't a coincidence – he was sure “Kenneth” wanted something. In his rush to follow Vernon out of the banquet room, Martin forgot his keys, while Vernon made a call fuming that “this” was never supposed to have happened. The patriarch commanded the person on the other side to give him assurances that things were being handled. “Don't disappoint me,” the usually kindly Vernon growled. Meanwhile, Martin returned for his keys, only to see that they were gone. He thought that he sensed “Kenneth” behind him holding them, but it was only another vision.

Tyrell noted Smitty's level of concentration as he conducted research, joking that his dad could maybe beat him at chess one day if he gave the game the same focus. Smitty was in accord with Tyrell that it was difficult to stay objective in the news, since everyone had their own viewpoints; Tyrell saw that Smitty was turning his “puff piece” on Marcel into something more investigative. After swearing Tyrell to secrecy, Smitty read a portion of his draft to the boy and remarked that the cop hired to serve and protect may only be protecting himself.

Smitty explained to Tyrell that he had gotten access to Marcel's financial records, and that there was a sudden, unaccounted cash deposit of $5,000 in Marcel's bank account, as well as the quiet purchase of a house in the Caribbean – all of which led Smitty to believe that Marcel had been taking payoffs. Tyrell had to agree that a run-of-the-mill cop didn't just become a millionaire in two years unless there was a very good reason.

Further probing by Smitty unearthed another Marcel deposit, this one for half a million dollars, made two years prior. It was Tyrell's thought that that money was how Marcel had been able to buy his boat and house. Smitty said his next step was to figure out who had supplied Marcel's windfalls. He then made arrangements to meet with someone, sternly saying the meeting had to happen “now.”

Marcel watched an angry Jacob hanging up on an apparently untrustworthy colleague and snarked, “Boy Scout has a temper!” Jacob brushed Marcel off when he asked about “Loony Leslie” and deemed his partner full of talk when Marcel went on about having to have an edge to get things done. Later, with Jacob gone, Marcel pumped Elon for information about Smitty's article, grumbling that the reporter had dug too deep with it – if any of Smitty's insinuations went public, “everything and everyone around me goes boom.” Elon opined that Smitty might have been tipped off; Marcel speculated that Martin might be connected somehow.

Elon arranged for no more interviews to be conducted with department staff, but Marcel was still worried about Smitty's leads. Jacob's dad said that Smitty had no idea his trail would lead him right back home. Both crooked cops were united in that Smitty had to be given a message to stop poking around.

At Orphey Gene's, Kat wanted to have business documents perused, but Chelsea wanted to talk about herself. Kat thought it was somewhere between “brave and crazy” that Chelsea had already introduced Madison to the bulk of the family. As Chelsea reported how well things had gone, Kat conceded that she could never have taken such a chance so early in a relationship. Chelsea's bubble burst when Kat divulged that the papers she held confirmed that ChelseaKat was being sued for copyright infringement.

Kat backed Chelsea up when she swore the concept for her first purse had been all her own. They theorized that someone had seen it presented at her swan song fashion show and decided to cash in, but realized there was no way to prove that. Kat fretted that their not-even-launched-yet business was always going to have to contend with lawsuits – they needed to beat any publicity to the punch and send the message that they were not to be messed with.

Later, Kat summoned Jacob, wanting an update on “their” case, which Kat remarked wouldn't exist had she not tricked Leslie into wiping her DNA on a napkin. Jacob had no information about when the annoyed Kat could expect the results of the test that would compare that DNA to that on Leslie's motorcycle helmet. Kat ran into Naomi on the way out, and Jacob told his wife that Kat was actually a better partner than the one he had.

Jacob was as frustrated as Kat, since the DNA test results might not come in for months, and Leslie could hurt somebody else in the meantime. Naomi shared her own irritation that her search for the “cleanup crew” who had invaded June's encampment and dispersed it was only hitting brick walls. Jacob offered to make some calls but notified his wife that his hands were essentially tied – and that usually the belongings of homeless people gathered in such operations ended up in landfills.

