"I don't think he's a dude with his own point of view."
Warning - contains MAJOR spoilers for The Boys season 4 episode 6.
The Boys creator Eric Kripke has broken down the surprising twist revealed in episode 6 of season 4.
The latest instalment of the Amazon Prime Video superhero show, titled Dirty Business, unveiled the true nature of the relationship between Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character Joe Kessler and Karl Urban's Butcher.
The episode revealed that Butcher didn't actually save Kessler's life during their service in Afghanistan, instead leaving him to die.
Kessler now exists only as a figment of Butcher's imagination – a symptom of his V-induced tumour.
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"I don't think he's like Venom," Kripke told Entertainment Weekly, responding to fan comparisons between Kessler and the infamous Spider-Man adversary.
"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."
Speaking further about the battle for control raging inside Butcher's mind, Kripke added: "Both Butcher and Homelander [played by Antony Starr], in very different ways, are wrestling with whether they're human or whether they're monsters.
"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."
Meanwhile, speaking about the timing of the huge twist, Morgan told Variety: "We were always going to reveal it in episode 6 — we didn't want to save it for the end of the movie.
"Because now Kessler has this new role to be literally the devil on his shoulder, and really be twisting the knife and saying really cruel things to Butcher that all happen to be totally true — which is always great when your villain can be a real truth-teller."
The Boys season 4 continues on Amazon Prime Video on Thursday 11th July. The Boys seasons 1-3 are available to watch now – try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days. Plus, read our guides to the best Amazon Prime series and the best movies on Amazon Prime.
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Molly Moss is a Trends Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest trends across TV, film and more. She has an MA in Newspaper Journalism and has previously written for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Sun Online.
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