Irmgard Baty was a fugitive Nexus-6 android and the wife of Roy Baty in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. She and Roy ran a drugstore on Mars before escaping to Earth with a group of other androids. As bounty hunters killed their companions, the Batys joined Pris Stratton in an almost deserted apartment building and accepted protection from its human resident, John Isidore. Irmgard argued for trusting him, supplied the scissors used to mutilate his spider, and died when Rick Deckard discovered her part in an armed ambush.
Life On Mars
Irmgard lived in a settlement near New New York on Mars, where she and Roy operated a drugstore. Roy worked as the pharmacist, while she sold the skin creams, ointments, and other beauty products used by the colonists. Their customers included Pris Stratton, who obtained the synthetic painkiller silenizine from Roy and knew the couple before their journey to Earth. Irmgard was small, with yellow-blond hair and blue eyes, and favored a fashionable wrap, tapered trousers, and high boots.
Irmgard belonged to the group of Nexus-6 androids whose escape Roy organized. The fugitives left Mars for Earth in a single ship, seeking an existence outside the conditions imposed on androids in the colonies. Roy's plan brought eight androids to Earth, but their arrival left them vulnerable to bounty hunters assigned to identify and kill them. Irmgard remained with her husband while their companions attempted to conceal themselves through separate identities and occupations.
Hiding On Earth
Irmgard and Roy lived together in an apartment on Earth until the deaths of their companions made returning there too dangerous. They packed as much of their property as they could into their car and followed a message from Pris to a nearly empty building outside San Francisco. The address offered abandoned apartments and the possibility of keeping the surviving fugitives close enough to help one another. At the door they encountered John Isidore, who had befriended Pris and brought her food.
The Batys brought news that Max Polokov, Garland, Anders, Gitchel, and Luba Luft had been killed. Irmgard knew that Polokov had seriously injured bounty hunter Dave Holden and that another hunter had taken over his list. Luba had contacted the group after arranging for that replacement to be taken to Garland's police station on Mission Street. The plan had failed, leaving the Batys uncertain about what had happened inside the station and how quickly the hunter would find them.
Reunion With Pris
Irmgard greeted Pris with an embrace before the three androids discussed their losses. She recognized that they were the final survivors of the group and supported Roy's proposal to take shelter in the building. Roy planned to connect the apartments with a two-way listening device and an alarm assembled from electronic components taken from their ship. He also wanted Pris to move into Isidore's apartment, where the presence of a human might provide some protection.
When Pris objected to living with a man classified as a special and mocked his intellectual disability, Irmgard rebuked her. She regarded the prejudice as foolish when they needed help and reminded Pris that Isidore could apply an equally hostile label to them. She also defended Roy's leadership, crediting him with their best chance of survival. Despite her confidence in him, she criticized Luba's decision to perform publicly at the opera house, where a bounty hunter could easily locate her.
Trusting John Isidore
Irmgard treated Isidore more warmly than Pris initially did, sharing the peaches he had brought and thanking him for offering shelter. She regarded him as the first friend the fugitives had found on Earth and offered to repay his kindness if they could. When he learned that his guests were androids, she argued that his attachment to them mattered more to him than the rewards available for betraying them. His own mistreatment by other humans gave her reason to believe that he would not turn them in.
Roy distrusted that judgment and proposed killing Isidore before finding another hiding place. The three androids settled the disagreement by voting, as they had done during the journey from Mars. Irmgard voted to remain in the building, and Pris supported her, defeating Roy's proposal. Irmgard challenged her husband's reliance on superior intelligence and argued that finding another human willing to protect them would be unlikely. Roy accepted the result, and the fugitives prepared to stay together.
Mercerism And The Spider
That evening Irmgard joined Roy and Pris to watch Buster Friendly's long-awaited broadcast about Mercerism. The program presented evidence that Wilbur Mercer's ordeal had been filmed on a Hollywood set with an actor. Irmgard understood the shared experience of Mercerism as a way for humans to demonstrate empathy that androids could not experience. She also identified Buster as an android whose nature was unknown to his human audience.
During the broadcast, Isidore showed the visitors a living spider he had found. Irmgard questioned why it needed eight legs and suggested removing four to discover whether it could manage with fewer. She supplied clean cuticle scissors from her purse, and Pris used them to cut off the spider's legs despite Isidore's distress. Irmgard later observed that the injured animal could walk on four, but became anxious when Isidore stopped speaking and withdrew from them. She tried to obtain a response from him without understanding the full effect of what they had done.
Deckard's Arrival
The alarm announced a bounty hunter in the building while Isidore was using his empathy box. Roy ordered the lights extinguished, and Irmgard seized Isidore's shoulder with enough force to dig her nails into him. She wanted him to answer any knock, present his identification, and insist that the apartment belonged to him alone. She also instructed him to demand a warrant, hoping that his status as a human tenant would prevent the hunter from entering.
Pris left the apartment and attempted to intercept Deckard on the stairs, where he killed her. Irmgard and Roy remained inside while he located them with his detection equipment. At their door, Deckard imitated Isidore's stammer and referred to his employment at the Van Ness Pet Hospital, claiming that he wanted to watch Pris's television. The Batys opened the door, allowing the hunter to confront them directly rather than meeting the human they expected.
Irmgard Baty's Death
Irmgard demanded that Deckard administer tests, while Roy tried to close the door and operate his electronic equipment. Roy fired twice and missed, allowing Deckard to argue that the attack removed the need for a Voigt-Kampff examination. He then passed his laser to Irmgard and retreated into another room. Their plan was to draw Deckard farther into the apartment so that she could shoot him from behind.
Irmgard asked why Pris had failed to stop him, and Deckard answered by referring to her resemblance to Rachael Rosen. He noticed the laser in Irmgard's hand, recognized the ambush, and apologized before shooting her. Roy cried out from the other room at his wife's death, and Deckard then killed him as well. Irmgard's body remained beside the front door until the police came to collect the three androids, ending the refuge she had argued to preserve.
Behind The Scenes
Philip K. Dick introduced Irmgard in the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, published by Doubleday. The book spelled her married surname Baty, with one t, and made her relationship with Roy part of the fugitives' life on Mars and Earth. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner omitted Irmgard and presented Roy Batty and Pris as a couple. Her marriage, her argument for trusting Isidore, and her death at the apartment door were events of the novel rather than the 1982 film.
Irmgard also appeared in BOOM! Studios' comic adaptation, published in twenty-four issues from July 2009 to June 2011. Artist Tony Parker depicted her with short blond hair, blue eyes, and the wrap described in the book. The adaptation retained her reunion with Pris, the Batys' relationship, and Deckard's killing of both spouses. Its illustrations supplied a visual depiction of a character who had no corresponding appearance in Scott's completed film.
Conclusion
Irmgard Baty escaped Mars with her husband and supported a human ally when Roy wanted to abandon him. Her trust in Isidore helped the surviving androids find shelter, but her involvement in mutilating his spider exposed how little she understood his attachment to other living creatures. When Deckard found the apartment, she attempted to defend it with Roy's laser and died before her husband.
Appearances
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (Doubleday, 1968).
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (BOOM! Studios comic, 2009-2011).
Tag Categories: Blade Runner Lore | Blade Runner Characters | Replicant Characters | Female Replicants
