Pregnant Pauses: Beyond the Gates Two Scoops for the week of August 4, 2025

Articulating the Articulettes on Beyond the Gates

Are y'all ready to go Beyond the Gates? This week, Ashley, Andre, Dani, and Derek all did the quadrangle dangle, Elon upped his gaslighting game with Jacob, and the Articulettes' swan song was a happy one. Elsewhere in D.C., Doug delayed his drunkenness long enough to turn the poker tables on Joey – and Hayley either got real about her pregnancy and miscarriage...or she served up the biggest fake-out on this new(ish) show so far! Let's fill up those Two Scoops and find out what happened inside and outside the gates of Fairmont Crest!

Lift every voice and sing

Anita had already decided that she and Tracy and Sharon should use every opportunity connected with the Articulettes reunion concert to say Barbara's name, since their fallen comrade was the founder of the group and all. La Dupree went one step further – without taking a vote from her co-singers – and spilled most of the Barbara tea in front of their assembled fans.

Then, with help from Andre's video editing talents, Anita presented a memorial tribute to Barbara, kinda like the ones you'd see on the Oscars or the Golden Globes. But this time, Tracy and especially Sharon weren't peeved that they hadn't been consulted. All told, Sharon was so moved by the bowing down to Barbara that she forgave Anita right there on stage, between numbers.

Soaps being what they are, we only got two Articulettes songs – three if you include Anita's solo jazz performance. After that, everybody headed to the big afterparty to-do, where Leslie tried it and did her best to get past the doorman. I hope Kat and Chelsea were taking note of the fact that their hated Eva moved hell and earth to get her devilish mom off the country club grounds as quickly as she could.

Eva's redemption tour is one I believe. But Nicole, who seems to have been emboldened by tryna choke a bitch, followed Leslie to Orphey Gene's and offered to procure some sweet Articulettes vinyl for her...which she would shove up her ass if she didn't stay out of Nicole's face. “That shrink needs to be shrunk, honey,” Leslie told Eva once Nicole stormed out. Gold. Nic does seem to be getting unhinged, doesn't she!

The party, of course, was a glorious spice rack turntable of soapiness, with most of the cast getting their moments. The ordinarily collected Madison fangirled herself into total embarrassment while meeting diva Anita. Shanice showed off both her clinging lime green ensemble and her pipes! And Chelsea, having just learned about the Andre/Dani sitch, told Andre he'd better be using protection with her mama because she knew his rep!

The two standouts for me, though, started with Vanessa asking Sharon and Tracy if an album and/or tour would be following their smash hit show. That's what I've been saying! I need for them to record a song about Barbara! Interestingly, talent agent Jim Price didn't ask about an Articulettes tour (!), but he did want Anita to get jazzy with it on stage. Anita deferred, suggesting that her sisters should hit the road instead.

That actually tickled something in my cynical-for-show heart! Talk about a way of Anita giving Tracy and Sharon the careers they lost when she ditched the group to go solo. Then there was Smitty, who showed up to the party after everyone pressured him to. But my boy wasn't about Martin trying to get forgiveness by equating their circumstances to Anita making good with the Articulettes. (Anita made her next attempt with Smitty, telling him that she and Vernon owed him an apology. Good girl!)

Nope! Smitty was glad to see his lying-ass husband, but yeah, don't even compare a tribute video to two years of falsehoods, deception and alternative facts. Mr. Smith wasn't closed to the possibility of pardoning the congressman – it was just that, if it happened, it was still a long way off. Damn but I'm jazzed that the show has Smitty holding his ground! Soap couples often forgive each other very easily for far worse offenses, so it's nice to see a little more realism with Smitty's line in the sand.

The gala concluded (for us, anyway) with Anita sneaking away to commune with Barbara in the empty concert hall. Why was it even still open for her to get into? But that wasn't even the weird thing. While Anita spoke to the ether, her Barbara tribute video came back on (didn't that have to be run off of Andre's tablet?), and, when Anita hoped she had earned absolution, she was suddenly bathed in a warm, affirming spotlight.

