Rick Deckard and Irmgard Baty

Rick Deckard and Irmgard Baty are hunter and hunted: Deckard, a San Francisco bounty hunter, retires Irmgard, a Nexus-6 android and the wife of Roy Baty, in the final confrontation of his six-android sweep. Their encounter is brief and lethal, occurring after Deckard has already killed Pris Stratton and as Roy Baty attempts a decoy. Irmgard's death marks the penultimate retirement of the day, stripping Roy Baty of his partner and sealing the group's destruction.

Identity and Background

Irmgard Baty is a Nexus-6 android who, along with her husband Roy Baty, fled Mars for Earth as part of an illegal group of eight. On Mars, she and Roy ran a drugstore where he was a pharmacist and she handled beauty aids, creams, and ointments. She is described as small, with blue eyes and yellow-blond hair, lovely in the manner of Greta Garbo. Her manner is often warm and earnest, in contrast to the coldness of her fellow androids: she shows compassion toward the chickenhead John Isidore, scolding Pris Stratton for calling him a chickenhead and giving him a look of compassion. She is also the one who, with her cuticle scissors, hands Pris the tool to mutilate a spider, though she later urges Pris to stop. Her presence in the abandoned building where Isidore lives is part of the group's final stand, a decision she votes for with firmness.

The Final Confrontation

Deckard, having retired Pris Stratton on the stairs, proceeds to the apartment where the Batys are hiding. He knocks, impersonating Isidore's stammer to gain entry. Roy Baty fires a laser beam at him, missing, and then runs deeper into the apartment, abandoning the electronic hardware he had set up. Irmgard remains by the front door, dimly outlined in the darkness. Deckard sees the laser tube in her hand; Roy Baty had slipped it to her, meaning to decoy Deckard into the apartment so that Irmgard could shoot him from behind. Deckard says, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Baty," and shoots her. Her corpse falls by the front door. Roy Baty, in the other room, lets out a cry of anguish.

Consequences and Aftermath

Irmgard's death immediately precedes Roy Baty's own retirement. Deckard shoots Roy Baty in the other room, and the big man's corpse lashes about, toppling into the kitchen table and carrying dishes and flatware down with it. With Irmgard and Roy dead, the last three of the original eight escaped androids are retired. Deckard sits down on the couch in the silence of the apartment, among the nonstirring objects. The special Mr. Isidore appears at the door, crying over Pris. Deckard tells him not to take it so hard, then hunts for the phone to call Inspector Harry Bryant. The retirement of Irmgard Baty completes the penultimate step of Deckard's marathon assignment, leaving him alone with the weight of what he has done.

Thematic Significance

Irmgard Baty's death, like those of the other androids, illustrates the novel's central moral ambiguity. Deckard apologizes before killing her, a gesture that acknowledges her as a being capable of love and loyalty—she is the one who, moments earlier, had voted to stay and make a stand with Isidore, and who had shown him compassion. Yet he kills her anyway, fulfilling the role of the bounty hunter. Her death also underscores the androids' inability to protect one another: Roy Baty's decoy fails, and Irmgard is left to die alone. The radioactive dust that has driven species to extinction and created the "special" classification is the same slow violence that has made androids both necessary and feared, and Irmgard Baty is one of its victims.