Timeline (Season 7)

NOTE:

• Days spent on each case include the day after they solve them, if it is shown in the episode.
• Day counts assume one driving day in cases when the boys hear about the case and must travel to the location, unless otherwise stated.
• Day counts count partial days as full days (meaning if an episode starts late at night, that night counts as a day)
• Priority of information sources: A)Dialogue, B)Logic, C)Art/Props Department, D)Other Official Sources, E)Conjecture.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The writers/crew at Supernatural decided to continue their tradition of dating things for the estimated release time of the episode, ignoring the fact that, because Dean lived with Lisa for a whole year between the end of Season 5 and the beginning of Season 6, Season 6 should start in 2011, not 2010.

If you want the timeline to be logical, just add one year to all dates

Possibly June 15th, 2011 (or June 4, 2012) to Unknown 2011 - 7.01 Meet the New Boss

Day Count: Unknown

Location: Bootback, Kansas; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Unknown

Cas absorbs more souls than he can handle from Purgatory. We spend an unknown amount of time with the Winchesters and Bobby – most of it is in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where Dean lovingly restores the Impala. They also travel 9 hours away from Sioux Falls in order to meet with Death, and then they travel back to the fictional town of Bootback, Kansas, in order to try to save Castiel.

• Although time passes quickly in this episode, we know that it is probably only a question of weeks, rather than months, because Sam’s hand remains bandaged the entire episode. There’s a date in Hello, Cruel World which might date the end of this episode to Sep. 30, 2011, but it doesn’t match up with the lunar eclipse that the episode begins with.
• There is another eclipse, but it is an artificial unscheduled eclipse created by Death, so therefore I can’t really use it in the timeline.

~July 2011 - 7.02 Hello, Cruel World

Day Count: 4

Location: Bootback, Kansas; Sioux Falls, South Dakota

We pick up directly where we left off. Sam, Dean, and Bobby spend 4 days trying to figure out what Leviathans are up to and what is wrong with Sam’s brain. After traveling back to Sioux Falls from Kansas, they remain there for the rest of the episode. (Hello, Cruel World)

• The Time of Death listed for Mrs. Hackett in the morgue is Oct. 3 at 9:33am, which would place this episode from Sep. 30 to Oct. 3, 2011. However, I think the July date works better. If you DO want to use this Fall date though, you'll have to punch forward the dates on the next few episodes by two months.
• See The Girl Next Door notes for explanation of possible July date.

~July 2011 to ~August 2011 - 7.03 The Girl Next Door

Day Count: 3 weeks (3 days in detail)

Location: Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Whitefish, Montana; Spokane, Washington

We meet The Girl Next Door, when Sam spots a familiar story in a newspaper. But first, we see the boys escape Sioux Falls General, and then travel to Rufus’s cabin near Whitefish, Montana, where they spend 3 weeks convalescing. We only see the last three days of the boys stay in Whitefish. At the end of the episode, they move on to Spokane, Washington.

• Caption says 3 weeks later after their escape from Sioux Falls
• When the Leviathan at the credit card bureau is dealing with his customer, he is looking at the last 3 months of activity on his computer screen, which starts in May, 2011. – This date actually works out better logically for the episode, as the healing on Sam’s hand is more realistic and the season matches the outside world.

Possibly ~Early September 2011 - 7.04 Defending Your Life

Day Count: 4

Location: Deerborn, Michigan

Sam gets to practice Defending Your Life in court, when Dean is put on trial by Osiris. We spend 4 days with the boys in Deerborn, MI.

• Dean’s cellphone, when he drops it, says that is Mon. Dec. 29, which, doesn’t make any sense because Dec. 29th 2011 isn’t on a Monday, and also it’s definitely not that close to Christmas/New Year in Michigan. Also, both Dean and Sam’s phone numbers are Vancouver area codes – so, I’m chalking it all up to the props department not really caring all that much.
• It’s 9:32pm when Dean gets abducted on the evening of their 2nd day.

Possibly ~Early-Mid September 2011 - 7.05 Shut Up, Dr. Phil

Day Count: 3-4 days

Location: Prosperity, Indiana

Dean and Sam head to Prosperity, Indiana, for 3 or 4 days, and find themselves in a witch war.