Cute, but...is the implication here that Barbara was doing tech from the abode of the angels? Or was somebody in the booth who cued up these stage components at just the right time? GATES has steered clear of most of the suspension, disbelieving that other soaps have stretched past capacity over the years...which makes me wonder what was going on there. Was it simply a moment, or was someone working behind the scenes that Anita should be watching out for? And why didn't she question any of this stage trickery?

Round and round

I loves me some Shanice, but I know she did not get in there while Carlton was tryna be all smooth with Nicole and distract her with news of Martin's mopiness! Thankfully, the next day, Carlton found Ms. Dupree-Richardson at the Fairmont Crest banquet room...though I couldn't ascertain whether it was a breakfast meeting or a bump-into. At any rate, Carlton picked up where he left off, and Nicole was into it!

After her misery of the last three months and her stepping up to the line of insufferable in terms of her indignation that went from understandable to righteous over the secrets being kept from her, it was a joy to see Nicole laughing and being silly. Ted saw it, too, and wasn't he all butt-hurt – especially when Nicole gloated that seeing Carlton was an unexpected pleasure. Team Narlton, anyone? Cicole?

Across town, there was a brief scene with Tyrell asking Samantha how come it had been so easy for her to trust Martin after he spent so much time lying, which had ultimately put both kiddos in danger. Sammy Sam's opinion was, no matter what Martin had done, he had also, along with Smitty, rescued her and Tyrell from their torturous tour of duty in the foster care system.

Samantha remembered “her” – a “her” Tyrell didn't want to think about. Now, was this reminiscence a coincidence, given, the previous week, it was revealed that the homeless June abandoned two kids to “the system”? I think we're about to find out that her “Ron” and “Cecile” are really Tyrell and Samantha. Spoilers indicate I might be right...stay tuned for that one! It has the potential to be delish!

Six feet over the ground, “Kenneth” may have spent the past few weeks six feet under it, but his ghost still prevails. Naomi finally had her conversation with fixer Bill, which started, “Have you had anyone murdered lately?” Listening to Bill's explanation that he'd had to stop “Kenneth” after the racist stepped up on Martin's teenagers, Naomi hated that her dad had declared himself “judge, jury, and executioner.”

But Bill wasn't apologizing for his scandalous ways. And he told Naomi that if she was going to shun him again, she'd also have to shun her grandparents, Martin, and even Dani and Nicole, since they had been brought up to speed before her. Bill is the king of gray areas, and it was hard to argue his logic, despite the extreme measures he took. And now with Naomi keeping “Kenneth”'s death a secret from Jacob, she might be spending time in that gray area as well.

Speaking of Jacob, I forget why he popped into the back room of Lakeview Casino like he belonged there, but he caught his dad shaking hands with Joey, which set him off. Once Joey gave the Hawthorne boys some privacy, Jacob wanted to know how long Elon had been crooked and decried having ever looked up to his top cop pop. But instead of copping to anything, Elon did some masterclass gaslighting that would make some present-day purveyors of the procedure proud.

The elder detective discharged some stuff about having had to make moves to protect Jacob and his “choir boy” ways. Elon then sang a chorus about how there were times one had to do what one had to in order to survive, whether one be on the right side of the law or not. Jacob then got his biggest earful when Elon reminded him how he had neglected to arrest Dani after her shoot-'em-up, plus let Nicole slide in regard to her choke-a-bitch moment...and all because Naomi had asked him to.

Ouch. And digging into the show's first week to make a point! Elon managed to make Jacob the bad guy, completely sidestepping his own complicity with Joey, by letting Jacob know that he wasn't going to launch an investigation into his son for dereliction of duty! Dude, Elon knows how to control Jacob, doesn't he! Every time the younger Hawthorne confirms his instincts, Elon muddies the waters and makes him doubt himself! Don't let him confuse you, Jake! Fight the conditioning!

