On the Monday, August 10 episode of “Beyond the Gates,” Heather (Ashley Jones) tricked Vanessa (Lauren Buglioli) into some day drinking, Darlene (Monique Mosee) assisted with both medical and romantic emergencies, and Dani (Karla Mosley) came down with a severe case of Foot-in-Mouth Syndrome.
Izzy Got Dizzy
Eva (Ambyr Michelle) became startled when Izaiah (Lami) suddenly nuzzled her from behind. When Eva immediately avoided his overture, Izaiah gently said that he understood her discomfort with her surgery scar but added that it was starting to come between them. Eva declared herself disfigured and resisted when Izaiah backed up Ted’s suggestion that she speak to someone about her feelings in therapy.
Izaiah tried to let Eva know that her scar didn’t matter to him, but also recognized that she was trying to make him the bad guy as she spat that she needed a supportive boyfriend. Deciding to take a breather, Izaiah left Eva’s apartment and headed to the police station to look for Jacob. Instead, Izaiah found his mother, Darlene, who initially seemed annoyed by Izaiah’s mention of Eva. However, when Darlene learned that Izaiah had taken off while Eva was trying to communicate her feelings, the woman sighed, “Lord, give me strength.”
Darlene got Izaiah to see that, for Eva, the scar was only a surface issue. Armed with that knowledge, Izaiah returned to Eva’s; once the couple apologized to each other, Eva couldn’t deny that her worry wasn’t just about how she appeared physically to Izaiah. She remembered the story of how Ted had deserted Leslie after she’d become pregnant, and she was aware that Izaiah had abandoned his own family as a teen. Izaiah promised that wasn’t the same thing and reminded Eva that he had once told her not to search for reasons to slow her down. He tenderly touched the site of Eva’s scar, and they carefully graduated to kissing and then making love.
Dear Alcohol
Joey (Jon Lindstrom) and Vanessa were trying to decide what he should make for their dinner with Heather when Joey received an urgent call that the casino’s security cameras were out. While Joey stepped out to deal with the crisis, Heather visited Vanessa in the back room, saying she wanted to rub her winnings, which she carried in a small bucket, in Joey’s face. Vanessa was uncomfortable as Heather got into Joey’s private stash of booze, but soon the ladies were guzzling tequila and laughing over both Joey’s nickname of “JoJo” and the fact that neither had had much luck with men in the past.
With the alcohol kicking in, Vanessa asked if Heather had a man in her life; Heather hinted that she had her eye on someone but wouldn’t say who. Heather then wanted Vanessa to tell her about her marriage to Doug and the circumstances of his death. Vanessa explained that Joey had been her rock after Doug’s passing, and Heather proposed a toast to Doug as Joey came back.
Joey wasn’t thrilled to find his sister and girlfriend together, drunk, and took Vanessa out of the room to find her something to sober up. Later, after Heather left, Vanessa decided she was starting to like the woman, but Joey warned Vanessa again that Heather always had an ulterior motive. Meanwhile, Heather was in her hotel elevator, thinking back to dumping her tequila into the bucket and getting Vanessa drunk on purpose. “Damn, I’m good,” Heather congratulated herself.
Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart
In her role as a 911 dispatcher, Darlene took a call from a panicked Caroline (Ellie Wang), who helplessly hovered over Bill’s unconscious body. After Darlene reported that Bill wasn’t breathing, she guided Caroline through CPR. Across town, Hayley (Marquita Goings) was in a limo at the airport scrolling through photos of the tropics when she got a frenzied call from Caroline. Hayley demanded that her driver take her to Garland Memorial immediately.
Vernon (Clifton Davis) and Anita (Tamara Tunie) were spending time with Chelsea (RhonniRose Mantilla), Naomi (Arielle Prepetit), and Kat (Colby Nixon) at the country club. After Dani’s daughters left to meet with her, the patriarch and matriarch decided they wanted to talk to Kat about her life choices. Kat thought she was in for a lecture, but Anita and Vernon chose to comment on how much Kat had grown over the past few months. Kat cited her grandparents as setting an example for her while she lived with them.
Dani clucked to Naomi and Chelsea about how she’d run into Randy/Sammy, and how he hadn’t actually denied having an affair with Hayley. While Naomi was stressing that they’d need to find concrete proof of Hayley’s alleged infidelity, she took a call from Jacob (Jibre Hordges) and learned that Bill had been rushed to the hospital.
Girlfight
When Bill’s ex-wife and daughters got to Garland, Caroline, through tears, told them how Bill had collapsed and how she’d had to attempt resuscitating him before paramedics got to him. Hayley rushed in, playing the part of the distraught wife, and demanded to see the in-surgery Bill right away. Dani called Hayley out for her histrionics, and the two nearly came to blows, with Shanice (Ernestine Johnson) barely able to keep the situation from escalating further.
Dani and the others were numb when Shanice explained that Bill was experiencing a heart ablation that would require the installation of a pacemaker. Naomi blamed herself for not taking better care of Bill’s health, while Dani held Hayley solely responsible. Hayley scoffed that Dani was the “old wife” who shouldn’t even be there at the hospital, and as tempers flared again, Shanice implored the arriving Vernon and Anita to intervene. Vernon did, but not before Dani yelled that Hayley would “never be Dani Dupree” and that Dani would always be there for “her” husband.
Anita and Vernon led Dani away while their family members stared at each other in shock. For her part, Hayley exclaimed that Dani was delusional and ordered Ashley (Jen Jacob) to ban Dani from visiting Bill at all. In Nicole’s office, Dani resented her parents treating her like “a naughty five-year-old” in need of a time-out, but the Duprees held that Dani’s volatility would not help Bill. Dani yelped that she didn’t know what she and her daughters would do without Bill and fell into her parents’ arms.
