The Boys' bombshell twist explained by star Jeffrey Dean Morgan and creator Erik Kripke: 'We didn't want to save it for the end'

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, star of The Boys, and the show's creator Erik Kripke, dished on the surprising twist revealed in episode 6 of season four. 

The latest offering of the Prime superhero show unveiled the true nature of the relationship between Morgan's character Joe Kessler and Karl Urban's character Butcher: [SPOILER ALERT] Kessler actually died long ago, and the character seen on screen has been another of Butcher's hallucinations. 

It was revealed that Butcher didn't save Kessler during their service in Afghanistan. Instead, he left him to die. Now, Kessler exists only as a delusion, a symptom of Butcher's Temp V-induced brain tumor.

'We were always going to reveal it in Episode 6 — we didn’t want to save it for the end of the movie,' Kripke told Variety on Friday.

'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.'

Kripke also elaborated on his efforts to ensure his big reveal stood apart from previous twists involving imaginary characters. 

Episode six's reveal occurs during a fight between Butcher and Kessler over the ethical dilemma of releasing an airborne virus. 

As Butcher hesitates, influenced by the hallucination of his dead wife Becca, Kessler lashes out at the imaginary Becca, revealing that he, too, is an imaginary figure. 

'I think every time that someone turns out to be imaginary, the first draft is always like another character walks into the room and says, "Who are you talking to?"' Kripke said. 

'So I’m sure that was our first draft when it was originally up on the board, Hughie walks in and he’s like, "Who are you talking to?" But we said, "Well, everyone’s done that, so can we do something different?" 

'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 do that kind of reveal.' 

Morgan, on the other hand, spoke about his experience working with Urban and expressed his enjoyment of their on-screen chemistry. 

'[Urban] and I were so locked into each other, it didn’t f****** matter who else or whatever was going on in the scene,' he told the outlet.

'We were having so much fun. There’s very few times that you walk on a set and you immediately bond with somebody. 

'In romance, it would be your soulmate, and Karl was like my f****** soulmate. 

'And immediately we knew that we had something really fun and special here and let’s just have fun and play and enjoy it.'

With only two episodes remaining in season 4 of The Boys, fans have plenty to look forward to. A fifth and final season has already been confirmed, and the spin-off series Gen V will also be returning for a second season.