Dexter Filming Locations: LaGuerta Warns Doakes

             

The location: The Doakes/LaGuerta phone call.


Q. What is it supposed to be on the show?

    A. Two different locations: a waterfront snack stand, and the Opa-locka Airport.


Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show?

    A. Somewhere near Miami.


Q. When did we see it on the show?

    A. In Episode 9 (of Season 2), "Resistance is Futile".

    Dexter has goaded Doakes into attacking him in public, and as a result Doakes has been put on suspension.

    When he is called in for a police interview concerning the Bay Harbor Butcher, Doakes refuses to cooperate and walks out of the police station (putting him under suspicion).

    Having broken into Dexter's apartment and found his bloody souvenir slides, Doakes is about to go rogue.

    Maria LaGuerta, concerned about her friend, phones Doakes while she buys coffee from a waterfront snack stand.

    Doakes sees on his cell phone that the call is from her, but by now he is too focused on his escape (and on his mission), so he doesn't take her call.

    We see him pick up a bag, and then hide something (the bloody slides) under a blanket in his car's trunk. He then turns and walks towards a waiting helicopter.  A sign reads "Welcome to the Opa-locka Airport."

    He is on his way to Haiti, to get the blood slides tested.


Q. What is it actually in real life?

    A. Two different locations: the end of a breakwater, and a public park.


Q. Where can I find it in real life?

    A. The LaGuerta scenes were shot at the far end of a long breakwater, which starts near Parkers Lighthouse in Shoreline Village, and runs out towards the Queen Mary (wrapping around the marina).

    This is the same marina breakwater where they filmed the scenes of Lila breaking into Dexter's car.

    There is a small building at the end of this breakwater, but that isn't the snack stand you see in the scene - the snack stand appears to have been just a prop the filmmakers erected next to the actual building.

    The green land with palm trees that you see to the right (in the LaGuerta shots) is one of the landmark oil islands off the coast of Long Beach. (This one is Island Grissom.)

    The camera mostly looks northeast during the scene, across the bay, where the downtown Long Beach skyline is visible on the horizon, including the International Tower (featured in "Lethal Weapon") and the landmark Villa Riviera.

    To reach the spot, turn south on Shoreline Village Drive, follow it along the east & south edges of the village's parking lot, then, at its end, turn left onto the breakwater (which has a two-lane road running down its center). Drive out to the very end of the breakwater, and that's where they shot the scene.


    The Doakes scenes were shot at Marina Green Park, a long, narrow stretch of lawn which runs along the north edge of the large parking lot to the east of Shoreline Village. The airport sign is, of course, a fake. And the chain link fence isn't normally there.

    Doakes parks in the parking lot just south of Maina Green Park, then walks northeast across that lot towards the park.

    The tall building seen behind Doakes (in the second photo from the top) is the Hyatt hotel at the Long Beach convention center.

    You'll find the park on the south side of Shoreline Drive (just east of Shoreline Village itself), in Long Beach, between Shoreline Village Drive & Linden Avenue. From Shoreline Drive, just turn south on Shoreline Village Drive, then turn left (east) into the parking lot. The long, narrow park will be to your left (north) as you head east.

    ( The Marina Green Park is the scene of several annual festivals in Long Beach, and is also home to the bleachers at the annual Long Beach Grand Prix. )

    The two locations are actually less than half a mile apart.

    Here is an aerial photo of the Marina Green Park.  Here is an aerial photo of the breakwater.

    And here is a map link of both locations.


    (I shot the photos below in 2008)


    (The photo above shows an oil island, between the breakwater in the foreground, and the downtown Long Beach skyline in the background.)


    (The photo above is a composite panorama, showing the same oil island on the far right,
    the Long Beach city skyline in the center, a bit of the marina, and the end of the breakwater on the far left.)


    ( The photo above shows the parking lot where Doakes parked, and the Marina Green Park, which stood in as the airport. )



    Numerous other scenes from "Dexter" have been shot in this general area, including multiple scenes at Shoreline Village, the area around the Queensway Bridge, at the Aquarium, and at the Hotel Maya.


Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

    A. It was clear that both scenes were shot in the Shoreline Village area of Long Beach.  Well-known buildings on the Long Beach skyline are visible in the background of both scenes.

    I've parked in that Shoreline Village lot often enough that I recognized Marina Green Park.

    But it took me a while to figure out exactly where the cameras were in the LaGuerta scene.

    At first, given the fact that the downtown skyline was obviously across water, I thought it might have been shot from the Hotel Maya area. But it wasn't. What threw me for a while was the land to the right, until I realized it was just one of the oil islands. But when I triangulated the visible buildings in downtown, they pointed across the bay towards the end of the breakwater.  Then, it was just a matter of going there to check out the details (such as the slanted wood in the boardwalk).



 
By Episode - By Category - By Geographical Location - Clickable Map of All Dexter Locations- Go To Main Menu

The Dexter screenshots from the show and all related characters & elements are trademarks of and © Showtime.
All other photos & text are Copyright © 1999-2024-Gary Wayne and may not be used without written permission.



Return to Seeing-Stars.com



Looking for something in particular? Search the Seeing-Stars website!