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When K passes his baseline test at the beginning of Blade Rrunner 2049, the interrogator says, "You can pick up your bonus." In the next scene, he brings home an emanator for Joi.

Someone on the Internet suggested (I don't have the patience to find the link at the moment) that the emanator is K's bonus. If that's so, it implies that LAPD knows an awful lot about K's inner life. This would make sense since the Replicants are kept on a short leash (and Gaff even appears to know about Deckard's unicorn dream in the first film), but it's still creepy.

The other explanation would be that they gave him a more standard cash bonus, and he went shopping on the way home. Is there any direct evidence in the film itself, or in any ancillary materials, to support one reading over the other?

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  • 2
    Tempted to downvote (but not going to) because this seems like a weirdly slippery slope. It’s a logical question, I guess, but Occam’s razor suggests it’s not worth asking. Plus, he really seemed to be acting more like “look what I bought you!” rather than “look what they gave me!”
    – Ernest Friedman-Hill
    Commented Jan 4, 2018 at 15:45
  • 2
    Why does it matter? Are you concerned about how much the LAPD knows about K's personal life? And if so, do they care?
    – Möoz
    Commented Jan 4, 2018 at 22:16

1 Answer 1

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No it isn't, he gets a cash bonus

It is revealed in the final (undated) shooting script that K gets a cash bonus after bringing in Sapper['s eye]:

JOSHI (ON SCREEN)
Between the retirement and the bleed
you’ll see a tidy bonus. Less mine.

K
Can I get it today?

JOSHI (ON SCREEN)
I don’t know what you all do with cash in
pocket anyway. Come on home for your
baseline.
-Final Shooting Script (undated), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Fancher, H. and Green, M.

And later, after passing his 'baseline' test and collecting his cash bonus, we see him carrying the 'newly purchased package':

EXT. CITY STREET.
A POLICE SPINNER glides low overhead. A small ADVERTISEMENT
DRONE hovers like an insect, projecting 3D ads in the smoggy
atmosphere. A HUGE SNOW MELTING MACHINE moves down the
street, clearing the slush. It passes to REVEAL --

K. He pushes past the occlusion of PEOPLE buttoned against
the cold. Crosses the windblown street. Gutters heaped with
dirty snow as more dirty snow falls. Fat, sooty flakes.
He carries a newly purchased PACKAGE under his arm.
-Ibid.

[all emphases mine]

The package, as we learn, turns out to be the emanator.

This also points out, as Joshi mentions, that at least she is not interested in what he does in his spare time.

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5
  • Actually, later, Joshi also visits K's apartment and specifically turns of the 'mainline' version of Joi's projector device. This clearly shows that she has no idea about the emanator. Additionally, she uses K's beloved 'Pale Fire' book as a coaster, unremarkably to her.
    – Möoz
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 1:49
  • Is that script published? I don't see it on Amazon.
    – crmdgn
    Commented Feb 1, 2018 at 13:41
  • @crmdgn Good question, yes and no. It is a leak, however, Michael Green (the writer) doesn't deny that it's real.
    – Möoz
    Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 0:17
  • Huh. If I wanted to find a thing like that, where would I look?
    – crmdgn
    Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 12:05
  • @crmdgn Google
    – Möoz
    Commented Feb 4, 2018 at 21:15

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