what happened when

[llywela]

Because trivial details matter, and because I tried really hard to keep track of dates in my episode recaps whenever possible, and because pulling all those dates together into one place for easy reference seemed a reasonable thing to do over a rainy bank holiday weekend.

Supernatural Timeline

October 31^st – November 2^nd 2005 – 1.01 Pilot
        The first present day scene shows us Sam and Jessica on their way to a Halloween party. Dean and Sam then spend the weekend working the Woman in White case, and Sam returns to his apartment just in time to witness Jessica's fiery death. Her headstone seen in Wendigo gives her date of death as November 2^nd.
        By the time Dean goes to fetch Sam from Stanford it is already three weeks since his last contact from John, which places John's disappearance from Jericho sometime in early October

November 2005 – 1.02 Wendigo
        We are told in this episode that Dean and Sam have hung around Stanford for a week after the events of the Pilot in search of clues as to Jessica's killer, before heading for Colorado to follow up on the coordinates John left for Dean in his journal.

December 5^th 2005 – 1.04 Phantom Traveler?
        It is suggested (newspaper date seen on a TV screen) in What Is And What Should Never Be that the plane crash averted by Dean and Sam in Phantom Traveler took place on December 5^th, which was also apparently Mary's birthday.
        However, this information comes from Dean's fantasy, and it is known that numerous other details therein are distorted, so this date can't be relied on.

7^th March 2006 – 1.06 Skin
        We learn in The Benders that Dean's shapeshifter double was killed on March 7^th, thus giving us a date for the final scenes of this episode.

20^th-26^th March 2006 – 1.08 Bugs
        We are told that the death in the teaser of this episode happened on 20^th March, and that the big bug infestation at the end of the episode is the 6^th night after that.

April 2006 – 1.11 Scarecrow
        "This is the second week of April," Sam tells us on-screen in this episode, which places the events of this episode anywhere between 7-14 April.

June 2006 – 1.17 Hell House
        Sam checks the Hell Hounds website during this episode and notes a new post, which we can see, in a close up of the laptop, is dated June 10.

18-19 July 2006 – 2.01 In My Time Of Dying
        19 July is the date on John's heart monitor at the end of the episode. Thanks to terraneanblues for pointing that one out!

August 2006 – 2.04 Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things
        In the teaser, when soon-to-be-zombie Angela crashes her car, a close up of her mobile phone gives the date as 22^nd August. Dean and Sam arrive in town two days after her funeral, which places the events of the episode at the end of August.
        This means that the events of the last third of season one and the early stages of season two take place within a very compact space of time, complicated by the fact that John in Salvation said it was "about a year" since he'd noticed signs of the Demon coming out of hibernation and took off to pursue it. Presumably he was rounding up by a couple of months, rather than giving a very literal time reference, because for CSPWDT to take place in late August, the events of the finale couldn't have happened any later than July, only 9 months after John's disappearance in October 2005.

September 2006 – 2.06 No Exit
        The second victim in this episode, Theresa, receives mail inviting her to a lingerie party on 28^th September, which means that the events of the episode take place sometime before that date.

November 2006 – 2.08 Crossroad Blues
        Dean finds a picture of Doctor Pearlman dated November 1996, which was apparently when she made her deal with the crossroads demon. Since her bill comes due ten years later, it is reasonable to assume that the episode takes place in November 2006.

January 2007 – 2.13 Houses of the Holy
        When Dean and Sam explore the first victim's house, Dean comments on the Christmas Angel decoration still adorning his porch, noting that it is after New Year.
        However, dating for this episode is complicated by the fact that Father Gregory's headstone gives his death date as 2007, and he is supposed to have died two months ago.

February 20^th 2007 – 2.16 Road Kill
        We are told onscreen that the events of this episode take place on the night of February 20^th and early the following morning.

April 2007 – 2.21-22 All Hell Breaks Loose
        In Part One Sam refers to himself as being 23 years old. Since we know from The Benders that his birthday is May 2^nd, it must still be April, at the very latest, when this episode takes place.


And...that's all the dates I've managed to keep track of. There may be more - if I've missed or miscalculated any, please feel free to point them out to me!

Comments

[phantomas.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is great!
Thank you for putting all of this together. I'm planning on re-watching the whole two series during summer, I'll pay attention to the points you mention and see if I find more, your timeline is really useful!

One point only:
John in Salvation said it was "about a year" since he'd noticed signs of the Demon coming out of hibernation and took off to pursue it.

However, it may have been a few months between John starting to notice the signs and his leaving Dean on his own, so John may have been conflating those months...what you think?

Again, thanks! :)

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

However, it may have been a few months between John starting to notice the signs and his leaving Dean on his own, so John may have been conflating those months...what you think?
True. I'd wondered about that - John always played his cards so very close to his chest! I still really, really want to know what happened in Jericho that sent him rushing off into hiding so abruptly, because it clearly wasn't something he'd planned in advance. Why did he so suddenly feel it necessary to drop off the face of the earth, without even getting a proper message to Dean? I think that, more than anything else, is something I'd love to see flashbacks to explain. Doubt it'll ever happen, though.

'Twas worth mentioning that 'about a year' point, because when you watch the end of season one and hear that it is easy to assume that the boys have been on the road for a year exactly, that it is now October/November again, but then the start of season two makes it clear that it is actually summer still, less than a year since Jessica's death and John's disappearance.

And...I'm clearly way too obsessed with such trivia!