Too busy thinking about my baby

Who knew that something as mundane as a set-aside box would cause such turmoil? I didn't expect Hayley to trip over Caroline's errant files so quickly, but down she went, and Bill wanted to get his wife to a doctor “toot-sweet” to make sure their baby was okay. Hayley hemmed and hawed about it so much that Bill actually called her resistance “reckless”! It was like she was in an old Western, dancing around the bullets.

When Bill unknowingly backed Hayley into a corner by making her an appointment anyway, she went to work getting her mystery caller on speed dial. She told said person there was an emergency and that she needed help. Next thing we knew, Hayley was strolling into Uptown and picking a fight with Dani, and this was beyond any argument Bill's wives had had before. Hayley got downright vicious!

Hayley said that Dani was drying up and that she was useless, grinding in her summation to the point that the also-in-attendance Pamela had to stop Dani from physically assaulting her. Was that a set-up or was that a set-up! Publicly causing a scene with Dani so that Dani could be blamed for...what came next. Hayley took a ladies' room break, but when she came back it was like Anthony Perkins in Psycho. “Mother, the blood!”

When Dani rushed to her side, Hayley made a show of demanding that the first Mrs. Hamilton stay away from her, even refusing Dani's offer of a ride to the hospital in favor of driving there with a stranger Hayley chose at random! Dani was right – not exactly the safest thing to do these days! Later, Hayley's selected man, Sammy, came back to fetch Hayley's purse and phone, staying in the establishment long enough for Dani to realize that Sammy looked familiar.

The thing is, why didn't I? Was it because this dude wasn't in his usual black? Soap gods preserve us, it was Randy! I didn't pick that up until Doug found him at Orphey Gene's, and I'm embarrassed that Randy got by me so easily. But this directs us to a bigger story point – Hayley knows Randy! How, I wonder? He's not family, since Hayley has none...an ex-boyfriend, perhaps? Inquiring minds want to know!

Don't tell a lie about me and I won't tell the truth on you

I have made a personal discovery about Ashley – and that is, she's far more interesting when not involved in romantic travails. And that's like a lot of people (including myself): smart otherwise but with a plummeting IQ in affairs of the heart! Ashley panicked and called Naomi (for reasons we'll get to), but instead of talking up her amorous impasse, she let Naomi lead the convo. And what Naomi led with!

The besties got into the topic of Bill's impending third round at fatherhood, since Naomi had just visited Bill and peeked at the ultrasound of her half-sib after, ya know, accusing pop of murder. Motormouth Ashley got quiet, and Naomi knew that was code for Ashley having info that she didn't want to spill. After some back-and-forthing with this, Ash actually said she couldn't go into it owing to doctor-patient confidentiality. Which was a good block.

But lawyers are about loopholes, and Naomi suggested that Ashley could get around her HIPAA holdout by talking in generalities instead of specifics. That made for a humorous beginning with the two consciously pretending they didn't know damn well who they were talking about. But then Ashley did it: she explained that she'd been told Hayley hadn't ever had the ultrasound that she'd said she'd undergone.

Naomi was confused because she had just seen an image from that very ultrasound that Bill had shared with her! The only light Ashley – who is much more enjoyable in work mode – could shed on things was relaying that she'd heard Dani's insistence that Hayley had invented a pregnancy as a way of holding on to Bill. There was also the possibility that Hayley was doing so because she was afraid that Bill would go back to Dani.

Mrs. Hamilton-Hawthorne pshawed that theory, declaring her mom and pop “done-zo.” But there was enough of a disconnect that Naomi decided she was going to get answers straight from Hayley's mouth. She arrived at the Hamilton crib only to find Hayley in her PJs...and of course not knowing that Hayley had just come from the hospital. Before Naomi could get Hayley to talk about her baby, if there even was one, Bill showed up.

