In a new interview, Supernatural star Jared Padalecki discusses the repercussions of the show losing its two main supporting characters, how it’ll affect Sam, and the potential eight season. Mind some spoilers.

Speaking to TV Line, Jared admits that while the loss of Cas and Bobby has allowed him and Jensen Ackles, “to explore those intense feelings of loss and regret and resentment,” personally he wasn’t happy with the development:

As Jared and Jensen, it sucks because we love Jim [Beaver] — love, love, love him. We love Misha [Collins]. They’re great people off-set, and they’re awesome actors on set. They add to the show quite a bit and, selfishly, I like having them around because they help propel the storyline. They add more dimensions just by nature of being two different people. But I understand how [losing them] makes for good television and good storytelling.

On how it’ll be affecting Sam in upcoming episodes:

Sam is all sorts of a mess. Bobby was very much a father figure to Sam, and so he certainly misses him. It’s difficult for him, but Sam and Dean went through so much that Sam, especially, is like, “We’ve got to deal with what’s on our plates now.” Like, “I miss him. I’ll love him. But we can’t bring him back. We can’t. We no longer have that option.” And Sam’s also dealing with a bunch of craziness in his own world – visions and hallucinations and his wall breaking down – so he almost literally cannot afford to worry about things other than just keeping his head on straight.

Mark Pellegrino is returning as Lucifer, and this will propel Sam’s mental state storyline. Jared reveals:

Though [Lucifer] hasn’t been seen on camera a lot, he’s been the voice in Sam’s head since the first episode [of the season], when he was messing around with Sam. Sam’s just been able to hide it, but an episode comes up where Sam has no choice but to confront this voice in his head. That makes it much more difficult for Sam to then get rid of Lucifer once he has embraced his presence.

Jared also talks about the eight season (not confirmed yet), in which he’d like to see the Leviathans explored more. He says:

I’m excited about it. I know I have a kid on the way in March, and that’s pretty intense and exciting and scary and every emotion you could imagine. But I’m excited about Season 8. I feel like there are more stories to tell. I feel like we haven’t wrapped everything up. Season 8 could be a great season. Even if we have to wrap things up in Season 8, I feel like it would be a nice last hurrah.

Read the full interview, in which Jared also previews tonight’s episode ‘The Slice Girls’, at TV Line.