Rufus Turner was a semi-retired hunter who helped Bobby Singer when the latter's wife was possessed by a demon. He returns to active hunting after Lucifer rises and the Apocalypse begins. Rufus dies when Bobby, possessed by the Khan Worm, stabs him. Bobby and the Winchesters bury him in a Jewish cemetery.
Early life
Rufus helped Bobby Singer when his wife, Karen Singer, was possessed by a demon. Rufus exorcised the demon and helped cover up Karen's death. It was Rufus who introduces Bobby to the world of the supernatural, and they hunted together for many years until a hunt goes wrong in Omaha, and a woman important to Rufus dies. They become estranged after the incident.
Season 3
- "Folks like us... there ain't no happy ending... I'm what you've got to look forward to if you survive. But you won't." - Rufus to Dean Winchester
Rufus meets Dean.
Bobby receives a call from Rufus saying that he has information on Bela Talbot. Dean Winchester goes to talk to him, and Bobby tells him to bring a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label. At first, Rufus is very hostile towards Dean and refuses to help him. Then Dean offers him some Johnny Walker Blue and Rufus smiles and lets him in. They share the bottle, and Rufus gives Dean the files on Bela, which have many interesting details on her.
Season 4
Rufus calls Bobby with news of more of the The 66 Seals being broken. The seals Rufus Turner reports being broken are: ten species extinct in Key West, fishing crew of fifteen goes blind in Alaska, and a teacher in New York kills 66 students, all in one day.
Season 5
Rufus in Good God, Y'all
Rufus heads to a town he thinks is under attack from demons, based on omens of a polluted river and a falling star. He calls Ellen and Jo Harvelle and Bobby for help. When Sam and Dean arrive he and Jo have been separated from Ellen. Jo and Rufus capture Sam, thinking he is possessed. Later, Ellen and Dean are able to help break the spell War has over them.
Bobby talks on the phone to Rufus about omens that may indicate the presence of Death.
Season 6
Bobby and Rufus.
Rufus knocks on Bobby's door he has the police on his tail and needs Bobby's help disposing the body of an Okami that he found in Billings, Montana. He and Bobby bury the Okami's body on Bobby's property, at the same time discussing Bobby's progress concerning Crowley and the return of his soul. Rufus reveals that he has some contacts in Scotland, where Crowley, aka Fergus MacLeod, apparently lived when he was human.
Rufus tells Bobby that he'll see what he can learn and then leaves just before Sheriff Jody Mills shows up with an FBI agent, Agent Adams, who is looking for Rufus on suspicion of murder. Agent Adams is persistent, and Sheriff Jodie Mills tries to distract him, but Adams finds the spot where the Okami was buried. Fortunately, there is no longer any evidence of a crime because the Okami is gone. Unfortunately, Rufus didn't stab it enough times to kill it, and it is loose.
Bobby is able to kill the Okami, and Rufus thanks him. He also tells him what his contacts in Scotland have learned about Fergus MacLeod, aka Crowley. Crowley had a son named Gavin MacLeod, whose signet ring is on display in a museum in Andover. Rufus steals the ring for Bobby, but is arrested. As a favor to Bobby, Sheriff Jodie Mills extradites Rufus to Sioux Falls and allows him to "escape custody" so that Rufus can deliver the signet ring to Bobby. Bobby uses the ring to summon Gavin's ghost, learn what he needs to learn about Crowley, and negotiate the return of his soul.
To avoid going on a hunt, Bobby makes an excuse that he needs to watch the phones for Rufus.
Rufus in "...And Then There Were None"
Rufus meets up with Bobby, Sam, and Dean while they are investigating deaths related to a spike in the activity of supernatural creatures. While investigating the murders, they also encounter Samuel and Gwen Campbell at a cannery. The creature responsible for the deaths, the Khan Worm, infects Dean and uses him to kill Gwen, and then it infects Samuel. Sam kills the possessed Samuel Campbell, and while Rufus and Bobby prepare to cut open Samuel's skull to look for the Khan Worm, they discuss an unfortunate hunt in Omaha. It can be inferred that Bobby messed up on the hunt and caused the death of someone that Rufus cared for, and Rufus says that he will never forgive Bobby for what happened.