• Once again, Dean is searching the internet on a Friday as the episode opens.

Possibly ~Mid September 2011 - 7.06 Slash Fiction

Day Count: 5

Location: Whitefish, Montana; Unknown; Ankeny, Iowa

The Leviathans decide to write their own Slash Fiction starring Sam and Dean when they go on a killing spree, prompting the real Sam and Dean to track them down and put an end to it. The real Winchesters travel from Whitefish, Montana, to an unknown location, and then head towards St. Louis, Missouri, before changing course and driving to Ankeny, Iowa. We spend 5 days with them.

• It takes ~30 hours to drive from Indiana to Montana, assuming the Winchesters drove straight to Bobby at the end of the previous episode, they still seemed surprised when they came down to find that Bobby hadn’t made any headway on the leviathan, which would indicate that Bobby had been working on him for at least a day, rather than just a few hours.
• Wherever Frank Devereaux lives, it is a solid day’s drive from Montana and Iowa.

Possibly ~Late September 2011 - 7.07 The Mentalists

Day Count: 5 days (Dean); 4 days (with Sam)

Location: Lily Dale, NY

Dean travels to Lily Dale, NY, only to find Sam already trying to find whatever is killing The Mentalists in town. We spend 5 days with Dean and 4 days with Sam (assuming one day of travel for Dean to get to Lily Dale).

• Dean says it’s been a week and a half since he last saw Sam.

October 7th to October 13th, 2011 OR December 5th to December 11th, 2011 - 7.08 Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!

Day Count: 7

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada; Pike Creek, Delaware

Sam unexpectedly gets married in Vegas. Dean follows Sam and his new sister in law, Becky, out to Pike Creek, Delaware, in order to figure out what’s going on with his brother. We spend one evening in Vegas. It’s a 2 day drive between Vegas and Delaware, and the brothers spend 4 days in Delaware, which means that we spend a week in this episode in total.

• Dean says it’s only been 4 days between Sam meeting Becky again and marrying her. I’m assuming this means that Dean dropped Sam off for his hike four days before the episode started. (If we assume they headed to Vegas directly after the last episode that means that they also drove the 2 days it takes to get from NY to Nevada.)
• Becky’s tweets are marked as posted on “12/10/11”. Twitter usually spells out the month, and America usually dates things M/D/Y, so this is either October 12, or December 10. Personally, I prefer the October date, as it suits the storyline better and also the weather.
• Sam calls Dean at 10:23pm for the wedding.

~End of January 2012 - 7..09 How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters

Day Count: 3

Location: Hammonton and Wharton State Forest, The Pine Barrens, NJ

Bobby, Sam, and Dean learn How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters when they spend 3 days in and around Hammonton and Wharton State Forest, The Pine Barrens, NJ.

• Our boys are already in Hammonton when Sam finds the nearby job in the paper, so no time was added for driving.
• The “recent press conference” in the program about Dick Roman that the boys watch took place in 2011.
• See Adventures in Babysitting notes for date explanation

~End of January 2012 - 7.10 Death's Door

Day Count: ~1

Location: Hammonton, NJ

Bobby is at Death’s Door as Sam, Dean, and Bobby, spend an unknown, but short, amount of time in the hospital in Hammonton, New Jersey.

~February 27th to March 2nd, 2012 - 7.11 Adventures in Babysitting

Day Count: (at least) 5 weeks; 5-6 days (in detail)

Location: Whitefish, Montana; Dodge City, Kansas; Unknown; Summit, Wisconsin

The boys deal with their grief over four weeks in Whitefish, Montana, before a phone call prompts Sam to pick up a hunt, while Dean goes to check on Frank. Sam travels to an unknown location and meets Krissy and then travels to Dodge City, Kansas, to try to find Krissy’s father. Dean travels to Frank’s unknown location, and then travels with Frank to a field near Summit, Wisconsin. When Sam gets into trouble, Dean travels to see get information from Krissy, and then has some Adventures in Babysitting when Krissy insist on accompanying Dean to Dodge City to look for Sam and her father. In total we spend at least 5 weeks with the Winchester, though the events of the episode take place over the last 5 or 6 days.

