Beyond the Gates What If: Week of Feb 16, 2026 Prepare for Hell as Leslie goes dark and Grayson isn't so gray

Welcome to our newest article type, a deep-dive into the glamorous and sometimes cutthroat world of Beyond the Gates. If you’ve been feeling the whiplash from this week’s episodes, you certainly aren’t alone. This article is your definitive guide to the week that is and the week that will be in Fairmont Crest, offering a structured breakdown of the drama that will have every fan talking.

We begin by pulling back the gates on the most recent episodes of the week, providing an analytical look at teaser lines, what they foreshadowed, and how they panned out for our favorite and not-so-favorite characters. But we aren’t just going to look in the rearview mirror. Once we’ve discussed the immediate stuff, we will shift gears to look ahead. Finishing with a pivot to a "what if" question, we’ll take a wee look into our crystal ball to take a daring stab in the dark at the future, predicting what we foresee coming to pass.

What Happened On Beyond the Gates

We started the week with a repeat of a very important episode, the last day in the life of Dr. Doug McBride (ex Jason Graham), and the show always repeats things of importance, but it’s not to think that there may be a little foreshadowing going on as well. Are we going to lose another cast member? Anyway, the week has just begun, and if Valentine's is anything to go by, it’s going to be a heck of a week as well. Joey (Jon Lindstrom) gave up control for a night and submitted to Vanessa in the comfort of his own house, but the light B&D session certainly had Joey worried for a little while. Vanessa (Lauren Buglioli) gave Joey quite the experience, while Leslie (Trisha Mann-Grant) was having an awful night that just got worse.

After Marcel (Darryl W. Handy) couldn’t get out of work and left, Leslie stood up with no date and feeling lonely at Uptown. Shanice (Ernestine Johnson) and Dani (Karla Mosley) decided to pour it on. This was not the right play, and while I love the way Shancie stands up for herself, going over to strike the first blow really isn’t her style. But she felt empowered by having the often-crazy Dani Dupree at her side. This is going to backfire spectacularly.

What If?

And now for the crystal ball stuff, what if, this is just the push over the edge that Leslie cannot withstand, it’s true she has been awful of late, but she hasn’t been evil, not like she was at the beginning. Not like when she ran Laura off the road and then returned to the Hospital to kill her with a potassium overdose. Not like that. That’s the kind of Leslie that Shanice and Dani (Karla Mosley) are welcoming back; they just don’t know it yet. And oh boy, Shanice is not equipped to handle that at all. Dani was there egging her on, but Dani won’t be there to shield her when Leslie comes back, and she so will. This is the biggest theory right now, and maybe we see Leslie do something that actually will land her in jail? My fellow theorist, Adam-Michael James, believes a storyline with Leslie in jail is doable, since other soaps have done it, and it worked okay.

As for the Hayley (Marquita Goings), Randy, Lynette situation, Randy (Maurice P. Kerry) is in a hell of a hole here, and some quick thinking is going to be needed. What if Randy gets the ring off Lynette (Dominique Madison) and plants it on someone, and lets them take the fall and untimely death?

What if Nicole (Daphnée Duplaix) decides to stop seeing both Kial (Greg Vaughan) and Carlton (Robert Christopher Riley) and focus on her other love? Nope, not her practice, and no, I don't mean family. I’m talking about her true love. Febreze. This love affair is the real relationship here, hahaha.

We are slowly and I do mean slowly unwrapping the Impaler storyline, but I’m going to have to do a UNO reverse here, I once thought that Grayson (Jordi Vilasuso) was just a red herring, but the more he talks about his mother and the fact he would do ANYTHING to get her in better care, and he asked Ashley (Jen Jacob), if she thought he wouldn’y have already exhausted any and all angles to get her the best care, that part right there. He’s already so in deep, isn’t he? What if Grayson is in charge of logistics?

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‘Til next time, soap fans

Watch full episodes of Beyond the Gates weekdays on CBS or stream on Paramount.

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