After having teased his appearance for nearly two years, the return of The Boys Season 4 finally reveals who Jeffrey Dean Morgan is playing on the show – Joe Kessler. Kessler is a CIA Case Officer and old war pal of Butcher’s (Karl Urban) who has joined the cause to stop Homelander (Antony Starr). And while it isn’t uncommon for the Boys to expand their roster, the case with Kessler is a different story. Why? Because he may not exist at all. That’s right, it seems very likely that The Boys is pulling a Fight Club on us — as if things weren’t already bad enough for Butcher.
Kessler Has Only Ever Interacted with Butcher
We’re officially five episodes into Season 4, with Kessler only appearing in three. During those episodes, his appearances are brief and solely one-on-one with Butcher. Kessler first approaches Butcher at the CIA Headquarters after Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) bans him from a meeting with President-elect Robert Singer (Jim Beaver). Kessler shows up right after the door closes behind Mallory, and their following conversation only raises more concerns. According to Kessler, the two haven’t seen each other in eleven years, which is odd considering the Boys have been collaborating with the CIA for a bit now, and crossing paths with an old friend seems inevitable.
Later, Kessler is in Butcher’s apartment, providing him with enough carfentanil to “take down 10 bull elephants.” But the baggie of carfentanil is already on the table when the scene begins, implying that Butcher procured it himself. By the time Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) shows up, Kessler is nowhere to be seen, and once Ryan’s left drug-free, Kessler is right back where he was earlier.
Perhaps the most damning evidence of Butcher hallucinating Kessler is from the latest episode, “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son.” After Kessler suggests they tackle a job “…just you and me,” the two drive out to Stan Edgar’s (Giancarlo Esposito) farm turned Compound V virology lab after the chaos, where it’s revealed that Butcher has kept head virologist Sameer Shah (Omid Abtahi) and biological father to Victoria Neuman’s (Claudia Doumit) daughter alive (sans leg) and tied up. It’s clear to us viewers that two men are towering over him, Butcher and Kessler, but Sameer doesn’t even acknowledge the latter’s presence. When Butcher tells Sameer, “We’ll patch you up,” referring to himself and Kessler, he looks at Butcher with a mixture of fear and confusion, implying that Kessler may not actually there.
Kessler Knows More Than He Should, Even for a CIA Agent
Kessler has a wealth of knowledge on The Boys, including knowing about Butcher’s six-months-to-live scenario. He claims he knows about it because he’s CIA and knows how to pull a medical record, but his knowledge of the Boys goes deeper than medical records and dossiers — it’s personal. Kessler’s argument to Butcher for going it alone on their side quest is that none of the other members of the Boys are up to snuff.
Kessler begins to detail why each team member isn’t fit for the job, saddling them with personalized Butcher-esque insults as he does it. Keep in mind, Butcher hasn’t had contact with Kessler in eleven years and didn’t even know the Boys’ codename until their first conversation. We’ve yet to see him meet any member other than Butcher, and yet, Kessler seems to have comprehensive knowledge of each of their specific attributes. Unless Butcher and Kessler have had some late-night talks (they certainly don’t seem like the type) about Butcher’s adventures with the Boys, there’s no way Kessler would have such a definitive read on them. The only explanation for Kessler’s knowledge of the Boys would be that his thoughts aren’t his own, but Butcher’s. With each interaction, it becomes increasingly more probable that Kessler only exists in Butcher’s mind.
Kessler May Be a Manifestation of Butcher’s Darkest Inclinations
It’s revealed at the end of the first episode that, due to his abuse of Temp V, Butcher is having hallucinations of his dead ex-wife and mother of Ryan, Becca Butcher (Shantel VanSanten). Becca has had several appearances this season to console Butcher or rally him to get back up, interactions very similar to those with Kessler. With Becca, we see Butcher talking to her and then get the reveal of him talking to himself to illustrate that she was never there. The same scenario could be happening with Kessler — we have just yet to see the hallucination-free, outsider perspective.
Considering Becca is a dead loved one, perhaps Kessler, who seems to have been very close with Butcher, is also dead. It would explain why they haven’t seen each other in over a decade and Kessler’s tussled look that screams The Sixth Sense. While Becca appears as a shoulder angel, helping Butcher get back up and slapping sense into him, Kessler serves as his shoulder devil, constantly egging him on towards his dark side.
Butcher is already such a volatile character, but the support he’s found from M.M. (Laz Alonso), Hughie (Jack Quaid), and the rest has helped anchor his violent machinations. On the other hand, Kessler talks and acts like a heightened, realized version of Butcher, whose only goal is a scorched Earth, no matter the cost. Kessler consistently advocates for the most violent and dangerous paths, like drugging Ryan and ditching the Boys. Now, he’s pushed Butcher to cut a man’s leg off and has forced him to recreate the supe virus, despite the risks to those close to him. Every argument Butcher has with Kessler feels more like Butcher weighing the pros and cons of his options, like when he is discussing training Ryan to stop Homelander or straight-up killing him.
We’ve been so focused on Homelander’s spiral to insanity that we’ve overlooked Butcher’s state of mind. His diabolical grin at the end of Episode 5 can only mean trouble, and Kessler certainly isn’t helping. Butcher may already be doomed, but if he can’t shake Kessler out of his head, he’ll wind up down a dark path where there will be no chance for redemption.
New episodes of The Boys Season 4 premiere every Thursday on Prime Video in the U.S.
