Yes I do have question. How the heck did they make it to alaska so quickly???
https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/tagged/dabb%20vs%20cars/chrono
Car continuity isn’t the show’s strong suit?
Also we don’t have any idea how quickly they actually made it there. All we know is that they’d been driving for a WHILE when we joined them in the car. I saw a post go by last night where someone googled it and discovered it was something like 57 hours to drive from Lebanon to Alaska, but we don’t even know where in Alaska they were...
that 57 hour estimate puts them at a random spot in the middle of Alaska, though, about 50 miles southwest of Fairbanks:
lol i zoomed way in on the end of that map to see if there was even a town there, and nope... even the ROAD ends before the end of that journey:
I am amused by this in a meta fashion, since Sam and Dean set out for Alaska without even a specific destination in mind. Because what Garth told them... is impossible. There IS no road between Kotzebue and Barrow Alaska. And neither of those towns are even on this zoomed-in map. Kotzebue is on the west coast of Alaska, not connected to anything else by any roads at all. Barrow is the northermost point of Alaska, also completely disconnected by any roads. It’s nearly a four hour flight between the two, with nothing between them but wilderness.
This reminds me I really need to write up something about what I believe are the very deliberate series of “continuity errors” in s15. Because I’d file this under that “well this only makes sense until you actually stop and think about it for five seconds” assumptions that s15 seems littered with. And again, my point is that it’s all deliberately skewed, because these are our hints about where Chuck is messing with the story for his own purposes.
But that’s obviously for another post... back to your actual question... >.>
It’s never stated how long Sam and Dean had been gone, driving to Alaska, and then driving around once they got there looking for the place. We don’t know how long Cas had been in Heaven, doing whatever he was doing, scoping out the Chuck/angels situation... and then when he did return, he got pulled into the Jack investigation (bless Agent Lizzo), and conceivably spent a few days on that. We also don’t know how long he and Jack were waiting at the bunker for Sam and Dean to return...
And all the while, Sam and Dean thought Cas was still in Heaven because he hadn’t called them after finding their note about Alaska, or if he did he probably didn’t get a signal because there are VAST swaths of Alaska that don’t have any cell signal at all... because again, no roads, vast wilderness, etc... and it’s highly unlikely their phones even worked at all through most of that journey...
In this context, I LOVE the parallel this creates between Sam and Dean going so far out into the wilderness where they’ve disconnected from the communication grid. Because there’s several other incidents of this exact theme in Cas’s side of the episode. Let me explain.
Cas himself had been disconnected from human cell phone service while he’d been in Heaven. Hence why Sam and Dean had to leave a note for him rather than calling him. The fact they would be in Alaska implied they would be out of cell range themselves. I love the implication that just as Cas returns to Earth, to the bunker, to communicate, Sam and Dean have left... And it’s only because one of the tangled nest of cell phones in Sam’s room rang that Cas was even there to get the lead on Jack being back... Communication is a wild meta point this season, isn’t it?
The Grigori had been surprised that Jack had been able to track them all down, specifically because the Grigori operate on a different frequency from Angel Radio. He couldn’t figure out HOW Jack was tracking them all, and had killed them all, when even Heaven supposedly couldn’t. That in itself was a direct parallel to 12.10, when Lily Sunder wanted Benjamin to call out to the rest of the angels over Angel Radio before killing him, to draw them to her so she could kill them, too. Jack had used this in the exact same way to draw out the last Grigori. But in doing that, we learned that the Grigori were on their own “radio grid,” communicating “in secret” from Heaven.
I mean, theoretically, Chuck still could’ve known all that went on with them, but would he bother? We don’t know... his laser focus has been on the Winchesters, after all, and even a warning like Jack’s killing spree prompted may have gone entirely unnoticed on this alternate frequency.
Jack himself had been hiding in the Empty, under Billie’s protection, until she deemed it “safe” to return, after Chuck went “off world” again. But do we really think Chuck is actually gone? That he isn’t still actively attempting to bring about his desired ending directly?
I mean, since 14.20 when the Shadow smiled at Jack and Billie sat him down for a talk, I’ve been assuming they needed that meeting to take place somewhere that Chuck couldn’t “overhear” their plotting. And the Empty absolutely qualifies for that. Chuck’s “cell service,” his ability to look and hear directly what’s happening in his creation, doesn’t extend to the Empty. And on Jack’s return, he specifically says he can’t use his powers lest Chuck know he’s alive again.
Interesting how these “communication issues” are being lampshaded in text by actual physical limitations and “empty places” on the map, where normal human communications via cell phone service don’t even exist.
lol i googled a cell phone coverage map of alaska, and this is just the northern half... Barrow is at the top, and the bit on the left I circled, that wee little orange blot on the tip of that spit of land, is Kotzebue... Sam and Dean were really out of their coverage area...
And for European friends who don’t get how freaking MASSIVE Alaska is... have this for handy reference:
okay... I think that’s enough to get going with...
Basically, we don’t know how long they were driving, nor how long Cas had been in Heaven. We assume once they won and left Fortuna’s bar, they were able to drive back to the bunker with all due haste and no further interruptions due to the car breaking down or running out of gas or any other meddling from Chuck’s curse... So probably about 57 hours. There’s nothing else in the episode to suggest it didn’t take that long, you know? Just because we didn’t see it happening doesn’t mean it didn’t take exactly as long as it should’ve. And honestly, not watching them drive for 57 hours straight is something I can live with :’D