He had just been contacted on the Dani Line about the dust-up at Uptown; Bill was so astonished to find Hayley home from the hospital already that he was ready to call down there and read out some riot acts. But that wasn't necessary, Hayley informed her husband sadly...because she had lost their baby. Bill was destroyed, but Naomi stood there like she was thinking, “What dis heffa pulling now?”

GATES sent Bill out of the room for him to get some tea...and, well, for us to get some, too. But what they served left me with more questions than answers – in a good, soapy way. Hayley told Naomi that she really had been pregnant, and when she had gone to the hospital weeks earlier during her cramping episode, she'd been terrified to have an ultrasound in case it showed she'd had a miscarriage. So once the pain subsided, she went on her merry way.

According to Hayley, she'd said she'd undergone a sonogram and printed out an image of one from the Internet, which she could present to Bill so he would quit asking her to have a follow-up. It had worked, but Hayley hadn't been able to broach the subject of their baby potentially already being gone, not with him doing safety checks on strollers. But now her body had ejected the fetus, and all she asked was that Naomi not let on that she might have known about it earlier.

Naomi surprisingly covered, but either this is really what happened – and this version of events would even substantiate it – or it's snowing in D.C., in August, from the snow job Hayley just pulled. Even by her “truth,” she still staged a miscarriage and got Randy to bring her fake blood, or, at the very least, planted him among the onlookers Hayley knew would be there so she'd have a safe escort out of Uptown.

Bill had been on his way out of town (so Hayley thought), and Hayley made sure Dani knew she wasn't welcome at the hospital, so there were no witnesses there, either...if Hayley even went to Garland. That's the thing – this saga is so interwoven that I can't tell what Hayley's lying about and what she isn't. And frankly...I love it. GATES' trajectories have been very hard to predict, and certainly other soaps could learn from that example.

What do you think? Was Hayley honest with Naomi? Did she have a miscarriage earlier, or was the blood on her shirt at Uptown from losing her baby in that moment? Was Dani right that Hayley was never pregnant to begin with? I don't usually get caught up in baby stories, but this one has become ever so tantalizing. And I'd better be told soon how Randy and Hayley know each other! I'd better!

Before you walk out of my life

Jan, girl, I love you, but what '50s/'60s Good Housekeeping magazine do you pull your relationship advice out of? The way she went on to Ashley about stability, I half expected her to put on a poodle skirt and pointed bra and start dusting things. That Ashley made it clear she didn't want Derek should have been enough for Jan to call that pairing done and dusted. But she didn't.

It's not that Andre doesn't deserve his ladykiller repute in the 202 and 771. (And the 302, 301/240/227, and 703/571 if you're counting the immediate areas of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, respectively.) And Ashley did widen my eyes when she said she could follow Andre anywhere he worked and get a job as a nurse. Dude, y'all have been on two dates! But none of that should have had Jan pushing Ashley back toward Derek.

I'd love to find out exactly what happened to Jan that soured her on men. She quite rightly doesn't want Ashley to live out her past experiences, which this week we were told included changing herself for a guy, only to have him not fall in love with her. And that's all fair. It's just that painting Andre as some sort of bougie boogeyman isn't going to work. I'd bet Derek was the only man in Ashley's life so far, and she may need to get burned by Andre to help her grow.

I also heard the whole practicality speech back in the day from my own mom (R.I.P.), so maybe I'm ultrasensitive to these things. I wanted to write and act, yet kept getting asked, “But what are you really going to do?” It's not that Jan should encourage Ashley to be foolish. But when Jan blathered on about Andre only making Ashley feel special as a ploy, Ashley exclaimed, “Maybe I am!” I get the feeling Ashley was set on a road to steadiness, and she wasn't supposed to veer from it.

