The Boys Season 4 Episode 5: Is Joe Kessler Real or Butcher’s Imagination?

The Boys Season 4 Episode 5 is here and when it won’t be an understatement to say that it was rather an emotional rollercoaster. This episode did not reveal to us what Butcher’s powers are but instead, we got to see some super-powered or should I say “V’d up” chickens and sheep who massacred and ate people. However, this episode did raise a question about Jeffery Dean Morgan’s character, Joe Kessler. People believe that Joe Kessler is not real and is rather a hallucination but what made people think that? Allow me to throw some light on it.

Joe Kessler Only Appears Around Butcher

Seemingly, Joe Kessler is a hallucination of Butcher and he is not a real person in The Boys Season 4 because he has not appeared in front of anyone else but Butcher in the TV show.

Every time we have seen Joe appear on screen, it has only been in the presence of Butcher. No one instead of him has seen or talked to him which raises the suspicion of Joe Kessler being Butcher’s hallucination. Not just that, we have never seen a means of communication between Butcher and Joe but somehow, he appears just when Butcher needs to make a decision or plan a course of action.

In the first episode of The Boys Season 4, where Butcher meets Joe, he pours him a drink but Kessler does not take a single sip of it. Isn’t it strange that they met after eleven years and Kessler didn’t even have a drink with him? A bit strange, isn’t it? In The Boys Season 4 Episode 5, the final scene shows us that Sameer has been captured by Butcher and he cut off his leg to make it seem like Sameer is dead.

When Butcher is talking to him and looks at Joe, Sameer looks in that direction with confusion as if wondering who Butcher is talking to. Sameer when lashing out at Butcher talks as if he is talking to just one person. All of this makes it seem as if Joe Kessler is not real but is only a hallucination like his late wife Becca, whom we have seen previously. However, now the question is why is Butcher having such hallucinations. well, I have a theory for that.

Joe Kessler’s Hallucinations May Be Caused by Butcher’s Head Worm

Now, in the previous episode, we saw that when Butcher was about to pass out while being held in a chokehold by Ezekiel, the worm in Butcher’s body crawled up to his nose and when Butcher woke up, Ezekiel was blown into bits.

I believe that the Worm in Butcher’s head communicates with Butcher in the form of hallucinations of the people Butcher has been close to and is not around anymore. This is just a theory I have but it seems that chopping off someone’s leg is a bit extreme even for Butcher.

I think that the worm is aware of what Butcher wants to achieve and is helping him to complete his mission but in a rather twisted way by being his voice of wicked reason. So, that’s what I think about this. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments!