If you’ve spent any time in the blood-soaked world of the Evil Dead franchise, you know the name Ruby Knowby. Or at least, you think you do. Most fans initially clocked her as just another relative of the doomed Professor Knowby from the original 1981 film. Maybe a sister? A long-lost daughter? Lucy Lawless stepped into the role with such a sharp, mysterious edge that we all just rolled with it. But honestly, the truth is way weirder. Ruby isn’t just a character; she’s basically the reason the entire series exists.
Let's be real. Ash Williams is the "Chosen One," sure. But Ruby? She’s the one who wrote the book. Literally.
The Secret Identity of Ruby Knowby
It’s easy to forget that for the first chunk of Ash vs Evil Dead, we were led to believe Ruby was a human on a vengeance quest. She claimed Ash was responsible for her family’s death at the cabin. It sounded plausible. If your parents and siblings were hacked to pieces by a guy with a chainsaw for a hand, you’d probably want some payback too.
But then things got weird.
She survived being incinerated. She climbed out of a burning pyre like it was a warm bath. That was the first big "wait, what?" moment for the audience. As it turns out, "Ruby Knowby" is just a skin suit. She is actually a Dark One—one of the ancient, extradimensional deities who penned the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. She didn't just find the book; she's the author.
Imagine writing a diary and then having a chin-obsessed retail clerk accidentally use it to ruin the world for thirty years. That’s her vibe.
Two Rubys, One Messy Timeline
If you’re confused about whether Ruby is a hero or a villain, the answer is "yes." Because of the show's penchant for time travel, we actually deal with two distinct versions of her.
The "Good" Ruby (Seasons 1 & 2)
This is the Ruby who eventually teams up with Ash, Pablo, and Kelly. She’s technically a traitor to her own kind. She spent thousands of years being evil, but then her own "children" (the demon spawn) turned on her. Nothing makes a demon want to save the world quite like being betrayed by her own monstrous offspring.
She becomes a mentor to Kelly Maxwell. It was a weird, sisterly, "let's kill things together" bond. This Ruby was mortal—or at least, she was becoming mortal. She felt pain. She could die. And eventually, she did. She was murdered by her younger, much more jerk-ish self in the 1980s.
The "Evil" Ruby (Season 3)
When the timeline shifted, we got a fresh, 100% evil Ruby. This version never went through the "redemption" arc. She didn't care about the Ghost Beaters. She wanted to replace Ash with a demonic spawn of her own making.
She even went undercover as a high school guidance counselor named Rebecca Prevett. Talk about a career pivot. Watching her try to navigate the social dynamics of a small-town high school while plotting to bring about the apocalypse was peak Ash vs Evil Dead comedy-horror.
Why She Matters More Than the Deadites
Deadites are just fodder. They’re the guys who show up to get their heads exploded. Ruby is different because she represents the "why" behind the horror.
Without her, there is no Necronomicon. Without the book, Ash is just a guy working at S-Mart with a really bad attitude. Her relationship with the book is possessive and toxic. She treats it like a wayward child.
Specifically, look at her interactions with Pablo. In Season 2, she basically used him as a human printing press to birth the book’s pages. It was disgusting. It was visceral. It was exactly why we love this show. She doesn't see humans as people; she sees them as tools or vessels. Even when she was "helping" the team, there was always a sense that she’d stab them in the back if it meant getting her power back.
Lucy Lawless and the Xena Connection
You can't talk about Ruby without talking about Lucy Lawless. It’s impossible.
The casting was a stroke of genius. For a generation of fans, Lawless is Xena: Warrior Princess. Seeing her reunite with Bruce Campbell (who played Autolycus on Xena) was a massive nostalgia hit. But she didn't play Ruby like Xena. Ruby is colder. She’s more calculated.
She brings a gravitas to the show that balances out Ash’s buffoonery. When Ash is making a dick joke, Ruby is in the corner looking at a Kandarian dagger like she’s about to perform a ritual sacrifice. It works because she grounds the stakes. If someone as powerful as Ruby is scared, the audience knows they should be scared too.
The Actionable Truth: How to Understand Ruby's Arc
If you’re trying to piece together the lore for a rewatch or just to win an argument on a forum, keep these points in mind:
- She isn't a demon. She is a Dark One. There’s a hierarchy in the Evil Dead universe. Deadites are the bottom of the barrel. Demons like Eligos or Baal are the middle management. Dark Ones are the CEOs of Hell.
- The timeline is key. If she's acting nice, you're likely watching the version from the first two seasons. If she's trying to impregnate someone with a demon baby, that's the Season 3 version.
- Her goal is control. She doesn't want to destroy the world just for the sake of it; she wants to rule it. She views the other Dark Ones as rivals, not allies.
The tragedy of the character is that she can never truly win. She’s caught in a cycle of her own creation. She wrote the book that contains the prophecy of the Chosen One who will defeat her. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure.
To really appreciate the character, go back and watch the Season 2 finale again. Pay attention to how she reacts when she realizes she’s being erased by her younger self. It’s the one moment where the "Mother of All Evil" looks genuinely human.
For your next steps, pay close attention to the background details in Season 3 when she’s playing the guidance counselor. The show hides a lot of clues about her true intentions in the decor of her office and her interactions with Brandy. It’s a masterclass in "hidden in plain sight" villainy.