A. A neighborhood pool party & barbecue.

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

A. In the back yard of a home in Dexter's residential Miami neighborhood.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. In Episode 3 (of Season 4), "Blinded By The Light".

Newlyweds Dexter & Rita have just moved into their new home, and here we see lone wolf Dexter being dragged reluctantly into his neighborhood community's social life.

The scene opens in a back yard (it appears to be Elliott's back yard) where there is a pool party & barbecue underway.

Dexter is outdoors on the patio, slicing strawberries for drinks, while Elliott and other guys are cooking steaks & ribs outdoors on the BBQ grill. Kids splash in the pool and adult neighbors mingle.



Dexter passes round the drinks, offering one to Astor, who feigns disinterest in order to impress nearby Jesse Brightman, a teenaged boy who doesn't exactly leave a good first impression on Dexter.

Rita arrives to ask Dexter why he didn't tell her that the doctor said he was suffering from a concussion (following his auto accident). He agrees to let her do all the driving for a while.

They also meet up with thier neighbor Elliott, who tells them that a neighborhood vandal has been wrecking property throughout the block.

Jesse's father, Andy Brightman, mentions that they knocked the seahorse off his mailbox, at
which point Jesse chimes in that he always hated that seahorse, leading Dexter to make the kid an early suspect...

For fun, Elliott playfully pushes young Cody into the pool, inspiring the socially-impaired Dexter to do the same to Cody's sister, Astor. But while Cody enjoys it, Astor reacts with typical adolescent outrage - she's humiliated, and Rita scolds Dexter for pushing her in.

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. The back yard of a residential home - but not in Miami.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. This scene was shot on the back yard patio of a home at 3800 N. Weston Place, in northwest Long Beach, CA.

That is the same house they used last year for the grieving fiance's house (in the third season).

It's on the same street as Miguel Prado's home (also from the third season), but on the opposite (east) side of the street, and just a few houses to the south.  It's on the northeast corner of Weston & Bixby Road.

This season, they filmed several other locations in this same general neighborhood, including Trinity's home, the vandal's house, and the Neighborhood patrol chase scenes.


And from last season, it's just a block southwest of the home of Maria LaGuerta, one street east of the white home that Rita & Syl were trying to sell, and about three blocks west of two other season 2 locations, the Angel Food Donuts stand on Long Beach Blvd and the spot where Debra spied on Ramon.

(And it's also just south of the "American Pie"/"Ferris Bueller" Country Club neighborhood in north Long Beach.)





I shot the photo below in 2009


[ Warning: This is private home.  Do not trespass on their property, knock on their doors, or do anything
else that might disturb the residents. And don't even think about going in their back yard! ]



Here is an aerial photo of the house with the pool/patio marked.  And here is a map link.

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

A.  I probably never would have found this on my own. The front of the house is never shown, and aerial photos aren't quite sharp enough to check fine detail in the back yard of homes in this area.

Fortunately, Dexter fan Susan Loomis, who lives nearby, emailed to report that there was a lot of Dexter filming going on in this neighborhood. And in particular, she reported that they had been filming at the "Grieving Fiance" house. She noted that It was apparent that they were filming a pool party, when she went to check on the filming: There were a lot of kids around carrying various pool toys & towels, and the filming was being done in the back yard of the house. (Thanks, Susan!)