diff --git a/pandas/core/computation/pytables.py b/pandas/core/computation/pytables.py
index 653d014775386..15d9987310f18 100644
--- a/pandas/core/computation/pytables.py
+++ b/pandas/core/computation/pytables.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 from pandas.core.computation.common import _ensure_decoded
 from pandas.core.computation.expr import BaseExprVisitor
 from pandas.core.computation.ops import UndefinedVariableError, is_term
+from pandas.core.construction import extract_array
 
 from pandas.io.formats.printing import pprint_thing, pprint_thing_encoded
 
@@ -202,7 +203,7 @@ def stringify(value):
             v = Timedelta(v, unit="s").value
             return TermValue(int(v), v, kind)
         elif meta == "category":
-            metadata = com.values_from_object(self.metadata)
+            metadata = extract_array(self.metadata, extract_numpy=True)
             result = metadata.searchsorted(v, side="left")
 
             # result returns 0 if v is first element or if v is not in metadata