Eva’s Stunned Finding Ted Threatening a Crying Leslie, While Leslie Injects Laura’s IV With Something
Monday, April 7, 2025: In this episode of Beyond the Gates,
At home, Vernon tries to write a speech about resistance but his words aren’t coming the way they used to. Anita’s supportive. He’s already teaching civics but he tells her it’s how ex-senators keep their wives in finery. She asks him to hit up old speechwriters.
He recalls her helping him when she worked at the Apollo. He reads his words about standing up to bullies or they’ll win. The great-grandkids turn up with hugs, and Tyrell lies about his bruising being a cause of falling off his bike.
The women go to the family library to get books for Samantha’s AP English — The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes.
The men play chess while they chat about Vernon practicing. He vows to beat him for once.
The women return and Anita goes to get drinks for the guys while Samantha reads her book. Her friend Nesha texts that it’s getting around to everyone. She eyes her brother with concern.
Meanwhile, in 8 moves, Tyrell calls Checkmate.
The kids head home after hugs all around. Outside, Samantha warns her brother that he’s blowing up the school feed.
At home, Martin has a violent dream before waking up startled.
Smitty appears and worries when Martin gasps, thinking he was a burgler.
He didn’t get much information. Martin wants to dig deeper but Smitty doesn’t want him to humiliate their son so he backs off. They discuss Smitty’s first piece at work, how a beauty influencer used their popularity to groom kids.
They couldn’t pin much on him, and he lost some brand deals at least, but he thinks there’s a network of influencers abusing their platforms. Talk turns to why Martin thought his husband was a burglar.
Martin brushes him off and Smitty worries their son bottles things up just like Martin. It pisses Martin off and Smitty asks him to try breathing exercises. Martin takes off, instead.
Eva arrives at Nicole’s with insurance information. She introduces her to Laura, her predecessor. Laura’s happy to meet her and Eva thinks about asking her mama if she caused Laura’s crash.
Mona appears with a hug for her daughter and Laura tells her she’ll be out tomorrow and back to work soon. Eva feels blessed to have had the job as long as she did. She goes home to get a hard copy of work-related info for Nicole. They discuss the hit-and-run-driver who returned for another look which disgusts them.
Leslie arrives home with groceries, and Ted pushes his way in, scaring her. When she calls to get him out of her place, she threatens to give a performance to the cops. Ted pulls out a stack of 50 large. He wants her out of his life.
Her lease isn’t up for a year. He tells her she can get a fresh start. It’s not like she has kids taking her down. He immediately realizes how that sounds and apologizes but has his lawyer on speed dial. She remembers him. He’s the one who took her to the abortion clinic.
She says she’ll leave town and cracks a joke about calling Nicole to help count the cash. He tells his ex to keep Nicole out of it. Leslie tells him what they had was real and he got her pregnant. He had to keep his life perfect.
Ted made a mistake and regrets how he betrayed Nicole and his family.
She cries, “What about the family you threw away with me?” He regrets that pain, too. He shouldn’t have let her think he would leave Nicole for her, but he won’t let her destroy what he’s built.
He did his best to set her up back then and wants this meeting to be their last. As they talk, Eva walks in, seeing her mom in tears and Ted behaving threateningly. Eva backs out before Ted sees her.
Ted tells Leslie to make the money last or she’ll experience a world of hurt. He goes and Eva arrives. What if he sees her next time? Leslie says he won’t. Leslie still wants revenge though her daughter thinks the money is enough. What if things blow up on them? Leslie doesn’t think so. She claims she’s doing this all for Eva.
Martin goes to his grandparents’ house to tell them about his nightmares and how Smitty’s been consoling him and pushing him. Asking questions. Smitty’s not buying that he’s just stressed and this is eating Martin alive.
They agree what happened was terrible but if the secret came out it’d be worse. Maybe his guts are at war with his ambition? Martin has always been ambitious though. He wants to make a difference. He feels his grandparents aren’t listening and takes off. Anita worries this will end terribly. Later, Vernon gets back to his speech which is going better.
As he reads it, Samantha stops Tyrell from looking at his phone while they do homework, Smitty gets the family some ice cream and Nicole and Ted canoodle and kiss and Eva arrives home. Meanwhile, Leslie finds Mona leaving her daughter Laura’s hospital room and spies before heading into the room.
Leslie injects something into Laura’s IV with a smile as Vernon ends his speech.
