The Unanswered Questions of Beyond the Gates, Part 6: Does Nicole just talk a big game?

All right, Beyond the Gates fans! We're into the weekend, and that means the last five episodes of repeats are behind us, and fresh Fairmont Crest fare is just in front of us. But with the delicious denseness of the relatively new soap's storylines – the way they're weaving together their full canvas is most tantalizing – it's easy to forget some story points that were brought up but have yet to see their day. Thankfully, while we're still in this pause, we can take a moment to mentally scan what went before and go, “Hmmm...whatever happened to that?” For this purpose, “that” refers to some utterances from our Miss Nicole that issued forth from her perfectly Maybellined lips and disappeared into the ether! Let's do this!

Money's not where mouths are on Beyond the Gates

Now, let's be fair – Nicole Dupree Richardson has had a lot on her plate. The spate of reruns we had last week alone detailed how the eldest Dupree daughter's marriage hit the ultimate skids when Leslie spilled every single drop of tea about Ted's long-ago affair with her...and how Eva was born as a result. So it's not unreasonable that Nicole has been rather preoccupied: she's had to deal with Ted's lame excuses and even lamer attempts at reconciliation, Leslie crowing up in her face, and repeated realizations that her family is surprisingly good at ensuring she's the last to know pretty much anything. You can't blame a girl for sulking.

Nicki's gettin' her groove back, though, between chucking cups (at Dani's hilarious insistence), throwing divorce parties, and dating up that hunky AF Carlton. She finally got off the pot and served Ted with some much-deserved dissolution of marriage documents, even if he's trying some last-minute ish to stall them. Unfortunately, outside of giving her son Martin therapy for the undealt with trauma of giving “Kenneth” good face...with his fists (and let's not forget that any psychiatry board would find the mama-son sessions highly unethical), Dr. Richardson-soon-to-be-Dupree-again has been rather one-track-minded. To the detriment of supposedly dear original assistant Laura Peterson, on whose behalf Nicole made some important – but forgotten – vows!

It took a while for Nicole to get on the ball, but she finally stepped up where Laura was concerned once the poor girl was about to be released from the hospital after recuperating from her mysterious car accident – only to be felled by an even more mysterious heart attack and resulting infection that kept her laid up even longer. Finding it hella odd that Laura's potassium level would suddenly spike up so high that it would stop her heart, Nicole smelled a rat, and the rat smelled a lot like Leslie once Laura reported that Dana/Leslie/Sherry/Anna/Lulu had stopped by her room. Nicole all but held up her right hand in a Boy Scout salute when she promised Laura that, no matter what she had to do, she would get to the bottom of how Laura had gotten so much potassium into her system.

Then Kat, with the aid of sidekick Mona – who was desperate to redeem herself after recommending that Eva take over for the recuperating Laura in Nicole's office – got her hands on Leslie's motorcycle jacket (which Leslie stupidly donated through her church; not Miss Thing's smartest move). The garment literally had the receipts – ones that connected Leslie to the night of Laura's sideswiping, if indirectly. Suspecting Leslie's involvement as much as the others, Nicole was about it and joined in on Mona and Kat's pact to search for more evidence against Leslie in earnest.

Has Nicole done either of these things? If you answered no, you win a one-night guest pass to the Fairmont Crest country club. It's just that GATES has been good enough with its details these past six-and-a-half months that it's amazing these two giant plot points fell through the cracks as if said country club descended into a sinkhole. The only tasks Nicole has completed where Leslie is concerned is ascertaining that Leslie's neck abrasion was crafted from the best dollar store cosmetics – and choking a bitch, Leslie in this case, which is how Leslie had any bruising to work from in the first place.

One wonders why it was written that Nicole put herself on the case of Laura's excess potassium – and on the hunt for more concrete proof of Leslie's guilt in the two attacks against Laura – only for Nicole to do, well...nothing about either. All right, when you're running a show with 20 contract players and even more recurring characters, things are going to get overlooked. But these story directions were major. For Nicole to make such big proclamations about advocating for Laura, and then not act on them, instead focusing solely on her own troubles...let's face it...kinda makes her seem rather selfish, does it not? Maybe Laura, who herself is a bit AWOL at the moment, should look into finding a more caring employer!

What do you think, lovers of Fairmont Crest? Did the show drop the ball by not building on the idea of Nicole taking a more proactive role in taking Leslie down? Or do you feel like it's maybe more like real life, where we say we're going to do something and then get distracted with life stuff that comes up? Do your own follow-through in the comments below!

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Come back tomorrow when we'll explore a final unanswered question (with a bonus question!) about Beyond the Gates!

Beyond the Gates airs weekdays on CBS and streams on Paramount Plus. The show is back with all-new episodes starting Monday.

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