Smitty cannot stop blaming himself for what happened to Lia, but Beyond the Gates may be setting up a much bigger twist. The conversation he believes put Lia in danger could ultimately become the very thing that exposes the Impaler. And with Jacob’s questions suddenly making Smitty feel more like a suspect than an investigator, Lia’s final days are becoming far more important than anyone initially realized.
Smitty’s guilt makes emotional sense. Before Lia died, he continued digging into the Impaler investigation and met with her on his own. He wanted answers, especially after everything surrounding Derek and the mysterious organization began looking increasingly dangerous. But Smitty did not walk away from that meeting with the breakthrough he expected. Instead, he noticed something strange: Lia seemed just as interested in getting information from him as he was in getting information from her.
That detail could change the entire investigation.
What exactly was Lia trying to learn from Smitty? She could have been trying to determine how much Smitty and Jacob already knew, what Grayson had revealed, or how close the police were getting to the person controlling everything behind the scenes. None of that has been confirmed, but Lia’s behavior makes their final conversation worth revisiting. Smitty may have entered the meeting believing he was questioning a source, only to unknowingly become the person being questioned himself.
Then Lia died.
The timing immediately haunted Smitty. He admitted to Martin that he could not ignore the fact that Lia died shortly after he approached her and continued pushing for information. From Smitty’s perspective, his investigation may have put a target on her back. Martin challenged that conclusion, pointing out that Lia’s death could still have another explanation. But Smitty’s emotional reaction revealed something important: he already feels responsible even though feeling responsible is not the same as having evidence that he caused her death.
Grayson sees Lia’s death very differently. He became convinced that the Impaler was eliminating loose ends and went directly to Jacob with his fears. Jacob refused to jump to conclusions without proof, but he also did not dismiss the possibility that Lia’s death could be connected to the larger case. If investigators can establish that Lia did not simply die under the circumstances initially believed, her death could become the break that finally leads them toward the Impaler.
That makes Smitty’s last interaction with Lia potentially critical evidence rather than proof of his guilt.
The audience already has another major advantage over Smitty and Jacob: viewers know Heather is the Impaler. That changes how every suspicious interaction surrounding Lia can be interpreted. Joey has already expressed alarm about the bodies piling up around Heather, while Heather’s cold reaction to Lia’s death did little to make the situation look innocent. Smitty is blaming himself while the real danger could be much closer than he realizes.
Now the investigation appears ready to become even more uncomfortable for him.
A new preview shows Jacob questioning Smitty in a way that immediately raises alarms. Smitty recognizes the style of questioning and points out that these sound like the questions police ask a suspect. He then asks the question that could change everything: has Lia’s death become a murder investigation?
That does not mean Smitty has officially been named a suspect. It does, however, suggest Jacob needs to reconstruct what happened around Lia before she died. If Smitty was among the last people pressing Lia about the Impaler, investigators need to know exactly what was said, what Lia wanted from him and whether anyone else knew about their meeting.
And that is where Smitty’s guilt could become the investigation’s biggest breakthrough.
Suppose Lia was trying to discover exactly how much Jacob and Smitty knew. If information from that conversation somehow reached the Impaler, investigators could begin tracing how it traveled. Alternatively, something Lia asked or said may only become suspicious now that she is dead. A question that seemed meaningless during their meeting could suddenly reveal what Lia feared—or whom she was protecting.
The most satisfying outcome would not be Smitty simply clearing his own name. It would be Smitty realizing that blaming himself has distracted him from the most important question: why was Lia trying to get information from him before she died?
That question could turn the entire case around.
Smitty may believe his persistence placed Lia in danger, but emotional responsibility and criminal evidence are two completely different things. If he and Jacob stop focusing on his guilt and reconstruct Lia’s final moves, they could discover that her conversation with Smitty was never proof against him at all.
It may have been Lia’s final clue.
And if Smitty finally understands what she was really trying to learn from him, Heather’s carefully protected Impaler operation could be much closer to collapsing than she realizes.
