When Beyond the Gates first introduced June (Jasmine Burke), our antennas went up almost immediately. With Burke not being a novice in Hollywood, we assumed her character would have quite a significance in the episodes to come.
So far, June came on the scene as an unhoused woman who was being charged for assaulting a social worker. The social worker was clearing shopping carts from underneath an overpass, and the worker grabbed June’s cart, attempting to move her belongings. June responded in kind to maintain ownership of her possessions. Adding a layer on top of this, June panicked while in police custody and alleged that she was a victim of police brutality, prompting Jacob (Jibre Hordges) to intervene and call Naomi (Arielle Prepetit) to help her.
Although Naomi and June were initially unsure about one another, Naomi agreed to help her with the case. In the episode from May 9, June even agrees to let Naomi find her temporary housing at a local hotel. But June eventually changes her mind on the housing, opting not to stay there.
With all that being said, and again believing there’s more significance with the June character, we have a hunch that she has a yet-to-be-revealed tie to the Duprees. In fact, we are wondering if June could be the birth mother of Martin (Brandon Claybon) and Smitty’s (Mike Manning) children, or at least one of them.
A lot hasn’t been revealed about the adoption process of Tyrell (Jaden Lucas Miller) and Samantha (Najah Jackson). We can easily picture more of June’s story unfolding, and it slowly coming to light that she gave up a child (or children) for adoption. Then after some digging occurs, it’s revealed that Martin and Smitty have been raising her offspring. Furthermore, in good soapy fashion, how interesting would it be if this adoption wasn’t so above board? Perhaps Martin went through legally/morally grey channels to start their little family.
For now, this all largely just a gut feeling we have. However, we suspect June wasn’t just brought on Beyond the Gates to help Naomi occupy her time.
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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