A. In Episode
1, of Season 6, "Those Kinds of Things".
Dexter is stalking an old classmate (Joe Walker) whom he believes murdered his wife, Janet.
So Dexter attends his high school reunion, knowing that Bob, the former captain of the football team, will show up there.
At
the reunion, Dexter's surprised that quite a few of his fellow
classmates remember him, and he winds up being forced into a few
uncomfortable situations (including dancing to MC Hammer's "Can't Touch
This".)
Along the way, one woman, Tricia (who used to copy from his tests), seduces him in a classroom.
Dexter
needs to get a blood sample from the possible killer (Bob) to make sure
he's got the right man. At first, he tries getting the blood my
using a sharpened ring while shaking hands with the suspect. That
doesn't work.
So
he joins in a flag football game, hoping the guy will bleed during the
contest. But he isn't. Ultimately, he resorts to simply
elbowing Bob in the nose "by accident", then collecting the blood
sample on a handkerchief.
Now
convinced that his suspect is indeed the killer, Dexter soon has him on
his table, in a kill-room built under the school's bleachers.
During
the kill, he spots a tattoo of Jesus on Bob's torso, and asks how he
reconciles his murderous ways with Jesus's teachings. The answer
(which suggests that he can kill with impunity, and Jesus will
automatically forgive him) doesn't satisfy Dexter, who bashes him in
the head with a hammer, before stabbing him in the chest.
Q.
What is it actually in real life?
A. A real high school. But not in Miami.
Q. Where can I find it in real life?
A. This isactually Woodrow Wilson High School, at 4400 E 10th Street, in Long Beach, CA.
The view of the school's exterior seen in Dexter's flashback (when he remembers Janet) was shot at the southeast corner of 10th St. & Ximeno Ave, with the camera looking southeast, the same view seen in my photo below.
They filmed here at night, after the students were gone home for the weekend.
They not only used the
school's exterior, but also its hallways, classrooms, and the football
field (for those flag football scenes). They used the same field
for the scene of Bob entering Dexter's kill-room under the
bleachers. (To be specific, it was the east end of the north
bleachers.)
Despite all the "Panthers" banners in
these scenes (and the Panther mascot head worn by Dexter during the
kill scene), the actual team at Wilson High is called the Bruins.
You'll find the school's website here.
A. In previous seasons, I've
usually had to hunt down the locations after viewing the episodes,
using clues from the various scenes. By the 6th season, though,
I'd developed a small group of fans, spies & tipsters who kept an
eye out for Dexter filming in their neighborhoods, and would let me know
in advance when something was about to film there.
Between those reports, my own personal reconnaissance around town, and a
few new resources I discovered, by the time the first episode aired, I
already knew most (but not all) of the filming locations, and only
needed to watch the episodes and match up the scenes with the correct
locations.
This group of helpful fans includes Kerry, Rick, Ellen, Susan, Jason, Elaine, Joel, Julie, Geoff, Jeff, and others. My thanks to all of them.
This tip came from Rick,
who let me know they'd be shooting there. So, I drove past on several
occasions, expecting to find the crew there. But no luck.
(Later, Susan later emailed me a photo of a no-parking sign outside of the school, but that turned out to be a false alarm.)
Eventually, they sneaked
in for a night time shoot, over the weekend of June 4th - so I missed
them. But I found their leftover no-parking signs afterward,
indicating they had been there from 6 PM Friday to 2 AM Saturday.
Later, of course, when the episode aired, it was a simple matter of
recognizing the school.
I did want to make sure,
though, that the kill-room scene was shot at the same school. So
I checked the bleachers area via Bing's aerial photos, and found a perfect match on the east end of the north bleachers.
(After the episode aired, Julie also emailed me to let me know she recognized the school.)
