Warning: spoilers ahead for The Boys season 4, episode 6, “Dirty Business.”
Summary
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The Boys
season 4, episode 6 reveals Joe Kessler is another one of Butcher’s hallucinations. - Sameer not reacting to Kessler’s threats in the opening scene gives away this twist in advance.
- Clues have been present throughout the season, such as Kessler’s knowledge of Butcher’s tumor.
The Boys season 4’s Joe Kessler twist is designed to take viewers by surprise, but episode 6’s very first scene gives the secret away long in advance of the climactic reveal. Jeffrey Dean Morgan joined The Boys as Joe Kessler, Billy Butcher’s former colleague and fellow supe skeptic, and the pair have been quietly conspiring to take down Homelander throughout season 4. The Boys season 4, episode 6, “Dirty Business,” reveals the real Joe Kessler died long ago, and the character onscreen has really been another of Butcher’s hallucinations.
Karl Urban’s character was already seeing the ghost of Becca when The Boys season 4 began, with Butcher’s late wife serving as his inner conscience, desperately imploring him not to go too far. Joe Kessler, it seems, represents the devil to Becca’s angel, driving Butcher toward his most violent and depraved tendencies. As shocking as the twist may be, eagle-eyed viewers would have figured out the truth during season 4, episode 6’s opening minutes.
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The Boys Season 4, Episode 6’s Opening Scene Subtly Reveals Kessler Isn’t Real
Sameer’s Reaction Gives Away The Boys’ Big Twist
“Dirty Business” begins with Omid Abtahi’s Sameer still chained up after Butcher abducted him to brew another batch of supe-killing virus at the end of the previous episode. What follows is an exchange in which Sameer never once responds to Kessler, despite being addressed directly on several occasions. Kessler warns, “We could just bash your f**king head in, jog your memory.” Sameer doesn’t reply. Kessler goes again, threatening, “We could just send you back to them in a f**king bucket if you don’t do whatever the f**k we say.” Again, Sameer stays silent. By contrast, Sameer grovels for mercy whenever Butcher’s mouth opens.
Sameer acknowledging only one of the men threatening unspeakable acts against him marks The Boys‘ first real clue that Joe Kessler isn’t physically present in the room. Kessler quietly lurked in the shadows when he and Butcher first visited Sameer in The Boys season 4, episode 5’s ending, so even if Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character was real, Sameer may not have noticed Kessler back then. Episode 6’s opening scene is the first time Kessler speaks directly to Sameer, and the fact his demands trigger zero reaction from a man who clearly isn’t above begging for his life proves something is clearly amiss.
Other Clues To The Boys Season 4’s Big Kessler Twist
The Clues Were There Long Before Episode 6
Sameer never responding to Kessler is by far the most overt clue that The Boys gives ahead of its big twist, but not the only clue. During one of their early meetings, Kessler raised the issue of Butcher’s brain tumor, explaining that his CIA clearance gave him access to medical files. That excuse sounded plausible at the time, but never truly added up. Kessler – if he were real – had no reason to seek out Butcher’s medical record in the first place.
Even choice snippets of Kessler’s anti-supe rhetoric have sounded suspiciously close to quotes Butcher uttered.
In hindsight, it becomes clear that Kessler knew about Butcher’s tumor only because he was a creation of Butcher’s own mind. The knowledge of his impending demise has been haunting Butcher since the end of The Boys season 3, and it makes complete sense that his hallucinatory devil would bring the matter up. Similarly, Kessler remarked in The Boys season 4, episode 5 about MM being on the verge of a breakdown and Frenchie being a “junkie.” For someone who is never spotted around other members of the Boys, Kessler knew a surprising amount about them.
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Beyond the strange commentary on Butcher’s health and the struggles of his various colleagues, Joe Kessler has only ever met Butcher alone since appearing in The Boys, and never spoke to another character before Sameer at the start of episode 6. Even choice snippets of Kessler’s anti-supe rhetoric – his belief that a war between supes and non-supes is on the horizon, for example – have sounded suspiciously close to quotes Butcher uttered previously in The Boys, meaning the breadcrumbs leading up to episode 6’s big twist were cleverly laid out in advance.
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Episode |
Release Date |
|---|---|
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Episodes 1-3 |
June 13 |
|
Episode 4 |
June 20 |
|
Episode 5 |
June 27 |
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Episode 6 |
July 4 |
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Episode 7 |
July 11 |
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Episode 8 |
July 18 |
The Boys
The Boys is a superhero/dark comedy satire series created by Eric Kripke based on the comic series of the same name. Set in a “what-if” world that reveres superheroes as celebrities and gods who experience minimal repercussions for their actions. However, one group of vigilantes headed by a vengeance-obsessed man named Billy Butcher will fight back against these super-charged “heroes” to expose them for what they are.
- Cast
- Elisabeth Shue , Jensen Ackles , Goran Visnjic , Jessie T. Usher , Chace Crawford , Dominique McElligott , Laz Alonso , Nathan Mitchell , Aya Cash , Colby Minifie , Karl Urban , Erin Moriarty , Karen Fukuhara , Jack Quaid , Antony Starr , claudia doumit , Tomer Capon
- Release Date
- July 26, 2019
- Seasons
- 4