Jeffrey Dean Morgan on Imaginary Kessler-Butcher Twist

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Episode 6 of Season 4 of “The Boys,” currently streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.

Cub! If you were among the fans of “The Boys” who suspected that CIA agent Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was a figment of Butcher’s (Karl Urban) V-induced brain tumor imagination, give yourself a round of applause and a frothy glass milk as a prize after Thursday’s episode 6 reveal.

But if you didn’t see this devilish twist coming, we don’t blame you. ‘The Boys’ showrunner Eric Kripke and his writers’ room decided to tackle the I-See-Dead-People twist a little differently than the trope is often used in the media: Kessler’s role in season 4 will be equal more Important now that you know he’s Butcher’s Tyler Durden, which leads to the finale in just two episodes.

“We were always going to reveal it in Episode 6 – we didn’t want to save it for the end of the movie,” Kripke said Variety. “Because Kessler now has this new role of literally being the devil on his shoulder, and really twisting the knife and saying really cruel things to Butcher that are all completely true – which is always great when your villain can be a real truth -counter.”

The reveal in question takes place while Butcher is arguing with Kessler over the ethical dilemma of unleashing an aerial version of the deadly supe virus. Kessler is fully in favor of this, while Butcher is reluctant to do so thanks to the voice of reason embodied by his late wife Becca (Shantel VanSanten), who he has also been hallucinating with all season. And as Becca tries to keep Butcher on the right path, Kessler turns to her and tells her to close the door – making it clear that Kessler himself is an imaginary friend.

“I think every time someone turns out to be imaginary, the first draft is always like another character comes into the room and says, ‘Who are you talking to?’” Kripke said. “So I’m sure this was our first draft when it was originally on the board. Hughie comes in and says, “Who are you talking to?” But we said, ‘Well, everyone’s done that, so can we do something else?’ And Becca is this imaginary character. So what if the two imaginary characters just start yelling at each other? And that would be a new way to make those kinds of revelations.

Morgan remembers how quickly that reveal was shot and how “locked in” he and Urban were that day.

“I think we shot that scene and another in one day – the scene where Kessler gives the big speech while he’s sitting on the crates and they’re talking. We shot them both on the same day,” Morgan said. “I remember it was a six-page scene. And I’ve played this game before – I played dead Denny [on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’]so I knew a few tricks, which came in pretty damn handy.

“But basically, he and I were so locked in together that it didn’t matter who else was there or what was going on in the scene,” Morgan continued. “We had so much fun. There are few moments when you walk onto a set and you immediately bond with someone. In romance it would be your soulmate, and Karl was like my fucking soulmate. And right away we knew we had something really fun and special here, let’s just have fun, play and enjoy it.”

Since Morgan is one of the members of the Kripke-created “Supernatural,” fans have been calling for him to join the cast for several seasons now, and became even more demanding after Jensen Ackles played Soldier Boy in Season 3. But Morgan was quite recently booked in his old role as Negan Smith in AMC’s “Walking Dead” franchise, so it took an act from “The Boys” God Kripke to live up to Morgan’s role as Kessler.

“There was an overlap of about four months where I was shooting my new show ‘Walking Dead: Dead City,’ so I missed filming the first four or five episodes, and so when I wrapped my show I ran over and the directors came back from those episodes and then we went to work, which is really rare,” Morgan said. “I’m really lucky they allowed that because you can’t lock a show – the directors might not be available. There are all kinds of damn problems with that. And the fact that Eric said, ‘We’re going to do it for you,’ was the coolest thing in the world.

As for how Morgan took the big Kessler twist when Kripke first revealed it to him….

“As he’s telling me about the role, I realize there’s a past tense switch happening and I think, ‘What the hell is he doing?’” Morgan said. ‘And then he tells me the secret – and I’m even more intrigued. But ultimately it doesn’t matter what was said or how it was pitched to me. Because I was going to do it.”