Jan had her kid so mixed up that she called Andre over and basically repeated all of Jan's talking points. Andre, however, was having his own wake-up call. Clearly his other woman (Dani, as we know), wasn't willing to offer him the commitment he'd found himself wanting. (This tracks with him bringing that up with Dani before.) What if Ashley could provide him that? This resulted in, after five-and-a-half months of dancing around it, the first Ashley/Andre kiss.

Ashley suddenly found herself needing to make a choice between Andre and Derek...but only because Jan fooled with her head. Or Ash watched too much B&B, on which Ridge is always having to “make a choice” between two women. But I digress. Jan got to Derek, too. What is it about this woman that takes people who have already made definite decisions and gets them to doubt themselves?

Derek had come to the firm realization from Ashley turning down his marriage proposal, then his efforts at reconciliation, that they were...well...”done-zo,” thank you, Naomi. But Jan wasn't going to let Derek settle for declarative statements. No, she filled Derek's head with crap about him being a hero and told him, “Go get your girl!” Was Derek supposed to drag Ashley back to his cave by the hair, too? Get with the 21st century, Jan.

What Derek lacks in common sense, he admittedly makes up for in muscles. He should have ignored Jan's advice. Instead, he made a beeline to Ashley's. Granted, he reasoned that Ashley had to be sure about who she loved. But he still made a “forever or never” play. Guess what Ashley picked! Give it up, Derek! And take Shanice's advice to get over Ashley before getting with another girl! Hilarious – Derek got friend-zoned twice in one week. However, Derek, if you want help with your rebound, my area code is...

What's love got to do with it

What kind of upside-down world are we living in when Dani Dupree is threatened by Ashley Morgan? Dani told Pamela as much as they sipped martinis, and I couldn't believe it. I mean, it was honest, but I still couldn't believe it. I know – Dani's confidence has taken a hit since Bill's abandonment. In true Dani style, she said that Ashley would “burst into flames” trying to handle Andre's sexiness. I can see that. Can't you?

I did like that Dani wasn't just a catty bitch about Ashley. She could have been, and she could easily wipe the floor with the nurse. But Dani appreciated Ashley for being so skillful during Bill's stroke, and she did want to see Ashley with a good man...just not hers. “I hate sharing!” Dani laughed, but after she essentially had to share Bill with Hayley for a time, I got the feeling it was much less of a joke than it seemed.

Andre had told Ashley that it was time he had a “conversation” with Dani, so it seemed like he was about to write a “Dear Dani” letter. Only before he could deliver it, Dani went into a tailspin about Hayley's blood-soaked ordeal, then the miscarriage she'd apparently had, and Dani couldn't stop blaming herself. Andre basically had to scrape Dani off his ceiling. Did that damage the paint?

Dani battled herself, acknowledging her tendency to use Andre as her “emotional support hunk.” Andre replied that, just because they had the friends-with-bennies thing going on, it didn't mean they weren't actually friends as well. He mentioned that more than once, as if to prepare his sometime lover. But then he got all kissy face with Dani...which Ashley witnessed! Now, can Ashley hold a candle to the heat Dani and Andre's lips were generating? No! Ash, y'all are “done-zo!”

But I'm having a problem with Andre right now. He dates Ashley and takes Dani to bed. He lets Dani kiss him at the concert (a big step!), then feels like Ashley is his safe space. He's ready to let Dani down, but then kisses her? Either the shutterbug really is a world-class womanizer, or he's just gotten real good at sending mixed messages. If he keeps this up, he's gonna end up with two broken hearts on his hands. And once Derek and the Duprees build up a head of steam, Andre could end up being “fixed” like “Kenneth”!

Bust your windows

I guess Doug was screwing up his surgeries again – not from gambling, like last time, but from drinking? It didn't matter, because Ted gave him a dressing down. Ted. Wait a minute. Ted is a plastic surgeon. What was he doing reprimanding a heart surgeon as if he were Doug's supervisor? Would somebody like to explain that to me? Doug didn't wait for an explanation, because he pulled a Johnny Paycheck and said “take this job and shove it!”

