A. A parking lot.

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

A. Somewhere in Miami.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. In Episode 5 (of Season 2), "The Dark Defender".

We learned earlier in the episode that the comic book store murder victim had been engaged in a running online feud with a guy nick-named 'Corn Dude" (whose real name was Benjamin Alvaro), and that Alvaro's truck was videotaped after-hours in the store's parking lot on the day of the murder.

So, next we see Sgt. Doakes and Maria LaGuerta on a Stakeout at night, sitting on the hood of a car in a parking lot, drinking coffee and waiting for the murder suspect to arrive.

As they wait, Doakes & LaGuerta talk about old times, about Doakes' potential problems with recent killings, and about LaGuerta's sleeping with Pascal's boyfriend to shake up her rival.

Then the suspect, Alvaro, arrives in his Ford truck, and Doakes & LaGuerta spring into action to bust him.

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. A parking lot, but far from Miami.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. The scene is dark, so it's hard to pinpoint the exact position, but it was definitely shot in a parking lot nearby Shoreline Village, a seaside shopping & dining center in Long Beach, CA

(That's the same Village where they filmed the Comic Book store murder scene earlier in this episode.)

As best as I can tell, Doakes & LaGuerta's car was parked at the far northwest end of the Shoreline Village parking lot, behind the Yard House restaurant. The traffic on the street behind them is on Shoreline Drive.

For most of the scene, the camera is facing the north & northwest. When they look up at the arriving suspect and his truck, the camera is looking south/southeast, at the main Shoreline Village lot.


Here is an aerial photo of the lot.  And here is a map link.




(I shot the photos below in 2008)


(The photo above shows the parking lot on the northeast side of Shoreline Village,
looking southwest, with Tequila Jack's and The Yard House restaurants to the right.)



(The photo above is looking south/southeast across the Shoreline Village parking lot.)



(The photo above is looking north, out towards Shoreline Drive, with the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the background.)



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

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

A. It wasn't easy.

Since they had filmed so much around Shoreline Village in recent episodes, that was the first place I looked.  The problem was determining where they were parked.

But if you look closely, in some of the background shots, you can see the buildings of the Long Beach Convention Center, across the street. You can also catch a brief glimpse of the white Ferris wheel, which is located outside the Pike on the north side of Shoreline Drive (in some shots, the lights of the Ferris wheel are reflected in the mirrored walls of the Hyatt Regency hotel), and even one of the fountains in the Convention Center ponds.