Beyond the Gates started out its premiere week with Dani (Karla Mosley) punching Hayley (Marquita Goings) for flaunting her relationship with Bill (Timon Kyle Durrett) around Fairmont Crest, and the week ends with a literal bang.
Building up to the Beyond the Gates episode airing on February 28, Dani was getting it from all sides. Bill and Hayley were getting married in the country club where her family are distinguished members, then she found out the tawdry couple was moving into a home nearby (making them neighbors) and her parents strongarmed her into attending Bill and Hayley’s wedding. That’s a lot for one scorned person to digest.
To top things off, right before the wedding kicks off, Dani privately meets with Bill and basically pleads with him not to marry Hayley and to return to her. Instead of politely turning her down, he adds salt, pepper, garlic powder and more to her already-opened wound, and pretty much calls her pathetic. She storms away enraged. (We know love can make people do strange things, but we can’t believe she graveled for Bill to come home, but we digress.)
Fast forward to the moments before the ceremony, and Dani is at the country club making ominous statements. Notably, she tells her daughters how much she loves them, as if she’s going away. She also manages to receive a phony apology from Bill for his cruel words earlier, which she responds to by throwing champagne in his face, embarrassing him.
Once Hayley and Bill stare at each other in front of a room of people, ready to exchange their “I do,” the minister asks if anyone objects to their union. In true dramatic fashion, Dani murmurs she does before loudly announcing her feelings to all. She then reaches into her purse and pulls out a gold gun. Despite pleas for her to stop, the gun is heard going off as the episode cuts to black.
With all that being said, we’re left to ask, "Did Dani really shoot Hayley?" If we had to guess, the answer is no. We think it’s more likely that she did take a gun to the wedding, entertaining the thought of murdering her lecherous ex-husband and bride. In fact, we suspect the sequence at the end of the episode was her imagination, rather than what actually happens. However, we believe she allows a reluctant cooler head to emerge, and she doesn’t commit homicide. Should this be the case, we can anticipate her definitely creating some more drama for Bill and Hayley, just not of the murderous variety.
If it turns out that we’re wrong about this imagination angle, then we are incredibly shocked that Dani is going from scorned ex to killer in just one week. How would she be able to seemingly maintain her freedom on the soap? And how would the Duprees react? With it looking like Martin (Brandon Claybon) already killed someone (which he’s somehow buried in his subconscious and his grandparents helped cover up), and Ted (Maurice Johnson) looking like he may have another child, can the family’s reputation take such hits when all the secrets pour out?
Again, while we think Dani was dreaming, will have to wait until the next episode to see for sure.
New episodes of Beyond the Gates air weekdays on CBS, and become available to stream the day after on Paramount Plus.
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