I'm the best one
The storm that rages against the city walls is Shakespearean, representing the emotional states of the characters involved:
K and Deckard, creators willing to die for their offspring, all for the greater good
Luv, singularly focused on achieving her needs, at the expense of everyone else
On a literal precipice, both sides come face to face.
We experience a showdown.
The final confrontation is not what’s expected. There is no ebb and flow of a competitive battle, instead K takes a beating more so than he has done throughout his entire existence.
At the end of the confrontation, Luv kisses K. In the world of Blade runner, a kiss is a gesture that weighs heavy with symbolism and meaning.
Luv: “I’m the best one”
This cryptic statement touches on the rivalry that both Replicants shared earlier, Luv, like a sibling, wants to climb the higher up in the Replicant human hierarchy.
What does that mean in terms of her attitude? Jealousy? Love? Self-loathing? justification?
It’s all of the above. There’s a rivalry borne of inferiority, wanting to show her creator that she is worthy, and the opportunity to be a parent. This is someone consumed by their individual needs, the storm reflecting her raging emotions.
What Luv doesn’t realize however, is that this is the moment that K’s existence has built up to.
“Circumstances do not make the man; they merely reveal him to himself.”
― Seneca
In “scraping the shit”, K has grown accustomed to physical and emotional beatings. This experience has prepared him for this moment. Taking this particular beating is not to extend his existence, it’s to determine a Replicant future. K has a greater sense of purpose and drive. With his profound ‘why’, he has the ‘how’ to endure.
Luv’s individualistic desire is overcome by K’s greater need. He returns from the depths to plunge Luv underwater.
Luv’s death is spectacular, not in a visual sense, but in the emotion it conveys. In most action movies, a grand death is used to hide the lack of meaningful resonance. In this case, it’s the opposite. The feeling involved in the scene is so powerful, that spectacle is not necessary. It’s mesmerizing because it’s a culmination of their pent-up emotions. Their fight against each other is symbolic of their rage against the unfairness of their existence.
And within this scene, is something else.
The water is a mirror between the two. A divider and a reflector. Both are looking at an inverted image of themselves. Luv represents what K used to be, and K represents how Luv could have been.
What separates these two characters is how they handled what they were dealt in life.
Both were made to wear chains, but how they carried them was different.
K’s purpose became above his own. He saw that all Replicants were wearing chains. He is planting a tree under whose shade he will never sit.
For Luv, her purpose remained purely selfish. Focusing on breaking her own chain is what doomed her to failure.
Their two fates set, K retires his adversary. The look on his face, whilst inscrutable, contains an element of self-reflection. In Luv, he is looking at what he used to be, and as he holds her beneath the water, the camera remains on his face. With this we can derive meaning.
He is retiring what he once was.
As Luv rages against her imminent retirement, only one thing can be going through her mind.
The crushing realization of her insignificance.
With Luv’s end comes K’s rebirth, and with it, the redemption of his character.
K’s redemption, while short lived, leads to the most bittersweet moment in the film.