Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Irmgard and Pris vote to keep Isidore alive, counter to Roy’s wishes. The three androids and Isidore listen to Buster Friendly’s radio show, awaiting the announcement that Rachael mentioned to Deckard. Irmgard says that they have waited “a long time” (111) to hear what Buster has to say. While setting up the television, Isidore finds a spider. He shows the spider to Pris but, much to his horror, she begins to torture the creature. Roy and Irmgard watch as Buster Friendly announces that he has definitive proof that the religion of Mercerism is completely fake. The entire scene of Mercer climbing a hill, Friendly claims, is actually a “bit player marching across a sound stage” (113). The androids were aware of the upcoming revelation because, they tell Isidore, Buster Friendly is one of them. Roy is delighted that Mercerism and the performative empathy that it encourages, have been exposed as a sham, designed to turn all people into a manageable, single entity through their empathy.

Isidore puts the spider out of its misery. He is so overwhelmed by emotion that he enters into a trance. Isidore has a vision of Mercer in a tomb-like world. In the vision, Mercer himself approaches Isidore and admits to being an actor named Al Jarry.