Summary
Deckard applies the various components of his testing equipment to Rachel Rosen. He informs the Rosens that he’ll be asking questions involving a variety of social situations, but that only her involuntary eye muscle and capillary reactions will be measured. During the questioning, Deckard realizes that Rachel Rosen’s verbal responses do not reflect her uncontrollable physical responses. She is physically unaffected by questions involving animal cruelty, although her verbal responses are seemingly well rehearsed and appropriately stated. Partway through the questioning, Deckard quits and states that he has concluded that she is indeed an android. Rachel and her uncle argue that the Voigt-Kampff Test is incorrect, and that she is a human who was raised on a ship for the majority of her young life and is, thus, incapable of responding to the test in the same way as other human subjects. The ensuing discussion then focuses on the issue of whether or not the Voigt-Kampff Test would misclassify an android as human or vice versa. At this point Deckard realizes that he has been videotaped, and that his mission at the Rosen Association has failed to conclusively determine the validity of the current methods of testing because of the incorrect results of his session with Rosen.

Realizing his failure, Deckard is confronted with a proposition made by the Rosens where he is invited to accept a female owl as a bribe in exchange for Deckard falsifying the conclusiveness of the Voigt-Kampff Test. This bribe ensures that the Rosen Association would be able to continue to manufacture the Nexus-6 model of androids while the colonial police departments would be able to continue in their application of the Voigt-Kampff Test on androids. Rather than accepting the bribe, Deckard asks for a bone marrow test to determine whether or not Rachel Rosen is indeed human. After Rachel Rosen declines his request, she returns again to owl. It is at this moment when Deckard realizes that Rachel Rosen’s language involving the animal, calling the owl an “it” rather than referring to the type and sex of the animal, incriminates her towards actually being an android. He requests one more question from the Voigt-Kampff scale of testing. She reluctantly agrees. When Deckard mentions that his briefcase is made of human baby hide, Rachel Rosen’s physical response comes too late, and Deckard is confident that she is in fact an android. Eldon Rosen interjects that his niece is an android that was programmed to believe it is human. Because she is the property of the Rosen Association and used only for the purpose of sales and demonstration, she poses no risk, and there is no need for retirement.

As Deckard prepares to leave, he inquires about the authenticity of the owl. Eldon Rosen acknowledges that there are indeed no real owls remaining on earth, and that the owl Deckard was offered in his bribe was mechanized. On his way to his hovercar, Deckard realizes that he has just had his first encounter with a Nexus-6 android.

Analysis
The issue raised in the previous chapter concerning the standards used by bounty hunters to distinguish humans from androids continues. Test questions used by bounty hunters primarily concern the involvement of animals in a variety of violent scenarios. The animal-centric nature of the test questions suggests the significance of animals within this futuristic society. Also evident is the adherence to the fundamental principles of Mercerism in the standards of the test itself. When the involuntary physical response of a test subject to questioning fails to reach a minimal pitch, indicating an empathic reaction, the test subject is...