Sam, Bobby, and Dean at Rufus's grave.
When they begin cutting into Samuel's skull, the Khan Worm animates Samuel's dead body and attacks them. During the struggle, Samuel is electrocuted and the worm leaves his body and infects Bobby, who kills Rufus while possessed. After the creature is killed, Bobby, Sam, and Dean bury Rufus. As cremation is not undertaken in the Jewish tradition, Rufus is buried, in what probably a Jewish cemetery (though if it is, the gravestone should not yet be in place), rather than given a Hunter's Funeral Pyre. Bobby pours some of Rufus' favorite drink-Johnnie Walker Blue Label—on the grave before taking a drink himself.
Season 7
After Bobby is shot in the head by the Leviathan Dick Roman and lapses into a coma he runs into Rufus in one of his memories. Rufus was then injured by a ghost that he and Bobby had once destroyed. In another memory, after Rufus is discharged from the hospital, Bobby enlists the help of his late-partner to find a way out of his coma in order to warn Sam and Dean of the leviathan's plans.
Rufus.
Together, Bobby and Rufus traverse through some of Bobby's best and worst memories until they end up back in the Singer house. Rufus aids Bobby in performing a ritual to capture the reaper after his soul. While the reaper explains to Bobby what will happen if he stays in his body during death Rufus also tries to talk some sense into his friend about becoming a ghost, claiming that "some hunter's gonna cut you down".
Despite protests from both, Bobby decides to face his deepest, darkest memory and says "Nice seeing ya again, old friend" to Rufus who nods with a saddened expression on his face. Whether this version of Rufus was only a figment of Bobby's imagination or the actual soul of the deceased Rufus Turner remains ambiguous.
Appearances
- Season 4
- When the Levee Breaks (On Phone)
- Season 5
- Good God, Y'all
- Two Minutes to Midnight (On Phone)
- Season 6
- Weekend At Bobby's
- ...And Then There Were None
- My Heart Will Go On' (Mentioned only)
- Season 8
- We Need To Talk About Kevin (Mentioned only)
Notes
- Rufus is a lover of the Johnnie Walker Blue Label, the most expensive version of the whiskey. [1]
- Rufus is shown to have had an earring during his and Bobby's earlier hunting years.
- Rufus Turner is wanted by the FBI and has two known aliases: Luther Vandross and Ruben Studdard.[2]
- Rufus is Jewish. According to Bobby, he did not keep kosher, but would try to get out of burying bodies if it was Sabbath. [3] [4] He also mentions that Bobby shouldn't sit Shiva (the Jewish Ritual of mourning immediately after the death of a friend or loved one) for him just after getting out of the hospital in Bobby's coma dream.
- Ironically Bobby does mourn immediately after Rufus' real life death.
- Rufus has a Pacemaker and has lost at least three toes since the beginning of George Bush's presidancy.
- Rufus' facial hair, like the length of Sam's hair, is a prominent indicator of time passing; starting with a moustache that eventually gets longer and then sporting a goatee, all end up graying, before reverting back to a small moustache in Bobby's memory of the past.
- Rufus is currently the only hunter to have had a confirmed burial, and one of the very few recurring characters to have one. The others would be the vampire Benny and Dean (until he is raised from Hell), while all other accounts of deceased hunters end with cremation/funeral pyres. This is due to cremation not being undertaken in Judaism.
- Dean saying he wanted to bury Benny instead of cremation in case he wishes to resurrect him one day means that, although it's unlikely it'd be attempted, the boys are probably capable of resurrecting Rufus from his remains.
- Although the Harvelles are shown to be alive in the alternate timeline of My Heart Will Go On, Rufus remains dead (probably because of how recently he died). He still affects the plot through Bobby's mourning.
See Also
References
- ↑ Time Is on My Side
- ↑ Weekend At Bobby's
- ↑ Weekend At Bobby's
- ↑ ...And Then There Were None