Rufus Turner
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| Name | Rufus Turner |
| Actor | Steven Williams |
| Dates | ???? - 2011 (killed by the Khan worm possessed Bobby) |
| Location | Canaan, Vermont |
| Occupation | Hunter |
| Episode(s) | 3.15 Time Is on My Side 5.02 Good God, Y'All 6.04 Weekend at Bobby's 6.16 ...And Then There Were None 7.10 Death's Door 11.16 Safe House |
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 Turner, 3.15 Time Is on My Side
History
Rufus Turner is the hunter who 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's 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 (possibly his daughter) dies. They become estranged after the incident.[1]
Fifteen years later, Rufus responds to Bobby's request for information on Bela and helps Dean locate her.[2] He returns to active hunting after Lucifer rises and the Apocalypse begins, and he helps Bobby get his soul back.[3] Rufus dies when Bobby, possessed by the Khan worm, stabs him. Bobby and the Winchesters bury him in a Jewish cemetery.[1]
Following the destruction of Bobby's place by the Leviathan,[4] Sam and Dean hole up at a cabin owned by Rufus in Whitefish, Montana.[5]
Episodes
3.15 Time Is on My Side
Bobby, who hasn't heard from Rufus in about 15 years, receives a phone call in which Rufus alerts him to the whereabouts of Bela Talbot. Dean goes to see Rufus Turner, even though Sam opposes the idea of hunting for Bela, as they have only a couple of weeks until Dean's deal runs out. Rufus presents Dean with a manila folder on Bela, which gives Dean new and interesting detail into her past.
4.21 When the Levee Breaks
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.
5.02 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 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.
5.20 The Devil You Know
Bobby talks on the phone to Rufus about omens that may indicate the presence of Death.
6.04 Weekend at Bobby's
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 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: Did you use a bamboo dagger?
Rufus: Yeah.
Bobby: Well, clearly it's 7 times - the damn hole is empty!
Bobby: Blessed by a Shinto priest?
Rufus: I'm not an imbecile, Bobby.
Bobby: Did you stab it 7 times?
Rufus: 5 times.
Bobby: It's 7!
Rufus: ... No, I'm pretty sure it's 5.
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 Jody 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.
6.12 Like a Virgin
To avoid going on a hunt, Bobby makes an excuse that he needs to watch the phones for Rufus.
6.16 ...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, 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. (According to Supernatural: Bobby Singer's Guide to Hunting, Bobby is responsible for the death of Rufus's never-named daughter.)
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 an unmarked grave in a Jewish cemetery, rather than being 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.
7.10 Death's Door
Bobby lies in a coma after being shot by the leader of the Leviathans, Dick Roman, and inside his subconscious he searches for a way to wake up. He travels through different memories. In one he is on a hunt in a church with Rufus where they are trying to stop the ghost of a woman left at the altar is killing men who have broken their partner's hearts. They find the woman's bones in the crypt, but she attacks Bobby. Rufus stops her momentarily, but she knocks him unconscious, until Bobby burns her bones.
Bobby then finds another memory - Rufus ended up in a coma after the incident, and later him that he came out of it. As his life flashed before him, in each memory there was a door to another memory, and that the way out, the way to wake up, was through his worst memory.
With Rufus, Bobby returns to a painful memory. Before Karen Singer was possessed by a demon and he was forced to kill her, Bobby revealed that he didn't want to have children, something he has never shared with her. Karen was extremely distraught. Bobby tells Rufus that what was worse than killing her, was knowing that they never got past this argument.
Next they find a memory of Bobby throwing a ball with a ten-year-old Dean, and then move to a scene young Bobby at dinner with his his mother and abusive father. Bobby and Rufus move from that as Bobby suggests they try and bind the reaper. Rufus helps him with the ritual
The spell binds the reaper, but the reaper tells him the spell won't hold, as his brain is being killed by the damage from the bullet and his memories are disintegrating. He tells Bobby he has achieved much in his life, but also warns Bobby that if he doesn't go with him, he will remain trapped as a ghost. Rufus cautions him about making that choice. Bobby says he wants to stay to help Sam and Dean - "his boys." He thanks Rufus for his help, and moves on to the next memory.