• Dean says that Dick Roman is at a TED conference on the 2nd day of the episode. In 2012, the only TED Conference in the US was in Long Beach between February 27 and March 2. If you wanted to use the 2013 date, then the episode (and the TED Conference) takes place ~February 25 - March 2, 2013.
• We don’t know where Frank or Krissy live, so we do not know how much time passes between when Sam and Dean leave Whitefish and arrive at their respective destinations. It does appear as though Krissy lives only a few hours away from Dodge City, as Dean and her only take one evening/night to get to Dodge City, stake out the truck stop, and rescue Sam and her father.
• Dean sleeps for 36 hours (according to Frank) between the 2nd and 3rd day of the episode.
• Sam is tied up for 2 days.

Possibly Early-Mid March 2012 - 7.12 Time After Time

Day Count: 4

Location: Canton, Ohio; Whitefish, Montana

Sam and Dean get a call from Sheriff Jodie Mills about a series of suspicious murders, that seem to be happening Time After Time in Canton, Ohio. We spend 2 days with the boys as they travel from Whitefish, Montana, to Canton Ohio and investigate. Then Dean gets accidentally zapped back to 1944. It is unclear how many days pass while Dean is gone, but my estimate is that it is about 2 days – bringing the episode total to 4.

• See Out With the Old notes for explanation of date.
• Dean spends 2 days in 1944 (November 4-5) before getting zapped back to the present at 11:34pm
• When Lila Taylor sets her grandfather clock, she sets it to 10:50pm
• I’m not sure if the night that Sam and Sheriff Mills drink is the same night that Sam finds the note from Dean – I think it makes more sense for it to be the night after, as the Sheriff was sober enough to go out and get coffee and take-out, which means that Sam and the Sheriff have at least 2 days together without Dean.

Possibly Mid March 2012 - 7.13 The Slice Girls

Day Count: 4 (at least)

Location: Seattle, Washington

The boys drive to Seattle, WA, where Dean inadvertently gets tangled up with The Slice Girls. They spend at least 4 days in this episode.

• See Out With the Old notes for explanation of date.
• Emma is born within 36 hours of their first night in town. It takes at least another two days for her to mature to the age of sixteen.

Possibly Mid March 2012 - 7.14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie

Day Count: 3 days (60 hours)

Location: Wichita, Kansas

Sam and Dean visit Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie when they find a series of bizarre deaths in Wichita, Kansas. We spend just a little over 60 hours in this episode over the span of 3 days.

• See Out With the Old notes for explanation of date.
• The boys are somewhere else in the beginning of the episode, but it must be close to Kansas, because Sam manages to get a Kansas newspaper. He refers to Kansas as though they are not already in it, however.
• We get a countdown clock in this episode, so we know it is exactly 60 hours between when Sam finds them the job and when Sam is attacked by clowns. The episode breaks down as follows:

Day 1, late morning: Sam reads about the suspicious death (60.60.60). Rest of Day 1: They travel to Wichita, examine body and interview widow and daughter. Day 2, late morning: Dean investigates unicorn death (36.36.10), discovers connection to Plucky’s. Rest of Day 2: Sam investigates Plucky’s, gets Chinese takeout for dinner. Janitor killed. Day 3, Evening (before sunset): Sam and Dean try to come up with theories (04.34.11). Rest of Day 3: Sam interviews employees while Dean tries to win a slinky. Cliff tells them about sub-basement. Sunset. Dean investigates sub-basement. Sam attacked by clowns. Solve case. Drive away.

Possibly Mid-End March 2012 - 7.15 Repo Man

Day Count: 3

Location: Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Sam and Dean re-visit Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, when an old demon appears to resurface. We spend only 2 days with them, with the end happening probably very early in the morning on a 3rd day.

• See Out With the Old notes for explanation of date.

