The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “Kill Me”

The fifth episode of Big Little Lies’ second season may have lacked pizzazz (especially since the much-anticipated ice-cream-throwing scene was cut!), but it sure boasted a lot of locations.  Read on to discover which spots the Monterey 5 frequented in “Kill Me.”  (Note – as was the case with my posts about the locales from “What Have They Done?,” ”Tell-Tale Hearts,” “The End of the World” and “She Knows,” because I have already extensively detailed BLL’s inaugural season, I will not be covering flashbacks.  And places that appear in multiple episodes will be noted as such, so some crossover should be expected.)

1. Jane’s Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – “Kill Me” opens at the new seaside apartment Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) shares with her son, Ziggy (Iain Armitage), located at Monterey’s Ocean Harbor.  Though the inside of Jane’s place is, I believe, just a set . . .

. . . the actual interior of a unit is used as the home of Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep), who lives in the same complex.

“Kill Me” also offers us a rare glimpse of the exterior of Ocean Harbor towards the end of the episode as Mary Louise sits alone on nearby Del Monte Beach.

2. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – A gorgeous pad in Carmel Highlands stands in for the residence of Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) and her children, Max (Nicholas Crovetti) and Josh (Cameron Crovetti), on the show.  Used extensively throughout Seasons 1 and 2, the home, more specifically its dining room, only appears briefly in “Kill Me.”  Celeste’s bedroom and the twins’ room, which are also shown in the episode, were just studio-built sets.

3. Nathan and Ed’s Argument (Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail, near 459 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – Nathan Carlson (James Tupper) calls Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) a “nut-f*ck” – the planet is inhabited by them! – on Monterey Bay’s gorgeous Coastal Recreation Trail, which runs 18 miles from Castroville to Pacific Grove.  In the scene, the two men argue near the Lovers Point Mural, about 0.2 miles east of Lovers Point Beach.

4. Monterey Superior Court (Superior Court of California, Marina Division, 3180 Del Monte Boulevard, Marina) – Celeste and Mary Louise attend the first part of their custody hearing at an actual Central Coast courthouse located in Marina, a small town just north of Monterey.  Little of the unique building is shown in the scene, though we catch better views of it in the Season 2 finale, “I Want to Know.”

I believe the actual interior of the courthouse also made an appearance in the episode.

5. Cypress Community Hospital (Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Boulevard, Pomona) – Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) sits vigil at her mother Elizabeth Howard’s (Crystal Fox) bedside at what is supposed to be Monterey’s local Cypress Community Hospital.  Filming actually took place at an abandoned former health facility in Pomona known as Lanterman Developmental Center.  The same spot is also where Amabella Klein (Ivy George) was taken after her anxiety attack in “The End of the World” and where Elizabeth was admitted following her stroke in “She Knows.”  (Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for IDing this location!  )

6. Ziggy and the Twins’ Fist Fight (Carmel River Elementary School, 2770 15th Avenue, Carmel) – Though Ziggy, Max and Josh are suspended for pummeling a bully on the Otter Bay Elementary playground, Kenter Canyon, which typically portrays the school of the Monterey 5’s children on the series, was not used in the scene.  Filming instead took place at Carmel River Elementary, with the bungalows of the neighboring Mission Ranch Hotel clearly visible in the background.

7. Otter Bay Elementary (Kenter Canyon Elementary School, 645 North Kenter Avenue, Brentwood) – Kenter Canyon does make an appearance in “Kill Me,” though.  It in the school’s principal’s office that Celeste and Jane are informed of their children’s three-day suspension and outside of the school that Jane asks Ziggy what caused the fight.

8. Madeline and Ed’s Marriage Retreat (Seven Coves, 157 Spindrift Road, Carmel) – A massive compound in Carmel which also cameoed in the 1992 thriller Basic Instinct stood in for the “healing institute” where Ed and his wife, Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon), try to repair their marriage.  The sprawling property, known as Seven Coves in real life, boasts 5 separate homes, more than 4 acres of land, 1,000 feet of coastline, 17,000 square feet of living space, 12 bedrooms, and 17 bathrooms.  If you have an extra $52 million lying around, the whole thing can be yours, as it is currently on the market.

It is in the property’s quaint, one-bedroom Writer’s Cottage that Ed and Madeline attend the retreat’s infamous hugging seminar in “Kill Me.”

