A Question of Time

In Season 8, the show moved the storyline one year forward, like they did in Season 6. It’s funny from a meta point of view: when Supernatural began in 2005, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki were each one year Dean’s and Sam’s seniors. After the two time shifts suddenly they are a year their characters’ juniors. Only in a show like Supernatural can such freaky, Benjamin Button-like temporal and age warps be taken for granted. Is it a TV Trope, too?

This new time shift can be both very advantageous and dangerous. Supernatural’s timeline in its first 5 seasons, from 2005 to 2010, corresponded with the time in the real world. Due to the two temporal movements, however, its characters are now living in this weird fictional Future-in-the-Present, the year 2014 rather than 2012 (Supernatural is now officially set in the future, like a friggin’ sci-fi space opera!). The advantage is, the show’s writers could joke about events than haven’t yet happened, reference films or products no one has ever seen yet, toying with this temporal possibility to the max.

By the way, in Season 5’s “The End” Lucifer!Sam from the alternative 2014 promised Dean he would see him “in five years”, that is, in 2014. These five years have passed by amazingly fast on the show. I wonder if the Devil will keep his promise.

As far as dangers go, remember how back in Season 6 the guys were supposed to be living in 2011-12, according to their gap year timeframe (while it was 2010-11 in the real world) – but I don’t think 2011 was ever mentioned in the episodes. To top it all, in the episode “You Can’t Handle The Truth” there was a shot of a calendar in Jane the waitress’ room that said 2010 – that is, the real historical time off-screen (it should’ve been 2011, though, in the show’s time). 

These quibbles are meticulous, I know. All I’m saying is it could be tricky for the writers and set dressers to evade such minor misdirects how that the show and the reality are two years out of sync with each other.