Doakes has been having a secret affair with the wife of a fellow cop.
When that same cop is found murdered under a bridge, and his wife is then found dying in her home, it becomes clear that it's the work of a gang boss named Guerrero.
Doakes, outraged that Guerrero would attack the cop's wife (and his
lover), confronts Guerrero at his church, in front of his family, loudly
proclaiming that he killed a cop, and telling him that if he isn't
going to "follow the rules", why should he?
Later, a fellow cop invites Doakes to go out after work for a drink with his fellow cops, and Doakes agrees.
In this scene, Doakes is seen riding in a car at night with three
fellow cops. He looks around at the residential neighborhood
they're in, and asks why they are in the Gables.
As they pull the car over to the curb, they tell Doakes that one of
Guerrero's top lieutenants lives there, and that they are going to
"f**k him up".
The other cops suddenly pull on bizarre clown masks, as a disguise, and toss one to Doakes.
But Doakes wants nothing to do with it, and tries to talk them out of it.
As they head across the lawn to the guy's house, Doakes tells them that he confronted
Guerrero, and that Guerrero will assume he is behind this attack.
To his surprise, his fellow cops turn on him, telling him that's the
whole idea. They say they know he was having an affair with the dead
cop's wife - and that now he is just screwed.
Doakes heads back to the car, but as he hears the sound of the rogue cops attacking the house,
he changes his mind and goes running off down the middle of the street.
( In the next episode, Guerrero's men abduct Doakes from outside his house,
take him to a garage, where they beat him up. Just as Guerrero is about to shoot Doakes, his fellow cops show up and
bust Guerrero. They tell Doakes that it was all part of a plan to nail
Guerrero, and that he was bait. )
Q.
What is it in real life?
A. A residential neighborhood.
Q.
Where can I find it in real life?
A. This scene was shot at the southeast corner ofWindsor Blvd. and W. 9th Street, in the Hancock Park section of Los Angeles.
When
the car pulls up at the curb, they park between two homes. The
home on the right side, which you see when they first get out of the car, is
located at 906 S. Windsor. They then run across the lawn to a white house to the left, on the corner, which is 900 S. Windsor.
When Doakes runs off, down the street, he he running north up the 900 block of S. Windsor Blvd.
Here is a Google StreetView panorama of the houses:
[ Warning: This is a private home, do not trespass on their property,
knock on their door, or do anything else that might disturb the residents. ]
Q.
How the heck did you figure out where it was?
A. I
had a hard time finding this one, in part because I couldn't make out
the small number on the house you see when they first get out of the
car. As you can see in the blow-up of a screencap below, the DVD
image simply isn't clear enough to make out the numbers. I
thought at first that it was 402 or 406 or perhaps 426.
Also,
since it was a night scene, there wasn't much else to go on, other than
the fact that the street was lined with tall palm trees, and was
obviously an upscale neighborhood. After checking many 400 blocks
and failing to find it, I gave up for a while.
In
2011, I began a new effort to track down the last remaining episodes
from the first season. This time, I was aided by something I
didn't have back in 2006 - a Blu-Ray player. I rented the Blu-Ray
disc from Netflix, went to the scene, and sure enough, the numbers were
sharp and clear: without doubt, the number on the house was 906.
Of course, there are an awful lot of 900 blocks in greater Los Angeles.
I
started out in Long Beach, their favorite filming location. Those
tall palm trees and wide lawns reminded me of the upscale Country Club
neighborhood in northwest Long Beach (where Dexter has filmed
before), but when I checked, there were no 900's there. So I
looked at all other 900 blocks in Long Beach, and still turned up nothing.
Once
I moved beyond Long Beach, my next hunch was Hancock Park.
They
haven't filmed there that often, but some of the streets in that posh
neighborhood are reminiscent of those Country Club homes I had checked
previously. Both neighborhoods share stately homes, wide, well-manicured lawns,
and tall, mature street trees.
So I looked at every 906 in Hancock Park, using
Google StreetView. Alas, Google let me down, this time.
When I typed in "906 S. Windsor", it mistakenly gave me a view of the
9th Street side of 900 Windsor. So, naturally, I didn't recognize
it.
But
eventually, I switched to Bing's Birds-Eye photos. I began
looking at all the homes just south of 9th Street, and sure enough,
there it was, at Windsor & 9th. I repositioned StreetView for a closer look,
and there was no doubt.
