Dexter Filming Locations: Attempted Abduction

The location: Failed Abduction Attempt

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

A. A marina.

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

A. In Miami.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. In Episode 5, of Season 6, "The Angel of Death".

Professor Gellar and Travis Marshall are planning to continue their killing ways, creating bizarre, bloody tableaus based on the Book of Revelation.

Their next effort involves "The Whore of Babylon", and they plan to abduct and kill a woman for that role.

Earlier, we saw Gellar and Travis at a nightclub full of sexy girls, trying to decide which one to grab.

But when Travis spots a newspaper with Gellar's photo on the front page, Gellar decides it is better for him to stay out of sight, and tells Travis he'll have to abduct the victim on his own.

Travis isn't certain he's up to it. But he tries.

In this scene, we see a woman walking along a marina dock, after dark. She's unsteady. She may be drunk, or perhaps she's just walking oddly because her high heel shoes hurt her. Or both.

Travis spots her and begins following her.

When she stops to adjust her shoes, Travis grabs her. She struggles, but Travis hangs on.

Just then, however, three men from a nearby party boat see what is going on and begin shouting.

Travis abandons his efforts to abduct the woman, and flees.

(Later, however, he & Gellar successfully kidnap another woman, from a parking lot.)

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. A marina - but not in Florida.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. This scene was shot at the Shoreline Marina, in Long Beach, CA.

To be more specific, it was shot at the part of the marina which is partially surrounded by Shoreline Village, a nautical-themed shopping/dining village.

When we first see the woman walking, she is heading south on the dock/pier that is closest to the 33 Degrees gastropub, where they filmed both the nightclub scene and the Tallahassee bar scene (from the same episode).

She is not walking on the usual pedestrian boardwalk at the Village. Instead, she is walking along the marina docks, which are located about ten feet below the boardwalk level (and reached by walking down a ramp).

She reaches the south end of that first dock, and then turns and walks east, along the south edge of the marina. After a few more steps, she stops and is grabbed by Travis.

The white party boat was docked at the far north end of that north/south dock, where she first starts walking. The three witnesses appear at the far east end of the marina, near Tequila Jack's.

While they were here at Shoreline Village, they also filmed the scene of Gellar & Travis running over a couple and successfully abducting another woman.< They used the parking lot for that scene.

In fact, they have filmed many times here, from the 1st season scene of the Ice Truck Killer's Christmas tableau to the 5th Season scene of Astor caught shoplifting.
This is one of their favorite locations.

I shot the photos below in November 2011.

This is looking north up the dock where we first see the victim walking (south).

And this is looking west (note the lighthouse) at the dock she walked (east) after turning the corner.
It's on this walkway that Travis grabs her.

Compare my photo above with the screencap below, and you'll note that the same boats are docked there.

Here is an aerial photo of the marina, showing the path she took. And here is a map link.

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

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, Joel, Julie, Geoff, Jeff, Jason, Jen, and others. My thanks to all of them.

Rick let me know that they were filming at Shoreline Village. Then, it turns out that Jeff has a son, named Eric, who landed a role as an extra in the Shoreline shoot, and Jeff let me know that they had shot a scene of witnesses stopping a woman from being abducted. In the blow-up below, Eric's the one on the right. (Thanks, Rick, Jeff & Eric!)

Once I had seen the episode, all I had to do was go to the marina in person and line up the landmarks seen in the scene. For instance, you can see the lighthouse (at nearby Shoreline Park) behind Travis at one point. (That let me know they were walking east.) And it was easy to determine which north/south dock the victim was initially walking on, because the same boats docked at the marina were still there when I visited. Also, in the scene, the individual boat slips are numbered, and this dock's numbers were all in the 5000 range, making it easy to match it up. (And naturally, it wound up being the dock closest to 33 Degrees, the pub where they filmed the other two scenes.)

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