Tijuana is a pivotal transit point in Terry Lennox’s history with Philip Marlowe. It is where Marlowe drives him after his wife’s murder so he can fly south, a journey that brings consequences for Marlowe as well as escape for Terry. Later, Terry again passes through Tijuana by air, this time returning to Los Angeles after Clare Cavendish contacts him.

A Route Out of Los Angeles

The first journey occurs the day after Terry’s wife is murdered. Marlowe drives him to the airport in Tijuana, where Terry catches a flight south. The city’s role in this episode is practical and sharply consequential: it is the point from which Terry leaves, while Marlowe turns back toward the authorities who suspect him of helping Terry escape.

After returning, Marlowe is taken in as an accessory. Joe Green’s boss, Gregorius, roughs him up, and Marlowe spends a couple of nights in custody. He is eventually released after authorities hear that Terry has supposedly died by suicide. Marlowe recalls the escape as a close call for both his freedom and his professional reputation, and as a debt Terry still owes him.

A Route Back

Tijuana recurs when Terry explains how he reached Los Angeles for his meeting with Marlowe. He says he had been vacationing in Baja when Clare called; he caught a local crop duster to Tijuana, then continued north on a Mexicana Airlines DC-3. The account gives the route a different direction from the earlier flight south: the same city that enabled Terry’s departure now forms part of his return.

Terry’s description is specific about the improvised first leg and the aircraft on the second, but it does not establish that the two journeys were otherwise alike. In the later scene, he arrives because Clare has called, and resumes contact with Marlowe amid the unresolved business surrounding Nico Peterson and the suitcase.

Narrative Significance

Tijuana’s significance lies in this recurrence as a hinge between departure and reappearance. In the earlier episode, Marlowe’s help carries a personal cost when the authorities connect him to Terry’s flight; in the later one, Terry’s account makes clear that his movements still depend on sudden calls and available transport. The location is not developed through a description of the city itself. Instead, its importance emerges from what happens at its airport: a route south that leaves Marlowe exposed, and a route north that brings Terry back into the investigation.