Showrunner Eric Kripke teased Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Joe Kessler would be pivotal in The Boys, which developed his part in Butcher’s backstory throughout Season 4; the early episodes dropped hints, but these only fueled speculation over Kessler’s identity. Episode 6, “Dirty Business” finally dispelled that mystery with a plot twist –- Kessler is a figment of Butcher’s Temp V-induced psychosis. Kessler is the antithesis to Becca (played by Shantel VanSanten), who now embodies Butcher’s good conscience. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kripke hinted Butcher’s would descend further into madness under Kessler’s influence.
Butcher and Kessler revealed their history of serving under the CIA’s war on terror, which came to a head with a mysterious Panjshir Valley incident. They played it off as a fond memory but Butcher really left Kessler for dead there in the heat of combat. Kessler’s ghost now haunts Butcher’s waking moments as a fatal Temp V side effect. Kripke clarified Kessler is Butcher’s dark conscience and not a symbiote entity in his head. “I don’t think [Kessler’s] like Venom,” he said, noting comparisons between Butcher’s tumor and the Marvel villain. “I don’t think he’s a dude with his own point of view and wants to go eat chickens or whatever, but I think he represents all that’s dark and malignant inside of Butcher.”
A Tale Of Two Butchers
Kripke explained how Homelander (played by Antony Starr) shares Butcher’s predicament, whose bouts of hysteria betray his cognitive dissonance. “Both Butcher and Homelander, in very different ways, are wrestling with whether they’re human or whether they’re monsters,” he added. “Kessler represents the monster side and Becca represents the human side of Butcher. Those two sides are at war with themselves, but they’re all Butcher. We wanted Butcher to really be dealing with his light and dark sides, and yet he was so isolated for so much of the story that we needed a way to dramatize it. The notion of literally the angel and devil on his shoulders came up pretty soon.”
The episode revisited Butcher and Kessler’s scenes with a montage similar to Fight Club‘s plot twist, when the Narrator (Edward Norton) realizes he’s also the Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) who’s pulling all the strings. With two episodes left in Season 4, The Boys has yet to reveal if Butcher’s arc would have the same cathartic ending.
The Boys is streaming on Prime Video.