Doug called Vanessa, who had just given her is-he-cute-or-not accountant the business about her business suddenly receiving tidal waves of money because of Joey's laundering – and Dougie was clearly feeling his huevos. He had quit Garland, had every intention of living off his share of the McBride/Armstrong criminality, and was getting all of his jollies from the fact that he could bring Joey down any time he wanted!

Well, little did the “weak man drowning in his own vices,” as Vanessa described him to Joey (cold but accurate), know, but Joey had heard every word of Doug's new threat via the bug he had put in his car, and I don't mean like the spiders that sometimes get in and spin a web in the back window for you to see in your rear view mirror; eww. Vanessa knew she had to shut Doug up quick, or she'd be shutting a coffin lid.

Doug drunkenly answered his estranged wife's summons and could see how scared she was of her poker table lover! Yeah, that's been pretty obvious since Joey admitted to offing someone and basically threatened Van-Van with a similar fate. Vanessa couldn't get through to Doug at first; he was so cocky, she practically had to buy him a rubber. It was only when she told him about the hidden mic that he was humbled.

Forget coffee – nothing'll sober ya up faster than finding out a mobster is two steps ahead of you. Doug had further reason to get a pit in his stomach when Vanessa made it clear that, if Doug ratted Joey out to the police, Vanessa would do jail time as well. Ooh, I hadn't thought of that! The McBrides seem to realize their marriage is over (as well it should be), but at least we saw how much they care about each other, and we got the name of their son: Donnell! We'd only been told before that his twin sister was Deanna.

While Vanessa reported back to Joey that she had handled Doug, and Joey talked about an alternate reality in which he might be living on the beach writing novels (cool reference to portrayer Jon Lindstrom having his own books out; you can pre-order his upcoming tome here), Doug ran into Randy at Orphey Gene's! From what I could tell, Doug bought a new phone and presumably got a new number; the device barely out of the box, Doug called Randy, whose phone buzzed at a nearby table!

Knowing that Randy had barely gotten out alive from botching “Kenneth”'s murder and stealing ten grand from Joey, Doug thought it the height of insanity that Randy would be within a million miles of their town. Randy said he had returned to take care of some business (read: Hayley) and was bummed to learn that his best friend's wife had taken to shagging his one-time boss.

But, like a good gambler, Doug saw Randy's insanity and raised him ten times as much – he wanted to topple the great casino king! Yeah, well, more fool you, Randy said – Doug couldn't go to the cops with the money laundering revelation, because Joey owned the damn cops. Why did Doug only then remember that Vanessa would go up the river if he mouthed off? That shouldn't even have been an option to him at that point, since Vanessa had already made that clear.

But Doug's next option...it has my mouth watering. Doug remembered that one of the reasons he and Vanessa had had to keep Joey from using Randy for target practice was because Randy had been tasked with popping somebody (“Kenneth,” as we know), only to bungle the whole thing. However, if even the district attorney learned of Randy's assignment, it would likely lead to the discovery of a dead body...and Joey being convicted for murder one!

Randy called his childhood bud a crime newbie, but saw merit in the idea. The only caveat was, Doug had to do things Randy's way – and the first thing Randy wanted to do was use the bug in Doug's car to manipulate Joey. Like McDonald's, I'm lovin' it! But wait! Vanessa finked to Joey that she had finked to Doug about the mic! Rut-ro! Is that gonna bollocks up Doug and Randy's plan before it even gets off the ground? Or will her blabbermouth end up helping somehow? Inquiring minds!

This brings us to the end of another Two Scoops, D.C. Edition. Give birth to all your opinions about Fairmont Crest in the comments below. And, if you want us to do up more Beyond the Gates content, say the word! Until next we meet, Scoopers, live your life beyond!

(Purchase Adam-Michael James' ”Bewitched” books on Amazon.)

(Listen to isletunes, AMJ's podcast featuring nothing but music from the artists of Prince Edward Island, Canada.)