June later met with Naomi, praising her for being a good lawyer when everyone else was in it for the money. Naomi stressed that June wouldn't have been swept out from under the overpass had she not refused the stable housing Naomi had obtained for her, but Naomi added that she was working on retrieving June's belongings. The humbled June replied that she wasn't used to people looking out for her. While her stuff may just be junk to most people, she said, something about the faces of the children in her missing photo made her feel better. To June, the picture represented a universe where she was happy and not lonely.

Jacob came by with a box of items he'd been able to track down. June nervously looked through it but became frantic, begging God to let her picture be there. The Hawthornes eyed each other as June found the photo; she dissolved into tears and promised she'd never leave the children in it again.

Bill, who only had residual weakness remaining in his arm and leg from his stroke, nattered about having a series of designer canes made, but Hayley wasn't in the mood to hear it. She had taken a call from the company with whom Bill had taken out a life insurance policy and demanded to know what Bill was hiding about his health. Bill tried to calm Hayley, insisting that couples always took such actions, but Hayley said she'd choose Bill over money any day. Allowing that he just wanted to make sure Hayley and their child were taken care of should the worst happen, Bill vowed to be at their child's college graduation. Hayley felt better, though she was able to draw a line between her wedding ring and now always waiting for the next disaster.

Hayley sighed that, at the height of Bill's stroke crisis, she had had to be in the same room with his ex-wife and critical daughters, blended family or not. What, then, was life going to be like for their child, whom nobody wanted to see born? Bill imparted that they were going to be their child's most important people, even if they subtly disagreed whether they were having a boy or a girl.

Chelsea arrived, asking about Bill's recovery and acknowledging Hayley. After some pleasantries about Bill still working from home while not cleared to go back to the office, Chelsea asked her attorney father for legal advice and showed him the lawsuit paperwork she and Kat had received. As Bill studied the documents, Chelsea avowed that she didn't know enough about the litigating company, Mode Pizzicato, to have purposely copied one of their designs. She worried that the established, bigger organization could shut down her start-up.

Bill realized that things had been strained between him and Chelsea, who developed second thoughts about consulting him, given the family upheaval that had been caused by Bill divorcing Dani for Hayley. The newlywed Mrs. Hamilton exhorted Chelsea to stay, as Bill could indeed provide the best legal strategy; Hayley also didn't want to see her stepdaughters losing money because they hated her. Hayley was ready to leave, but Chelsea turned around and reiterated that she appreciated Hayley's care of Bill during the stroke crisis – and Chelsea granted that she couldn't tell Hayley where to be in her own house.

Chelsea recognized that Bill was still her father no matter what, and Bill accepted that he should have attended Chelsea's fashion show. He wanted them to once again have a relationship where they didn't just get in touch when they had to. Chelsea was amenable; Bill returned to the subject of the lawsuit and was certain the company filing it just wanted to mess with Chelsea and Kat given their connections. When Hayley observed that Chelsea could have just gone to Naomi with her legal concerns, Chelsea was forced to admit that Naomi was good for moral victories, but if one needed to get one's hands dirty, “better call Bill.” Bill was confident that Mode Pizzicato couldn't prove infringement and told his daughter to leave everything to him.

Meanwhile, Kat approached Tomás and asked if any result she might glean from a private DNA test would be admissible in court, since the precinct was backlogged in performing their own tests. Tomás stated that going through back channels would indeed invalidate Kat's findings, and that he had been learning from her the value of waiting when something was important. Kat moved in to kiss him; he briefly pulled back to make a point, then gave in to the buss.

Things got hot and heavy, but Kat put a stop to things when Tomás reached for her blouse buttons. Tomás apologized, and Kat lamented, “I bet you thought dating the world's oldest virgin would win you some prizes, but all it gives you is rejection after rejection.” Navarro couldn't deny having to be so patient was making him a good role model for Ramón, the boy he was a Big Brother to, but he did ask if Kat were holding out for anything in particular.

Kat knew in her gut that she wasn't ready to make love, especially after having watched family members take leaps in romance only to end up in ruins. She also didn't want her first time to be an “afterthought” of someone who was on their lunch break. Kat was glad to hear Tomás didn't consider her an afterthought, but she made it clear that not only did she want the reaching of that milepost to be memorable...she was going to be in control of when and how it happened. Tomás concurred that Kat would be worth it, but as she hugged him, he looked exasperated and disappointed.

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