First Dates, Secret Deposits, Shady Friends — What We Learned from the July 8 Beyond the Gates

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Wow, parts of the Tuesday, July 8 episode of Beyond the Gates surprised us. The biggest — Shanice, who is Ashley’s boss at the hospital, DM’d Ashley’s ex and suggested they hang. In the process, we learned more about these two characters than ever before. There were other opportunities to learn as well.

We Learned That…

Shanice and Derek could be an adorable couple.

First impressions of Shanice (Ernestine Johnson) and Derek (Ben Gavin) are that they have potential for being a viable, watchable, adorable couple. In just the short time we saw them at Uptown, they were real with each other. They asked each other questions designed to get to know each other. And they didn’t let the other put themselves down.

It was also nice to see Shanice out of the hospital. And it was refreshing to see Derek smile and have fun. His relationship with Ashley (Jen Jacob) didn’t provide that. They were in their doomed phase, so they simply moaned, groaned, and complained about each other and their situation. And they made bad choices. The best choice they may have made was to break up. At least for Derek.

The jury’s out on Andre and Ashley.

Ashley and Andre (Sean Freeman) went on their first date at Uptown, just like Derek and Shanice. Needless to say, out of the two dates, Ashley and Andre’s was more awkward to watch. The two made attempts at having a deep conversation, and we certainly learned more about Andre. But Ashley kept glancing over at Derek. It might have been smarter if Ashley and Andre had left and had their first date somewhere else.

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That way, they would have missed Dani (Karla Mosley), who entered Uptown and immediately went ballistic when she spotted an intimate moment between Ashley and Andre. Even though her relationship with Andre is shaky, mostly because of some of the issues she’s understandably having, she and Andre have something. Seeing Andre out on a date had to throw her.

READ THIS: Here’s what’s coming up next on BTG.

Martin had every right to chastise Tyrell.

After playing chess online with an adult for two weeks, Tyrell (Jaden Lucas Miller) thought it was okay to meet up with him and invite him back to his house. What was he thinking? Sure, he had no idea that he let the bigoted busboy of the DMV, Kenneth (Jason Vendryes), into their home. And he has no idea how shady Kenneth is. But, come on, he should have been suspicious of the guy. The man had a bandage on his face.

He’s young, but he needs to learn the social game. Tyrell even admitted to Martin (Brandon Claybon) that he should have texted his dads about Kenneth first.

Randy saved himself and screwed everybody

Understandably, Randy (Maurice P. Kerry) wouldn’t want to go through with killing Kenneth. But he didn’t follow through on getting the man out of town. He didn’t do a very thorough job of making the busboy disappear. And now the guy is running around asking Martin for double his blackmail rate. Meanwhile, Randy made himself disappear. Will he stay off of Joey Armstrong’s radar for long? Only time will tell.

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Bill (Timon Kyle Durrett) has already alerted Joey (Jon Lindstrom) and told him Kenneth isn’t dead and he’s making more demands.

READ THIS: Exclusive interview with BTG standout Alex Alegria.

Detective Marcel Malone is an oversharer of falsehoods

Marcel (Darryl W. Handy) tried a preemptive strike of sorts when he confronted Jacob (Jibre Hordges) about Smitty’s illegal research into his financials. The shady detective offered up, out of the goodness of his own heart, a couple of excuses for those two mystery deposits. Jacob knows Malone is lying. It just proves that Smitty (Mike Manning) is going to have to watch how much further he can push his investigation.

READ THIS: A video preview of what to expect on BTG this week.

Jacob and Smitty don’t know about a concept called inside voices

Once again, Jacob and Smitty were talking about cop corruption in the middle of the precinct. They compared notes about their investigation and dropped names like Vernon Dupree (Clifton Davis) and even Jacob’s dad, the chief of police. And they weren’t whispering at all. How do they expect to stay off the radar if they’re constantly conversing with cops surrounding them?

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Let us know what you learned during Tuesday’s BTG in the comments.

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