Possibly Mid-End of March 2012 - 7.16 Out With The Old

Day Count: 2

Location: Portland, Oregon; Unknown

Sam and Dean spend 24 hours in Portland, Oregon, when an someone starts selling cursed objects in a bid to be Out With The Old. The episode takes place over 2 days, but the first 24 hours are spent in (or near) Portland. After that, the brothers drive to wherever Frank currently has his trailer parked.

• Based on the Sam storyline that occurs between Repo Man and the Born-Again Identity, this episode has to begin almost immediately after Repo Man.
• It has just snowed in Portland – it could be a freak March snowstorm (they happen in Vancouver in March, at least). That would put this episode at the end of March at latest, and make the month very jam-packed, as the past 4 episodes would have had to happen in quick succession.

Possibly End of March/beginning of April 2012 - 7.17 The Born-Again Identity

Day Count: 6 (at least)

Location: Northern Indiana; Whitefish, Montana; Colorado

Cas experiences The Born-Again Identity when Dean goes searching for someone to help Sam only to find the amnesiac angel. This episode takes place over at least 6 days. Dean drives from Indiana (where Sam is in the hospital) to Rufus’s cabin near Whitefish, Montana (a 1+ day trip), to Colorado (where Cas is), and then back to Indiana.

• At the beginning of the episode it has been 2 days since they left Portland (Lucifer states that Sam has been awake for 4 or 5 days straight, at the end of Out With The Old, he had only been awake for 3)
• A directional sign prop in the hospital names it as Northern Indiana State Hospital.
• By the third day of Sam’s hospital stay, he is seeing maggots in his food and hardly eating. He has been awake for ~7 days. By the end of the episode, Sam has been awake for ~10 days, his fingernails and hair are beginning to fall out.
• We don’t know the timing of Cas’ return. Cas tells us that he was found “a few months ago,” and the Hunter who gives Dean the information on Emmanuel informs us that he visited him “a couple months back” at which point he was obviously already found, married, and healing people.

Possibly Mid April 2012 - 7.18 Party On, Garth

Day Count: 24 hours (with Winchesters)

Location: Junction City, Kansas

Dean gets a call from Garth asking for some help on a case in Junction City, Kansas. We spend approximately 24 hours with the Winchesters. The teaser death, however, happened 4 days previous to their arrival, and we get to see a montage of Garth working over an unknown period of days after the first death before he calls the Winchesters.

• Dean is on the phone to Meg when we first see the Winchesters. Sam’s face healed and he looks well rested. According to Bobby in Of Grave Importance, it has been approx. 2 weeks since the previous episode. Bobby states that knocking the book off the table in The Born-Again Identity caused him to “black out” for 2 weeks, yet he was present in this episode.

Late April 2012 (ending before April 29) - 7.19 Of Grave Importance

Day Count: 3

Location: Bodega Bay, California

Bobby helps the boys on a hunt Of Grave Importance when a fellow Hunter goes missing in Bodega Bay, CA. The episode takes place over 3 days.

• The boys go to meet Annie at the restaurant at 1pm on the second day. The boys are already checking out the Van Ness house just after 4pm (they find Annie’s cell at 4:23PM). On the third day the boys go to the Bodega Bay Heritage Society and then deal with the house that evening.
• We get information about the timing between episodes from Bobby. He tells us that he “blacked out” for two weeks after he caused the book to fall off the table, which means that since he was around in Party On, Garth then that episode took place approx. 2 weeks after The Born-Again Identity.
• Sam also tells us that sometime in the (first) 2010/2011 year, he slept with Annie while soulless. Dean also slept with Annie, most likely while Sam was at Stanford.
• NOTE: There IS a date on Annie’s cell when Dean calls it, but I believe it reflects the filming date, rather than the storyline date, so I’ve disregarded it for the purposes of the timeline (for those wondering, it said Feb. 27.)

April 30th – May 2nd, 2012 - 7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo

Day Count: 3

Location: Whitefish, Montana; Deerfield, Illinois

The boys meet The Girl With the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo, when they track Frank’s hard-drive down to Richard Roman Enterprises in Deerfield, IL. They spend 3 days pulling off an IT caper with her help.