[gendenwitha.livejournal.com]

In Houses of the Holy, I think you can go with what it says on the headstone. Because, seriously, some people NEVER take down their Christmas decorations. Two weeks ago I drove by a crappy, run-down house with a faded plastic Santa still on its roof. Looked like it's been there for years.

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Eh, yeah. Some Christmas decorations stay up all year round! But three episodes later we're on February 20, so it seems safe to say that HotH is Jan/Feb. :-)

[terraneanblues.livejournal.com]

I think, in Nightmare, Sam says something to Max to the effect of, "Your abilities, they started happening, nine-ten months ago?" which can give a rough estimate for the time of that episode (though not much more than for chronology's sake).

Also, I think you can see the date of John's death on his heart monitor at the end of IMTOD.

I've always found it really funny that the last four or five episodes of season one are meant to take place in the summertime, yet they're all wearing heavy coats, lol. Yet, in ELAC, they're in t-shirts. Oh, continuity. You slay me.

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I think that season one was meant to have taken about year rather than nine/ten months, but the chronology was changed when season two started filming and it was pretty impossible to hide the fact that it was summer! Production issues create all kinds of headaches for those trying to keep track of things.

Kind of adds a lot to the psychological aspect of things, though, when you start to realise how many really powerful episodes are crammed into a very short space of time.

Ooh, but you're right about the heart monitor. Looks like 19 July to me. I should edit that in. :-)

[terraneanblues.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the way I figure it, too, especially if Sam mentions it's been nine months way back in Nightmare (which was, I believe, episode 1.10?) I think their general goal is for every season to be a full year, but that's pretty hard to do when they have so many outdoor scenes and colder/more wintry climate to film them in.

Oo, it does. Those poor boys.

Oh, and thanks for doing this! It's incredibly handy. :)

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

*gets geek on*

Nightmare is episode 1.14. We know that 1.11 is early-mid April, and 1.17 is around June 10. So Nightmare comes midway between the two, which could make it...maybe May? Jessica died at the start of November, and Sam said he'd been having nightmares for days before she died, which puts us into October, which would be 7, maybe 8 months before. So he's maybe rounding up a little. Or was having the nightmares for a long time and trying to ignore them. Or the writers just can't count. *G*

[sheepy-hollow.livejournal.com]

thank you for doing this!
'cause honestly, since AHBL was aired I am wondering about the timeline, because in the episode Sam said (again) "your abilities started about a year ago" and I was like what the hell? it must be more than a year since Dean picked him up....
So, yeah, thanks for clearing that up :D

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Heh. I make it about 18 months in the show timeline - roughly 9 months per season. So now I'm wondering if they'll start season three around about the same point at which they left off again, and continue to lose three months a year, or if we'll skip forward a few months to rejoin real time!

[sheepy-hollow.livejournal.com]

hm, actually, I was going to answer that they probably will lose three months again, but then again, now with Dean only having a year left I don't think they will... I mean this "one year" thing is going to be the main storyline I guess, so I don't think they will just leave out three months... or at least I hope they don't!

[girk.livejournal.com]

This is really cool!

You should email/send this to the SPN folks so they can keep track of it all. There are few things more annoying in a show than when they forget their own timelines.

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and true. But SN is actually really good - there are a few slip-ups and retcons, either due to human error or production issues, but it's possible to trace a clear timeline through both seasons, which is more than can be said for a lot of shows! As long as my shows have a strong internal logic, I'm happy, and SN certainly has that :-)

[yourlibrarian]

A handy look at events, I'm bookmarking, thanks!

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Have you cross-checked this with the timeline at the Winchester Journals? Not that it's a perfect source but it might be useful to compare the timeline there for any other forgotten dates.

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Eh, I've got a few they haven't. And they have assumed a lot by extrapolating from what's known, where I've stuck to what we've been told on screen. But all information is good information! (Unless it's wrong ;-))

[ai-kizu.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for doing this. I kept wondering about the timeline and I'm so glad someone did this, I really appreciate it.

[bowtrunckle.livejournal.com]

Wow, I was just wondering about time compression for the show the other day.

I'd like to respectfully point out that in "Nightmare" Sam says to Max, "You're abilities, they started six or seven months ago ... out of the blue." This is different than the nine/ten months that was previously quoted in another comment. Therefore according to Sam, "Nightmare" would have occurred between late April to late May which fits perfectly with your timeline. :)

Also, I don't find the time compression that occurs between mid July and Aug of 2006 too troublesome (as you mention) because a number of those episodes are linked whereby no time or very little passes between them (1X21, 1X22, 2x01). What I do find curious and slightly weird is mid April to early June 2006 where there were seven non-time-continuious episodes in a matter of ~seven weeks. On average, that's one new/solved case a week including travel time. Those boys must move fast when they need to.

Thank you for taking the time to put this together! It's a great reference for those of us who are detail-oriented and slightly crazy.

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Eh, thanks for clarifying that point - makes me all kinds of happy when it all works out nice and neat! :-)

I don't find the summer time compression troublesome, apart from Dean rebuilding the car in that time, which I can indulgently overlook because a) he was clearly committing every single moment of his time to the project, dusk till dawn, and b) what do I know about rebuilding classic cars?! It's more...kind of awesome to consider how close together some of the most powerful emotional episodes take place, and then take that into account when considering the psychological motivations of the characters during those episodes, the sheer weight of everything that's going on, and how fast things are changing for them. Bugs through Scarecrow taking place in a period of no more than three weeks is another good example.