11.16 Safe House
Rufus calls Bobby for some help on a possible case; Bobby questions him if he was called out to Grand Rapids, Michigan to be his back up. Rufus clarifies telling Bobby he needs him to do the "heavy lifting" as it is Shabbat before they enter the house. While staying at a motel, they began to argue about what they are facing in the house. Rufus believed that the creature they are hunting was a baku, but Bobby thinks that he is only making things more complicated and that it is a simple haunting. Telling Rufus he remembers they hunted a baku in Alaska and uses the experience to rule it out. Rufus bets Bobby a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue that it is a baku, but Bobby is still insistent that it is a ghost that they are facing and that the sooner they wrap the case up, the sooner they get back to saving the world from the Apocalypse. After finding out about the deaths that happened in the house, Bobby and Rufus head to the cemetery, where Bobby uses a backhoe and then has Rufus dig the rest of the way, Rufus attempts to play the Shabbat card, but Bobby points out that it is after sundown.
After a lot of research, Bobby discovers that the creature they were hunting is a Soul Eater. He mentioned that he hunted a Soul Eater once in Goodlettsville, Tennessee with another hunter named Harvey. Bobby found Harvey's body in a coma and he mentioned that he "could feel the badness." Bobby had an old Celtic Sigil that is supposed to trap monsters. The sigil never worked before, but once he completed it in the house the Soul Eater was trapped. Despite trapping the Soul Eater in The Nest and forced the souls out of it, Harvey never woke up. Rufus stated that the oldest rule in hunting is that you can't save everyone. Bobby wrote down in his journal that he went in the house "all buckshots and guns blazing." He was going to tell Rufus, but he wanted Bobby to tell it how it really happened.
Rufus started to paint the sigil, but Bobby became trapped in The Nest. Rufus finds Bobby's body and decides to finish the sigil before it's too late for Bobby. The Soul Eater takes control of Bobby's body in the real world and tries to stop Rufus from finishing the sigil and send him into The Nest, but Rufus overpowers the Soul Eater and finishes the sigil and traps the Soul Eater. Before he is released from The Nest, Bobby sees Dean; the real Dean from 2016.
Bobby gets a call from Rufus while he covers the sigil with wallpaper. Rufus tells Bobby that everyone in the coma woke up and still tries to get Bobby to believe that it was a Baku and get the bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue to satisfy their bet. Bobby tries to insist that it still wasn't a Baku, but Rufus interrupts him and tells him that the trap sigil forced their souls out and only imprisoned the Soul Eater. Bobby tells Rufus that he saw Dean in The Nest. Rufus tells Bobby to forget the oldest rule. Bobby implies that Rufus is getting soft, but Rufus hangs up. Rufus leaves the bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue in Bobby's '71 Chevelle before he leaves. The bottle is not seen again until Jody Mills finds it in one of the boxes she brought over for Sam with Rufus's note still on it and they both drink the contents to honor Bobby's life since he had recently died.
12.23 All Along the Watchtower
In the Alternate Universe, the other version of Bobby confirms that Rufus is alive in that world. He explained that he had hundreds of rounds in his base made from old Angel Blades.
Trivia
- Rufus is a lover of the Johnny Walker Blue Label, the most expensive version of the whiskey.[2]
- Rufus Turner is wanted by the FBI and has two known aliases: Luther Vandross and Ruben Studdard.[3]
- Steven Williams who plays Rufus Turner, appeared in two series associated with Kim Manners. He played Mr. X in The X-Files, and Captain Fuller in 21 Jump Street.
- 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][1]
- In the book Supernatural: Bobby Singer's Guide to Hunting Bobby explains that in Omaha, he and Rufus needed a get-away driver and even though Rufus forbade Bobby from doing it, Bobby called in Rufus's daughter and she wound up getting killed.
Rufus Turner in Fandom
- @bluelabelonly - Rufus Turner roleplay account on Twitter