• The boys start the episode in Rufus’s cabin near Whitefish, Montana, but are in the Chicago area by the second day. They spend approximately 24 hours with Charlie.
• RRE HQ is located at 707 Osterman Ave, Deerfield IL (in real life it is a US post office).
• At the beginning of the episode, Bobby says that the boys have been distracted “killing ghosts the past few days.” I assume he is referring to the events in Of Grave Importance.
• Bobby asks what month it is and Dean confirms that it’s April. That being said, it makes a lot of sense that the next episode would immediately follow this one, as the boys are a)still in Chicago, and b)very curious as to what’s inside the clay they stole. The next episode takes place in May, so therefore in order to satisfy both the dialogue in this episode, the dates of the next episode, and have believable logical story flow, I’d place this episode as taking place between April 30 – May 2...and the boys oddly took a day off before cracking open the clay...perhaps to strip off a layer of clay? It would make sense, as the clay was red at the end of this episode and hardened grey clay at the beginning of the next. Or maybe they took a day off because May 2nd is Sam’s birthday!

May 4th – May 7th, 2012 - 7.21 Reading Is Fundamental

Day Count: 4

Location: Chicago, Illinois; Northern Indiana; Whitefish, Montana

Sam and Dean discover that they have God’s Word on a tablet, yet can’t decipher it without the help of a reluctant prophet. We spend 4 days traveling from South Chicago, IL, to northern Indiana and then to Rufus’ cabin near Whitefish, Montana.

• Kevin’s girlfriend calls him at 8:33pm on Friday May 4, according to his phone.
• The boys crack open “the God rock” at 8pm Central Time (9pm Eastern Time for Kevin in Neighbor, Michigan) on Friday May 4.
• For some reason, although both Chicago and Michigan are in 4 hours driving range from wherever Cas is in Indiana, it takes until nightfall for both Kevin and the Winchesters to reach his location on Saturday, May 5. Kevin left his house just after 10:22am, and the Winchesters left shortly after that from Chicago. I assume Kevin would have been driving towards the Winchesters the whole time, so perhaps they just took a very very odd route...or there was a really bad traffic jam.
• It does, however, accurately take them a full day to drive from Indiana to Montana, on May 6. Kevin stays up the whole night translating the Word, and the angels return him to his house on Monday May 7.

~May 7th – May 10th, 2012 - 7.22 There Will Be Blood

Day Count: 3 (with Winchesters), 4 total

Location: Whitefish, Montana; Hoople, North Dakota; Missoula, Montana

Dean and Sam embark on a mission to build a weapon to take down the leviathan. Meanwhile, the leviathan begin to poison the food supply. One thing is for certain – There Will Be Blood. The episode picks almost immediately after the previous episode, and we spend 3 days with the boys, who have to travel from Rufus’ cabin near Whitefish, Montana, to Hoople, North Dakota, and then back to Missoula, Montana. The actual day count is 4 days though, because we spend the final morning/day with Crowley.

• Between the previous episode and this one, the leviathan had to get Kevin from Michigan to Seattle, but given their previous use of private jets, I’m guessing that it only took them a few hours. Meanwhile, Sam and Dean showered and changed clothes (they were due - they had worn the same clothes for 3 days.)

~May 10th – May 15th, 2012 - 7.23 Survival of the Fittest

Day Count: 6

Location: Whitefish, Montana; Seattle, Washington

It’s the Survival of the Fittest when Dean and Sam assemble the weapon and go after the head of the Leviathan in the hopes of bringing them all down. This episode takes place over 6 days, with Sam and Dean traveling from Rufus’s cabin in Montana (near Whitefish) to Sucrocorp HQ (in Seattle, WA) multiple times.

• This episode picks up where it left off as far as Crowley’s storyline is concerned. Though, sometime on May 10, Cas showed up naked covered in bees when Dean presumably prayed for him. The boys summon Crowley on May 11, they stake out Sucrocorp on May 12, they put Bobby to rest on May 13, Dean picks up the Impala on May 14, and they attack Dick on the May 15. We know there’s a day between picking up the Impala and the actual attack, because when Dean picks up the Impala, he tells Cas, “I’m probably going to die tomorrow.”

All Information from hells_half_acre's SPN Timeline