The Boys: Angels and devils with Billy Butcher – why is Joe Kessler on the same level as Becca?

THE BOYS

July 8, 2024 at 17:00

In “The Boys,” Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Joe Kessler turns out to be a hallucination of Butcher. He is the devil to Becca’s angel. But why are the two equal?

Warning, spoilers for the sixth episode of the fourth season of “The Boys” follow!

In “The Boys” season 4 there is a new role, Joe Kessler. The character is played by “The Walking Dead” star Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who already worked with “The Boys” series creator Eric Kripke on “Supernatural”. Morgan plays an old friend of main character Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), who has been dead for quite some time.

The sixth episode of the fourth season of “The Boys” makes it clear once and for all: Joe Kessler is a hallucination of Billy Butcher and the real Kessler died a long time ago. Kessler is, along with Becca Butcher (Shantel VanSanten), the only hallucination who speaks to Butcher regularly.

The two take on roles as angel and devil, so to speak. Becca embodies Butcher’s good qualities such as compassion and love, and Kessler embodies Butcher’s cruel side, his unbridled hatred of superheroes and his lack of restraint when it comes to violence.

Why is Kessler so important to Butcher that he represents a counterweight to Becca?

The fact that Becca Butcher appears as an angel and embodies his good sides probably makes sense to every fan of “The Boys”. She was Butcher’s wife, who was raped and kidnapped by Homelander (Antony Starr) and eventually accidentally killed by her own son Ryan.

Butcher does a lot of what he does in Becca’s name. He wants to protect and save Ryan for her, he wants to take action against Homelander and the Supes because of what they did to her. But how does Kessler come into play?

Kessler and Butcher find a common ground when it comes to their hatred of superheroes. That is what unites them. They have both been through a lot of violent, brutal and inhumane things together. They have egged each other on and brought out the worst sides of each other.

In addition, Butcher blames himself for Kessler’s death in the middle of a mission. Thus, Kessler embodies not only hatred and anger, but also guilt. Whenever Butcher feels guilty, Kessler appears. However, Kessler is less a conscience than a manifestation of shame.

Why is Butcher’s devil a new character and not a well-known one?

Everything that Kessler is and who he is are things that were told to introduce a character from Butcher’s past. Unfortunately, we as viewers lack a little access to this. While we have experienced Butcher’s story with Becca over several seasons, Kessler is quite new and therefore has relatively little weight.

Of course, the question arises as to why a role that already exists was not chosen. It would not have been so illogical if it was a living person. However, the fact that Kessler, a person from Butcher’s past, had to be used can be explained as follows.

Butcher is a man who is rooted in the past with his hatred and prejudice and his grief over Becca’s death. He is defined by the fact that he cannot let go of his past and is always caught up in it. So someone from the past had to come along to play the devil on his shoulder.

The question that needs to be answered now is whether Butcher can put the past behind him and look to the future this season. He should focus not on Homelander, but on Ryan, in order to finally get over his hatred and grief.

This is how Jeffrey Dean Morgan is kept small

While Kessler is an exciting role and has a lot of significance for Butcher and his character development, the revelation that he is just a hallucination also means that Jeffrey Dean Morgan can only interact with Karl Urban and Shantel VanSanten.

It is therefore out of the question that the actor will interact with other stars of the series. This does not detract from the fun of the series, but an actor of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s caliber would certainly have been fun in a larger role.

New episodes of “The Boys” are currently available every Thursday on Amazon Prime Video. It has already been confirmed that the series will continue with a fifth season. However, “The Boys” season 5 will also be the series finale.