"Beyond the Gates" Week 10 Review

OOOOOOH BOY!!!

You know, in sports, I always say that the only time that a short playoff series is any good is if there's a lot of depth and close moments. By a short playoff series, I usually mean one that ends in a sweep. When it comes to championship series, I usually mean ones that end in a sweep or in five games (in a best-of-seven). This past week, the tenth from Beyond the Gates, was short. On April 29 and 30, the show was preempted due to European soccer (or football for those in Europe), and I find that suspect. CBS' other two soaps were moved to affiliates, but they couldn't do the same for Beyond the Gates? Hmmm.

So yeah, for the second time since the series premiered, we had a short week from the show. The only other time was in March, when CBS' perennial coverage of the first round of March Madness did what it does best: turn their daytime lineup upside down (among other things, The Price is Right aired on the afternoon that Thursday and Friday). However, this shortened week? My God, it was explosive! So let's talk about it:

April 28

The centerpieces for the entire week were Leslie and Eva, as the Monday episode saw them in the final stretch before the former half of the pair would enact her grand plan to tear down Ted and Nicole's anniversary celebration. Strangely enough, part of Leslie's whole scheme actually included walking up to Martin and Vernon and making all these ramblings about shit, including mentioning Bigfoot and the lost city of Atlantis. What the flying fuck?! The scary part: that's not all of Leslie's crazy. She's most insane when she's herself. Yikes.

Of course, through all of this, Eva's second thoughts are growing faster and faster. I said for weeks that there would come a time when Eva would really go against her nutjob mom. About that:

May 1

Once the two day break ended, the calendar turned to the month of May, and the day of the party had arrived. Leslie was head first into her plan, but Eva did voice her aversions to Leslie. It's clear that Eva clearly saw Ted and Nicole as wonderful people, and her respect for them was growing big time. Unfortunately, so was Leslie's need for payback, and we saw her actually lock Eva in the storage room so no one would prevent her from making her grand entrance. Eva was freed, and tried to get Nicole and Ted out of the building, only for Hurricane Leslie to make her entrance, and begin the process of revealing who she is to Ted, whose referral to Leslie as "Dana" really shocked the hell out of Nicole.

And there's more. Much more.

May 2

So it all came out on the Friday episode. Leslie spilled all of the tea about her affair with Ted, which we already knew came during Ted and Nicole's failed attempts to become parents. We also knew that Ted slipped one past the goalie, and unlike the Winnipeg Jets, double overtime wasn't needed. We also knew that Nicole was pretty much ordered by Ted to terminate the pregnancy, of course, Leslie pretended to comply, but she had the baby: Eva. We knew all of this, but what we didn't know was that Bill Hamilton had a role in making Leslie basically disappear. Blackmail, threats against baby Eva, you name it.

The fallout was catastrophic. Kat was a mess. Even though she was right about Eva, she was totally distraught over the revelations about her father. Martin was pissed off to all hell. Eva herself was full of guilt, but the biggest reaction had to come from Nicole. Sweet, wonderful, naive Nicole. She was in pieces. She didn't know what to think. She couldn't believe what she heard. I know what to think. I was right. Ted is much worse than Bill. As I said before, Bill is an opportunistic prick, and he doesn't even try to hide it. Ted is borderline diabolical. Bill may have been the hothead in this, but Ted sent him. And we see Ted put on that mask of being a good husband and devoted father, but once it's removed, it reveals something that makes even Bill Hamilton look like a saint.

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This was a hell of a week on Beyond the Gates, only three episodes, but a mass explosion of secrets unveiled. The aftermath from this will be wild!