Jared Padalecki on the episode that made him “miserable” (from ew.com)

The show has handled death any number of ways, whether it’s Dean’s emotional plea to bring Sam back to life in season 2, or on the other end of the spectrum, Dean dying over and over for comedic purposes in season 3’s “Mystery Spot,” when the brothers find themselves in a world created by the Trickster.

And yet, the show’s more comedic handling of death resulted in an hour that star Jared Padalecki will never forget. “I feel like all I can do is be totally honest as Sam Winchester, and he’s not a funny guy,” Padalecki says. “The way I treat the death, like ‘Mystery Spot,’ which was a kind of comedic episode, was miserable for me. I was crying day in and day out. I mean it. This is not hyperbole. That was a miserable, miserable, miserable week in my life.”

“I could only treat it like it was reality,” Padalecki says, even surprising co-star Jensen Ackles with his revelation. “I had to treat it like Sam, and Sam would be mortified. When [Dean] kept on getting shot, I was playing, as best as I could, my brother is dead. My brother is dead in my arms. He got shot. A f–king piano fell on him, whatever it was. For me, it was miserable because I was legitimately trying to convince myself that my brother had died from some funny way, but it’s not funny if it’s happened to you.”

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Is it bad that I hate Sam is being tortured but I want protective Dean at the same time?

Yes, hello! You have reached the protective Dean hotline. I am here to help. No, that’s not bad at all. Please enjoy this fine selection of protective Dean moments to tide you over until the season premiere. 

How about when Sam was doing the trials and Dean just wanted to tuck him into bed and feed him chicken soup the whole time?

When Sam was going to close the gates of hell but Dean couldn’t live without him so he was all “haha no”:

Last season when Sam was supposed to take on the Mark because… um… they ran out of story ideas?:

When they were in jail and a guy looked at Sam crosswise:

How about in the cage while Cas was fighting Lucifer and Dean was busy stroking Sam’s silky tresses, apparently checking for hair-related injuries:

Same deal, different episode. Dean has his priorities straight- DON’T LET HIS HAIR BE INJURED. 

Or when Sam was all “SHOOT ME” to Metatron and Dean was like “WTF?? NO”

When Magnus tried to control Dean by hurting Sam (that worked out super well for him btw):

When Dean was threatening demons back in the good old days:

When Dean caught Gordon trying to shoot Sam and then bounced his head off a roof a little:

When Sam was hurt and Dean was a dog thereby giving him an excuse to make licking jokes later:

How about threatening to kill an entire family of scary creeps while he was tied to a chair:

Threatening Crowley is always fun and satisfying for Dean:

And finally, dying to bargain with a reaper for Sam AGAIN. Only on this show could that have happened multiple times:

And please remember that when asked by the Fangasm ladies to do a pose that reflected season 12, this is what Jared and Jensen came up with:

So prepare yourself. 

I hope you found this helpful and please get in touch again if you are ever in need of protective Dean assistance. 

So “Supernatural” is about heaven, hell, faith, revenge… But at its most basic it is about sibling devotion: no pair of brothers or sisters on television is more closely bound — not even the siblings on “Brothers and Sisters.” Proving their intimacy each week, the Winchesters argue as if they were a married couple.

NYT article (February 2, 2011) X