| “ | Oh. Yeah. The Titanic. Yes, well, uh, it was meant to sink, and I saved it. | ” |
The "My Heart Will Go On" Alternate Timeline came about when Balthazar prevented the Titanic from sinking on its maiden voyage. It is one of the many alternate timelines shown in Supernatural.
History[]
The RMS Titanic set off on her maiden voyage from England to the United States on April 10, 1912, with an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew members onboard. On the night of April 14, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank just under two hours later in the North Atlantic Ocean. Due to an inadequate number of lifeboats and the crew not being properly trained on filling them to full capacity, only 706 people survived while over 1,500 passengers and crew members died. The sinking of the Titanic was one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history, and in the years since, the ship has become an enduring icon in the public imagination.
Season 6[]
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In an attempt to gather souls as fuel to help them combat Raphael during the civil war in Heaven, the Seraphim Castiel ordered Balthazar to travel back in time and prevent the Titanic from sinking. Balthazar masqueraded as the ship's first mate under the alias I.P. Freeley and "spotted" the iceberg just in time to avoid the fateful collision, though it was still considered a close call.
Balthazar's success in preventing the disaster resulted in the survival of those who had originally died and the births of their descendants. It also led to other changes, both on the bigger scale for politics and world events, and the smaller scale, where people who died of other causes survived and continue to live on, as was the case with Ellen and Jo surviving instead of dying fighting Meg, and them forming new relationships, with Ellen and Bobby getting remarried to each other after the losses of their respective first spouses. The Titanic herself meanwhile faded into obscurity over the years since she never became a historical landmark without the disaster and other more advanced and impressive cruise ships would eventually overshadow her. The only ones unaffected by the change are Castiel and Balthazar, who remember the original timeline and are aware of what changes have transpired.
This radical alteration to history angered the Fates, who were already not pleased with how Sam and Dean stopped the Apocalypse. Atropos began killing off the humans who were never meant to be born with freak accidents. Sam and Dean, alongside Bobby, Ellen, Jo, and a number of other hunters, investigate the "freak accidents" and discover the victims' connection to the Titanic and Balthazar's involvement when they find a photo of him alongside the rest of the Titanic's crew. When they interrogate him about this, Balthazar tells the Winchesters he saved the ship because he hated the 1997 James Cameron film and the song made for it and decided to erase them from existence, revealing nothing about Castiel's war plans.
The Winchesters and Castiel, who has to intervene to save them from Atropos trying to kill them, try to come up with a plan to stop the killings. The conflict falls into a stalemate, as Atropos calls out Castiel for changing history and rendering her and her sisters obsolete from averting the Apocalypse. Castiel, in turn, threatens to dispose of her. Atropos, while initially unnerved by the threat, counters that her two sisters (who are older and more powerful than her) won't hesitate to kill Sam and Dean to avenge her and with his war against Raphael taking up so much of his attention, Castiel won't always be around to protect them. She gives him an ultimatum - re-sink the Titanic and she'll leave them alone. Castiel reluctantly obliges, and Balthazar restores history. Sam and Dean retain their memories of the timeline thanks to Castiel, all the while remaining none the wiser to the truth behind it.
Major Changes[]
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Dean's Ford Mustang
- Ellen and Jo Harvelle are alive.
- Ellen is married to Bobby Singer.
- Sam and Dean do not drive The Impala, as the model doesn't exist here. Instead, they drive a first generation Ford Mustang.
- Without the sinking, the passengers on the Titanic who had originally died survived and went on to have descendants.
- The 1997 James Cameron Titanic film was never made, and the tie-in song made for it, "My Heart Will Go On" subsequently never came to be. As a result, its singer, Celine Dion, never became famous.