This post contains major spoilers for The Boys‘ penultimate episode, season five’s seventh installment. If you want to avoid them for now check out our coverage of episode six.
The Boys’ season four finale revealed that Billy Butcher’s late wife wasn’t the only figment of his imagination he’s been relying on. His former partner, Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Joe Kessler, had not recruited Butcher for a new mission. Kessler died years ago. A dying Butcher’s subconscious, muddled by Temp V, had conjured the CIA Case Officer to serve as a de facto devil on his shoulder. The memory of Joe Kessler encouraged Billy to commit a “little genocide” against every Supe on Earth. Once Butcher realized what was going on, Kessler appeared to (once again) be nothing more than another dark memory from Butcher’s past. But in the show’s second-to-last episode, Morgan made an unexpected return. A killer psychic Supe used Kessler’s memory to torture Butcher.
Butcher, Hughie, Annie, and MM’s plan to investigate Oh-Father ran into a big mental roadblock (literally) in season five’s fifth episode. Homelander had recruited the world’s most dangerous psychic supes to work for him. He’d freed them from prison. They were primarily there to help Oh-Father root out “non-believers,” but one managed to capture Hughie and Butcher. The mass murderer Synapse was so powerful he read the nearby Boys’ thoughts. He then used his mental superpowers to knock them both unconscious, enter their brains, and learn everything Homelander wanted to know.
Synapse was also able to turn Butcher’s own superpowers off from the inside of his mind. “Worming” around Butcher’s “rat’s nest” gave him access to all of Billy’s “pain, regret, and abject failure.” And no one from Butcher’s past better captured all of that than Joe Kessler, whose persona Synapse took on to taunt Butcher. And in turn Hughie was forced to yet again face the truth about what happens to those who trust Butcher (as though he doesn’t know). “Kessler” wanted Hughie to know that Butcher will rely on him until Hughie gets in his way.
To show that, “Synapse Kessler” told the story about how he was assigned to serve as Butcher’s conscious. It was his job to pull Butcher “back” when he risked going too far. It worked until a mission in Afghanistan. Kessler knew the mission wasn’t worth the risk, but Butcher wouldn’t listen. He got his target, but at the cost of his friend and all of the men serving under him.
Since Synapse was using Butcher’s own memories, the story “Kessler” told was the version Butcher remembers and believes in. The real Kessler was right that night; Butcher was wrong. The target wasn’t worth it, and his stubbornness, rage, and singular focused got a lot of men killed. Butcher confirmed as much when Hughie asked if the story was true.
Synapse pulled the information Homelander wanted from Butcher’s mind. But his little Kessler parlor trick didn’t stop Hughie from working with Butcher later. The two came up with a plan to distract Synapse with his own terrible memory of when he killed his little brother. That got Synapse (still appearing as Kessler) out of Butcher’s mind long enough for Billy to access his superpowers. He then used his tendrils to rip Synapse apart.
Synapse’s brief time on the show was the perfect way to bring back the always great Jeffrey Dean Morgan. His Joe Kessler was such an important part of season four. It also put in motion a chance for Butcher to get a modicum of redemption in the series finale. Homelander is a target that is worth whatever it takes to stop. But now that he’s had to literally face his past mistakes, will Butcher still be willing to sacrifice anyone and everything to stop him? Or, unlike the night Joe Kessler died, will he find a way to do the right thing the right way? We’re not Supe psychics so we’ll have to wait one more week to find out.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. Synapse would immediately get out of his head. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.