Spoilers for The Boys Season 4, Episode 6, “Dirty Business.” Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays Joe Kessler, who first appears to be Billy Butcher’s former CIA colleague. The episode reveals that the Kessler speaking with Butcher is a figure in Butcher’s mind—not the real Joe interacting with him. Showrunner Eric Kripke describes Kessler as the devil on Butcher’s shoulder: the voice of anger and destruction pushing against Becca’s appeal to his humanity.
Who is Joe Kessler in The Boys?
Kessler is introduced as a former CIA colleague and friend of Billy Butcher. That apparent outside connection gives Butcher’s worsening decisions the shape of advice from an old ally. Episode 6 changes the meaning of their conversations: the Kessler Butcher sees is not physically present.
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Is Joe Kessler real?
The Season 4, Episode 6 reveal is that the Kessler interacting with Butcher is a figure in Butcher’s mind. Kripke said the creative idea was to make Kessler “the devil on his shoulder first,” then build the apparent CIA agent and backstory around that function. The reveal shifts Kessler from an external adviser to a way the show dramatizes Butcher’s own impulses.
What does Kessler represent to Butcher?
Kripke describes Kessler as embodying Butcher’s hate and anger, while Becca represents what is good in him. Their opposition frames Butcher’s conflict as a choice between the part of himself still drawn toward humanity and the destructive side that Kessler encourages. Kripke also described Kessler as “a really interesting devil on [Butcher’s] shoulder and a really interesting character that can just keep twisting the knife over and over again.”
#1 Best Overall
- The world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under Homelander's muscly thumb as he consolidates his power. Butcher, with only months to live, has lost Becca's son, and his job as The Boys' leader. The rest of the team are fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they must find a way to work together and save the world before it's too late.
Kripke connected that darkness to Butcher’s cancer, saying: “I just think it’s cancer and the dark side of Butcher that have all metastasized into the same thing. In our minds, all of his hate and anger have fed this side of him.” This is the showrunner’s thematic explanation of the character, not a clinical diagnosis.
What clues point to the twist?
The show limits Kessler’s interaction with the world around Butcher. Kripke said Kessler does not interact with other people and cannot hand Butcher a real object. One scene can be read differently after the reveal: another character is reacting to Butcher talking to nobody, even though a first-time viewer may assume Kessler is there.
Rank #2
How does the reveal connect to the comic?
The Boys comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson is the source material for the series. Kripke said the writers borrowed the name of a comics character for the apparent CIA agent, but the material here does not establish that the comic contains the Season 4 Kessler twist or the same plot. The comic connection is therefore context for the name and the series’ adaptation, not an explanation of the television reveal.
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Best Value
Rank #4
- Condition: New
- Format: Blu-ray
- AC-3; Color; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; Dubbed; Subtitled; Widescreen
Rank #3
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