The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “I Want to Know”

Season 2 of Big Little Lies comes to an end with “I Want to Know,” as does my episode-by-episode coverage of its locations.  Hope you enjoyed reading through the posts as much as I enjoyed putting them together.  So, without further ado . . . (Note – as was the case with my posts about the locales from “What Have They Done?,” ”Tell-Tale Hearts,” “The End of the World,” “She Knows,” “Kill Me,” and “The Bad Mother,” 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 expect some crossover.)

1. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – Celeste Wright’s (Nicole Kidman) magnificent home, featured throughout Seasons 1 and 2, sits cliffside on an exclusive tree-lined street in Carmel Highlands.  The pad’s exterior and interior appear frequently onscreen, though the master bedroom – where Celeste discovers a disturbing video shot by her sons in “I Want to Know” – and the twins’ room were just sets.

2. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – Madeline Martha (Reese Witherspoon) and Ed Mackenzie’s (Adam Scott) residence, my favorite on the series, is located a good 300 miles from the Central Coast.  You can find it just north of Zuma Beach in Malibu.  The fab Cape Cod, which I dedicated a post to here, is a vacation rental in real life, so you can live out your very own Big Little Lies fantasy by booking some time there!  It doesn’t come cheap, though – rates start at $3,000 a night.

It is in the property’s beachfront backyard that Madeline and Ed renew their vows in “I Want to Know” – one of the episode’s only high points in my opinion.

3. Jane and Ziggy’s Beach Talk (Del Monte Beach, 653 Del Monte Avenue, Monterey) – Ziggy Chapman (Iain Armitage) has a heart-to-heart with his mom, Jane (Shailene Woodley), on Del Monte Beach, declaring her to be a “whole ‘nother person – your whole face and stuff has been different” when she’s with Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith) – though I have to say that I didn’t really see any of that come across onscreen.  I thought she seemed much happier with Blue Blues’ owner Tom (Joseph Cross) in Season 1.  (#bringbacktom!)  Del Monte Beach also pops up in “What Have They Done?”,  “The End of the World,” “She Knows,” and “Kill Me.”

4. Renata and Mary Louise’s Starbucks Run-In (1 Kersting Court, Sierra Madre) – In one of my favorite scenes of the season (which you can watch here – warning, it’s NSFW!), Renata Klein (Laura Dern) gets into a huge kerfuffle with Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep) at a supposed Monterey-area Starbucks.  The coffee house is actually located in Sierra Madre, though.  It is the same spot where Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic) hit on Ed in “The Bad Mother.”  You can check out a post I wrote about it here.

5. Katie Richmond’s Office (7427 Beverly Boulevard, Fairfax) – Katie Richmond (Poorna Jagannathan) unsuccessfully tries to convince Celeste not to question Mary Louise herself at her upcoming custody hearing during a meeting at her law office, which can be found in a unique Tudor-style building located on the corner of Beverly Boulevard and North Vista Street in Los Angeles.

6. Ira Farber’s Office (Scheper Kim & Harris LLP, The CalEdison DTLA, 601 West 5th Street, 12 Floor, downtown Los Angeles) – At another Los Angeles law office, this one located on the 12th Floor of TheCalEdison, Ira Farber (Denis O’Hare) cautions the ever-unpredictable Mary Louise to only answer the questions she is asked when she takes the stand at her upcoming hearing.

7. Monterey Superior Court (Superior Court of California, Marina Division, 3180 Del Monte Boulevard, Marina) – The bulk of “I Want to Know” takes place at the Marina Division of the Superior Court of California, where Celeste and Mary Louise furiously face off for custody of Celeste’s twin boys.  The courthouse’s unique exterior is featured in full view in the episode.

And the lobby appears, as well.

But the actual courtroom itself is, I believe, just a set.

8. Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row, Monterey) – Jane and Corey rekindle their relationship in front of the Open Sea display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where they both work.  Per the aquatic museum’s website, the million-gallon tank is one of the “largest live marine community exhibits in the world.”  The romantic segment was shot during off hours, which gave producers the opportunity to capture the two lovebirds in front of the “bubble curtain,” a mechanism that helps fish maneuver through dark waters which is only utilized at night.  The aquarium offers Romance Tours when the facility is closed, so you, too, can re-enact Jane and Corey’s kiss if you feel so inclined.

9. Cypress Community Hospital (Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Boulevard, Pomona)  – Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) ultimately says goodbye to both her mother, Elizabeth Howard (Crystal Fox), and her husband, Nathan Carlson (James Tupper), at an abandoned medical facility in Pomona known as Lanterman Developmental Center.  The vast property, which once housed the developmentally disabled, pops up as Cypress Community Hospital in almost every episode of Season 2.  (Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for IDing this location!  )

10. Renata and Gordon’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Renata also says goodbye to her husband, Gordon Klein (Jeffrey Nordling), in “I Want to Know,” coming to blows with him at their sprawling home, which is located in Malibu in real life.  Though both the interior and exterior are featured throughout Seasons 1 and 2 . . .

. . . I believe Gordon’s mancave, which Renata takes a bat to, might have been a set.

11. Jane’s Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – In Season 2, Jane calls a unit at Monterey’s Ocean Harbor home, though we only catch a quick glimpse of the interior, which I am fairly certain was a studio-built set, in “I Want to Know.”

12. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – At the end of the episode, Bonnie sends out an SOS text to the Monterey 5 from the bucolic home she shares with Nathan.  Their pad, which is really located in Calabasas, was used throughout Season 1 and 2.

13. Carmel by the Sea Police Department (Junipero Avenue & 4th Avenue, Carmel) – In one of the most unfulfilling closing scenes I’ve ever witnessed, the Monterey 5 meet up at Carmel by the Sea PD (which plays itself) and the screen fades out as they walk inside, presumably to turn themselves in for Perry Wright’s (Alexander Skarsgård) murder.  It was a definite “Wait, that’s it?” moment.  As my friend Nat said after watching, “I had to check the episode information to verify that ‘I Want to Know’ was actually the finale!”  As disappointing as the episode and the entire season turned out to be, though, I still loved spending time with Madeline and the gang and am sincerely hoping for a Season 3.

And that’s a wrap for me on Big Little Lies Season 2.  Well, until the DVD comes out with the deleted scenes, at least!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

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