‘Supernatural’: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki on the Winchester Brothers’ Relationship with Mary (VIDEO)

Marisa Roffman November 17, 2016

Jensen Ackles as Dean, Jared Padalecki as Sam, and Samantha Smith as Mary Winchester — Diyah Pera/The CW

Supernatural -- "Celebrating the Life of Asa Wilder" -- SN1206b_0114.jpg -- Pictured (L-R): Jensen Ackles as Dean, Jared Padalecki as Sam and Samantha Smith as Mary Winchester -- Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW -- © 2016 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

The family reunion on Supernatural didn’t go exactly as the Winchesters hoped it would.

Though Mary (Samantha Smith) was brought back to Earth nearly 33 years after her death, she struggled adjusting to the realities of her new world—her sons grew up in her absence, and her husband was gone.

Mary ultimately decided she needed a break from Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles). The move has impacted her sons in varying ways, the actors recently told reporters on the show’s Vancouver set. “There are certainly two different relationships going on, from Sam’s perspective and then from Dean’s perspective,” Ackles said. “Because Sam never had a relationship with mom; he was an infant. And Dean didn’t have much of one either. A lot of what he knows and what he remembers about his mother was kind of dictated to him by his father; it’s more his father’s memories of her than it is Dean’s established memories of her.”

And though they have the biological tie, “she’s also kind of a stranger,” Ackles pointed out. “Obviously the brothers are strangers to her as well, which is why you see this struggle to find their footing in the relationship because it is a forced situation. And at least from Dean’s perspective, he doesn’t really know how to fit [in]. He doesn’t know how to categorize the relationship. It’s an awkward thing which I think lends itself to good story.”

But that also has led to extra stress on every interaction. “It’s one of those situations where you’ve built up something so much in your head that there’s no way it’s gonna be able to fulfill all of these dreams,” Padalecki allowed. “Like ‘God, if Mom was still around,’ or ‘If we’d never started this life, what would it be like?’ And you build these stories in your head of what it’s gonna be like, and inevitably and invariably, it’s not like that.”

But the brothers will get another chance to get their relationship with their mother back on track in this week’s episode, “Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox.” Unfortunately for the trio, the reunion comes as a demon starts picking off hunters. But on the bright side, Mary will get to meet more of the people in her sons’ lives, including Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes).

Watch an exclusive clip of the hour below, as the Winchester family reunites, and Jody is shocked to learn Mary is still alive.

Supernatural, Thursdays, 9/8c, The CW