Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Resch fetches the equipment to test Garland. While he is out of the room, Garland points a laser at Deckard. He confesses that both he and Resch are androids but admits that Resch isn’t aware of this. The entire new Hall of Justice is run by androids in an attempt to thwart the bounty hunters. Garland recognizes the names on Deckard’s list of rogue androids. He arrived on Earth with the other androids several months ago, while Resch’s arrival was slightly delayed because he was being implanted with a “synthetic memory system” (69) that makes him think that he is human.

When Resch returns, Garland attacks him. Resch kills Garland and asks Deckard what should be done next. Deckard warns Resch that the entire police department is “android-infested”; he does not reveal that Resch is an android, though he fears that not doing so is “cruel and unethical” (71). They exit the interrogation room. Resch handcuffs his wrist to Deckard’s, allowing them to pretend that he is escorting a prisoner. As they walk, Resch speculates as to why he could not identify Garland as an android. His faltering comments cause Resch to doubt his own humanity; since memory implantation only affects androids, Resch suspects that he might be an android. Deckard tries to distract Resch by suggesting that they find Luba Luft. Resch anxiously asks Deckard to test whether he is an android once they find her.

Deckard and Resch return to the opera house to search for Luba Luft. They widen their search to a nearby museum, where they follow her through an Edvard Munch exhibit and examine a picture of a “hairless, oppressed creature with a head like an inverted pear, its hands clapped in horror to its ears, its mouth open in a vast, soundless scream” (73). When they finally corner Luba and try to take her into custody, she insists that Resch is also an android. Eventually, she agrees to go peacefully if Deckard provides her with a copy of Munch’s painting titled Puberty. Deckard purchases a book containing a print of the painting. This act of kindness impresses Luba, who continues “needling” Resch about being an android. Resch becomes annoyed and points his laser at Luba. Deckard tries to stop Resch, insisting that they have not yet run the Voigt-Kampff test, but Resch kills Luba. Standing beside her dead body, Resch talks to Deckard about whether he might be an android. Deckard admits that he plans to quit bounty hunting once this assignment is over. He suggests that androids would be better bounty hunters than humans.

The men leave the museum. Deckard runs the Voigt-Kampff test on Resch, who passes as human. Deckard is not satisfied with the results; he believes that Resch’s “empathic, role-taking ability” (78) seems defective as he is unable to empathize with androids. While Resch agrees that this is an issue, he argues that empathy for androids would break the test. Deckard thinks about his own empathy for androids. He believes that he can empathize with female androids, and Resch taunts him, suggesting that Deckard is not empathizing with the androids so much as he is sexually attracted to them. Resch tells Deckard that perhaps he should have sex with the next female android he tracks down, so long as he can eliminate her after. Deckard wonders whether he has the mindset to be a good bounty hunter.

Isidore purchases expensive “blackmarket” (81) groceries in the hope that Pris may agree to have dinner with him. When he offers her the groceries, she does not want to eat but she is interested in his company. Isidore believes that Pris’s apparent loneliness is the cause of her unhappiness. Pris rejects this assertion, claiming that she has seven friends. However, she admits that a bounty hunter may have attacked several of her friends recently. Isidore is confused by the idea of a bounty hunter. When Pris explains that bounty hunters hunt and kill people like her, he is appalled by this crime against Mercerism. Isidore assures Pris that he will protect her.

During their conversation, Pris worries that she made “the sort of slip an android makes” (83). Fortunately for Pris, Isidore is willing to believe that her slightly strange behavior is easily explained by her recent arrival on Earth. Pris talks about life on Mars, explaining that she and her friends recently traveled to Earth from Mars because life in the colony was terrible. She describes the drug addiction that she developed to deal with the terrible conditions on Mars. Their conversation is interrupted by someone knocking on the door. At Pris‘s request, Isidore answers. Standing outside are Roy Baty and Irmgard Baty, the final missing androids on Deckard‘s list. They are Pris’s best friends.