9. Renata and Gordon’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – In the hopes of getting her to drop the custody battle against Celeste, Renata Klein (Laura Dern) invites Mary Louise for tea at her massive modern mansion, now virtually empty due to her bankruptcy – which, of course, does not go unnoticed by Mary Louise.  The pad, featured in both Seasons 1 and 2, can be found on a private road in the hills of Malibu above Escondido Beach.  Both the interior and exterior are utilized extensively on the series.

10. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – Chloe Mackenzie (Darby Camp) offers her father, Ed, some solace in the form of a hug in the kitchen of their idyllic Cape Cod-style home in “Kill Me.”  Like Renata’s place, the Mackenzie residence is located in Malibu.  The stunning property is a vacation rental in real life, which means you, too, can live like the Monterey 5 – well, temporarily, at least.  You can check out a post I wrote about the dwelling here.

11. Liberation Yoga (124 South La Brea Avenue, Hancock Park)  – Bonnie hosts a “singing for sleep apnea” class and is confronted by her father, Martin Howard (Martin Donovan), at a real yoga studio in Hancock Park.  Or at least it was.  Sadly, Liberation Yoga, formerly located on La Brea Avenue, has since moved and the storefront that once housed it sits vacant, so you can no longer get your namaste on there.  The site also popped up a couple of times in Season 1 and was where Elizabeth surprised Bonnie in Season 2’s “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

12. Ira Farber’s Office (Scheper Kim & Harris LLP, The CalEdison DTLA, 601 West 5th Street, 12th Floor, downtown Los Angeles)  – Mary Louise’s lawyer, Ira Farber (Denis O’Hare), unsuccessfully tries to broker a joint custody deal between his client and Celeste at Scheper Kim & Harris, located on the 12th floor of The CalEdison in downtown L.A.  The firm’s offices also showed up in episode 4, “She Knows.”

The building’s 12th floor elevator bay was utilized in “Kill Me,” as well.

13. The Monterey 5’s Parking Lot Meet-Up (White Point Park, 1801 West Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro) – Celeste calls for a late-night secret meeting in the parking lot of San Pedro'”‘”‘s White Point Park (quite a long way from Monterey!) to discuss the latest in Perry’s (Alexander Skarsgård) case and to inform the group that she might be required to take the stand in her custody hearing, which would put them all in jeopardy.  The same lot also makes an appearance in “The Bad Mother.”

14. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – Nathan tries to make a grand gesture to show his love for Bonnie by surprising her with a treadmill and running book at their bohemian-style residence, actually located in Calabasas.  It is in the living room of the bucolic home, used in both Seasons 1 and 2, that Bonnie has a heart-to-heart with her dad about her childhood abuse in the episode.

15. Madeline and Mary Louise’s Ice Cream Run-In (Kersting Court, Sierra Madre) – In what proved to be the most disappointing scene of the season, Madeline and her daughter Abigail Carlson (Kathryn Newton) run into Mary Louise on a downtown Sierra Madre street after getting ice cream.  Though the cone-tossing element of the segment never made it to the screen, the trio is shown having a terse conversation in front of Savor the Flavor gift store at 11 Kersting Court.

16. Corey’s Kayaking Beach (Whaler’s Cove, Point Lobos, Carmel) – Instead of keeping Max, Josh and Ziggy home during their suspension, Celeste and Jane decide to take them kayaking with Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith) at Monterey’s famed Whaler’s Cove at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve.  The pristine oasis, a popular kayaking destination in real life, is part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Prior to heading out on the water, Corey engages in some horseplay with the boys in the Cove'”‘”‘s parking lot area, which also made appearances in “The End of the World.”

17. Tori Hits on Ed (City Tavern, 9739 Culver Boulevard, Culver City) – Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic) rather awkwardly hits on Ed (though things are about to get a lot more awkward in the episodes to come!), at City Tavern, the very same bar where Celeste and Jane had cocktails in “She Knows.”

18. Carmel by the Sea Police Department (Junipero Avenue & 4th Avenue, Carmel) – Carmel by the Sea PD plays itself in several episodes of Big Little Lies’ second season.  In “Kill Me,” Bonnie heads there on a late-night walk and makes the shocking discovery that Corey might be working with the police.

Don’t forget to tune in Friday for my post about episode 6, “The Bad Mother.”

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