Could Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character be part of Butcher's imagination in The Boys?

In some good news, it didn’t take long for Jeffrey Dean Morgan to show up in The Boys Season 4. He appeared in the premiere episode, and we found out that his name is Joe Kessler.

Joe wanted to speak to Butcher alone. Mother’s Milk had gone into Grace’s office. Grace wanted to talk about everything that went wrong in the attempt to take down Victoria Neuman at the start of the episode. Butcher wasn’t allowed in the room for that meeting, but he remained in the building.

That’s when Joe found him. They went to talk in private, with Joe sharing everything Butcher believes. Grace is going soft, and it’s getting to a point where the Supes are going to start rounding everyone up. It’s up to The Boys to prevent that from happening.

Is Joe just part of Butcher’s imagination in The Boys?

There have been theories for some time that Butcher isn’t actually speaking to the real Joe. There’s no doubt that Joe and Butcher likely knew each other at some point, but there is a chance that Joe died at some point.

Just look at who Joe interacted with during that first episode. Nobody else was around to see Butcher speaking to Joe.

The next episode saw Butcher speaking to his dead wife, Becca. The Temp-V that Butcher took in the third season has led to a brain tumor. That’s something Homelander saw with his X-ray vision. Brain tumors cause hallucinations, and it wouldn’t be the first time Jeffrey Dean Morgan played a character who was a hallucination of a character suffering from a brain tumor.

In the graphic novels, Joe Kessler is nicknamed Monkey, and is the source of information for Butcher. However, things take a turn when Kessler attempts to rape a paraplegic former athlete, and it leads to Butcher allowing his dog Trevor to do some unthinkable things. The show has certainly changed storylines from the graphic novels, so this likely won’t be the backstory, but we could see how Butcher harbors some guilt about Kessler, and this leads to Kessler becoming a figment of Butcher’s imagination throughout The Boys Season 4.