Bobby Singer

Bobby Singer
Bobby Singer
Supernatural character
	Jim Beaver as Bobby Singer
First appearance	Devil's Trap
Created by	Eric Kripke
Portrayed by	Jim Beaver
In-universe information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Hunter, Salvager
Spouse	Unnamed wife (deceased)

Robert Steven "Bobby" Singer is a fictional character in The CW Television Network's Supernatural played by Jim Beaver. He is presumably named after the show's executive producer, Robert Singer.

Bobby is a hunter like the Winchesters, though he seems to stay fairly stationary. His customary attire usually consists of flannel and a trucker's hat. Bobby provides hunting and research support to the Winchesters, while running an auto salvage yard during the day. He became a hunter after being forced to kill his possessed wife. Bobby has amassed an extensive collection of resources about the supernatural, including literature and relics. Sometime before the events of the show, Bobby forged an extremely strong friendship with John Winchester, although they eventually had a falling out. After the death of John Winchester, Bobby stepped in and began assisting the brothers on a more routine basis. Bobby's relationship with Sam and Dean has developed to the point of family, with him acting as a father figure.

Season One

Bobby first appears on the show in the episode "Devil's Trap", when Dean and Sam Winchester head to Bobby's place to ask him for help near the end of Season One after their father is taken captive by Meg Masters. He helps the brothers by giving Sam the Key of Solomon and showing them how to trap and perform an exorcism on Meg. He tells Dean before Meg's exorcism is complete that the soul of a demon's host stays inside the body and will remain even after the demon is exorcised, but since Meg fell seven stories out of the warehouse in "Shadow", the demon is all that holds her together and the innocent girl inside will die. Bobby had a dog named Rumsfeld, but it was only seen briefly and was killed by Meg Masters when it began to bark upon her arrival.

Season Two

Bobby next comes to the Winchesters' aid after John, Sam, and Dean's car accident in the final moments of the Season One finale. John asks Sam to go to Bobby and get some items on a list. When Sam arrives, Bobby tells him that the items are not used for protection from demons as John told Sam, but are rather used to summon a demon. Bobby nevertheless finds and gathers the items as requested and gives them to Sam to take to John. Bobby also retrieves Dean's totaled Impala to prevent the hidden weapons stash in the trunk from being discovered and because Sam told him Dean would want to rebuild it, no matter how totaled it was.

After John Winchester's death and Dean's miraculous recovery, Bobby lets Sam and Dean stay at his place for about a month to rest up and recover. Dean spends the month channeling all his energy into rebuilding his car while Sam tries to get him to talk about their father's death. Bobby also gives them use of the only working vehicle he has in his salvage yard, an old minivan, so that they can locate John's old acquaintance Ellen Harvelle, whom they discovered through an old voice message on John's phone. The boys then use the minivan to check out a hunt in "Everybody Loves a Clown", but abandon it by the side of the road after they fear they were spotted in it. Though Bobby is mentioned and not seen in that episode, it is assumed that Dean and Sam stay with him after that until Dean's Impala is fully restored and the Winchesters go back on the road again.

In "Born Under a Bad Sign", Bobby helps Dean exorcise a possessed Sam. When Sam, after a week spent missing, shows up on Bobby's doorstep without his brother, Bobby offers Sam a beer. Bobby demonstrates his cleverness by secretly spiking the beer with holy water. This exposes Sam's possession by the demon formerly in possession of Meg Masters, whom they had exorcised nearly six months earlier. After Dean arrives, they attempt to exorcise her out of Sam, but the demon has locked herself inside Sam's body with a circular binding link on his arm. During the subsequent fight between Dean and Sam, Bobby again reveals his resourcefulness by burning a line through the link with a hot fireplace poker, breaking the circle and allowing their previous exorcism to work, freeing Sam. He then provides the brothers with pendant charms that fend off possession to prevent a repeat occurrence.

Soon after that, they call him to come to help them out on a case in Ohio that they can't get a handle on. The narrative of "Tall Tales" consists of Dean and Sam alternately relating the situation thus far to Bobby, and each brother's stories about the case reveal the boys' own increasingly ridiculous behavior. After hearing everything, Bobby exasperatedly tells them that it looks like a trickster god (such as Loki or Anansi) is messing around. Though Bobby warns them that as a god, tricksters are immortal, the three force a confrontation with it anyway after finding a weakness. They leave the university thinking that they succeeded in killing it, though unbeknownst to them all, the trickster simply tricked them and moved on.

In the first part of the second season finale, "All Hell Breaks Loose", Bobby returns to help Dean find Sam after he mysteriously disappears. At the end of the episode, they find Sam in a long abandoned ghost town, but arrive too late to help him. They witness Sam being fatally stabbed in the back. Bobby tries to restore some sense to the distraught Dean, begging him to bury Sam. When he subsequently learns that Dean has traded his soul for Sam's resurrection, he reprimands Dean.

He then plays a vital role in closing the portal to Hell located in a Wyoming cemetery that sits in the middle of a giant Devil's Trap of railroad tracks. After closing the portal, Bobby sees John's ghost consoling Dean and Sam. After Dean kills Azazel, Bobby and Ellen inform Sam and Dean that up to 200 demons may have escaped Hell while the portal was open.

Season Three

Bobby continues to appear in Season Three as both a hunter and a mentor to Dean and Sam, helping them fight the war against the demons. He also continuously proves to be an important asset to the brothers as he and Ruby both rebuild the Colt together. In "Dream a Little Dream of Me", it is revealed that Bobby got into hunting after witnessing the possession of his wife and killing her. It is shown through his dream state in the episode that he bears immense guilt for what he did to her, and has taken some sort of unwritten vow to become involved with the supernatural to prevent what happened to him from ever happening to anyone else. He once again appears in "Mystery Spot", used as one of the Trickster's disguises. The Trickster pretends to be Bobby in order to convey to Sam a powerful lesson—that Dean is going to die, that Sam can't stop it, and that the Winchesters need to stop sacrificing themselves for each other. The Trickster even goes so far as to see if Sam will kill Bobby in order to bring back Dean. Sam does kill Bobby (thinking he's really the Trickster), then is wracked with extreme remorse when Bobby stays dead—until the Trickster transforms back from Bobby into himself to deliver his message. In the season finale, Bobby helps the Winchesters in their efforts to save Dean by pinpointing Lilith's location, and insisting upon accompanying them in their likely fatal attack on her. Dean protests that it's not Bobby's fight, but Bobby responds with "Family don't end with blood, Boy!" Bobby proves invaluable in the fight by brilliantly turning the water supplying a lawn sprinkler system into holy water, cutting Lilith off from her army. He is last seen sadly looking at his watch as midnight arrives and Dean's life ends.

Season Four

Bobby returns in the Season Four premiere episode Lazarus Rising and is the first person Dean speaks to upon escaping from Hell. Dean calls Bobby twice after he is rescued from Hell, but Bobby doesn't believe him and threatens to kill him. When Dean then shows up on Bobby's doorstep, Bobby makes two attempts to kill Dean before Dean proves that he is who he says he is (cutting himself with a silver blade and being unaffected by holy water). While doing so, he describes Bobby as "the closest thing I have to a father." Bobby helps the two brothers to reunite and also introduces Dean and Sam to Pamela, a psychic who attempts to channel the "demon" that pulled Dean out of hell. Bobby also assists Dean in the ritual to summon the "demon", which turns out to be an Angel. He's rendered unconscious by the Angel Castiel with a simple touch to the forehead. He then helps the brothers do research to figure out why the Angel rescued Dean, and then, why the dead have risen and are attacking hunters. It is Bobby who figures out that the dead have risen as part of the "Rising of the Witnesses", a sign of the coming apocalypse. Bobby also figures out the spell for setting those risen spirits to rest again. It is revealed in the same episode that Bobby has built a ghost- and demon-proof panic room of solid iron construction, embedded with salt, surrounded by Devil's Traps, and decorated with a poster of Bo Derek in 10. He returns in the episode "Yellow Fever," helping Sam cure Dean of a disease that kills people with fear. It is revealed in that episode that he is fluent in Japanese.

Season Five

After Lucifer is freed, Bobby meets up with Sam and Dean to help them research the "Michael Sword" that will be used to kill Lucifer. Sam reveals to Bobby that it was he, not Lilith, that was responsible for Lucifer being freed. Bobby becomes angry and tells Sam that, if they survive the apocalypse, he wants nothing to do with him. Sam leaves, while Bobby and Dean continue research. Bobby is revealed to be possessed after Dean finds a lead and almost kills Dean, before stabbing himself with Ruby's Knife, killing the demon possessing him. Sam and Dean rush Bobby to the hospital, where his wound is repaired. The doctor informs him that he is unlikely to walk again. Bobby tells Sam that it was the demon, not Bobby himself, that said those things to Sam, and that he's not cutting him out.

Bobby then gets an urgent call from fellow hunter Rufus Tanner to immediately get to River Pass, Colorado, as Rufus is under attack by what he says are demons. Bobby, since he can't walk, sends Dean and Sam to help out.

"In the Curious Case of Dean Winchester" Bobby finds out a witch is holding poker games with years instead of money. He sees this as a chance to escape his wheelchair and rushes to play, only to lose 25 years. Dean immediately threatens the witch before giving up 25 of his own years in the game to restore Bobby, only to lose 25 more. As the hunters work to undo Dean's fate, Bobby admits his personal feelings of uselessness at a time of such urgency, even considering suicide. After experiencing life as an old man, Dean appreciates Bobby's view, but urges him that he is not useless and begs him to not try and get himself killed.

In "Abandon All Hope" the Winchesters get a lead on Lucifer's whereabouts. With Castiel, they team up with Ellen and Jo Harvelle. Before they leave, though, they all gather at Bobby's house to reminiscence and drink beer. Bobby then gets a picture of them all, for they know not everyone will live. The Winchesters, the Harvelles, and Castiel go to a Missouri town, where Lucifer is supposed to be. There, Castiel sees many reapers all over, even though no one else can. He goes to investigate. The Winchesters and Harvelles are then attacked by hell hounds, one of them mortally wounding Jo. They get themselves inside a hardware store, trying to save Jo. Dean then reaches Bobby by radio, telling them of their situation. Bobby concludes that the reapers are there because there will be many deaths due to a ritual, which turns out to be true.