A. An accident scene, where a car crashes into a chain link fence.
Q.
Where is it supposed to be on the show?
A. Somewhere near the docks of Miami.
Q.
When did we see it on the show?
A. In Episode 3, of Season 6, "Smokey and the Bandit".
Dexter has finished a day of driving Walter Kenny around doing errands, from a pharmacy to a storage facility, by breaking into Walter's storage shed and discovering proof that he is indeed the legendary "Tooth Fairy" serial killer.
And then, conveniently, Dexter's next victim calls him from a bus stop to say that he's lost and needs help.
Dexter happily offers to pick him up.
But
when he does, Dex is in for a surprise. Walter may be old, but
he's not stupid, and he's figured out that Dexter is on to him.
He
pulls a gun on Dexter, and orders him to drive to a parking lot, making
it clear that he plans to kill him, and perhaps pull out all of his
teeth first.
Dexter surprises him by pushing the car's gas pedal to the floor, and slams the car into a chain link fence.
Walter wakes up on Dexter's table (or in this case, his own Barcalounger).
Q.
What is it actually in real life?
A. A public works yard.
Q.
Where can I find it in real life?
A. This scene was shot inside the gates of the Long Beach Public Works Yard (AKA the Trees Department) at 1601 San Francisco Ave, in an industrial corridor of west Long Beach.
The
main gate is at the west end of 16th Street, where it stops
at San Francisco Ave. But it appears that they didn't use that
main gate in this shot. Instead, they shot just inside a second gate, that's a few yards south of the main gate.
Dexter's speeding car is traveling east across the lot, towards San Francisco Street, when it plows into the fake fence.
This city property is on the edge of the Los Angeles River, and just
east of the 710 Freeway (between Pacific Coast Highway and Anaheim
Street).
It is just a block southwest of the warehouse where they filmed the "Dexter Stabbed" scene that opened the season.
( My hunch is that they
discovered this property when scouting that warehouse, since this
industrial area is somewhat removed from Dexter's usual stomping grounds. )
It's also just two blocks from the corner from the Tooth Fairy's bus stop, where Dexter picks up Walter to start this scene.
I shot the photo below in October 2011, from San Francisco Avenue.
(The building with the overhang that you see on the left side, inside the gate,
is the same one seen on the right side in the fourth screencap above.)
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.
Rick let
me know that they were filming at this yard back in June. When
the scene aired, I was able to establish which gate they used because I
spotted parts of the former Graybar building
in the background. And comparing it to the StreetView, I could
tell that they also filmed the scene at a fake fence west of the real
gate (since a small building on the right side is clearly inside the
gates). (Thanks, Rick!)
