diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/coffee-script.js b/lib/coffee-script/coffee-script.js
index 24e90267..66f4acc5 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/coffee-script.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/coffee-script.js
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@
       header = "Generated by CoffeeScript " + this.VERSION;
       js = "// " + header + "\n" + js;
     }
-    if (options.sourceMap || options.returnObject) {
+    if (options.sourceMap) {
       answer = {
         js: js
       };
diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/command.js b/lib/coffee-script/command.js
index 7c8c4332..beb55d8a 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/command.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/command.js
@@ -169,8 +169,11 @@
         return compileJoin();
       } else {
         compiled = CoffeeScript.compile(t.input, t.options);
-        t.output = compiled.js;
-        t.sourceMap = compiled.v3SourceMap;
+        t.output = compiled;
+        if (o.sourceMap) {
+          t.output = compiled.js;
+          t.sourceMap = compiled.v3SourceMap;
+        }
         CoffeeScript.emit('success', task);
         if (o.print) {
           return printLine(t.output.trim());
@@ -476,8 +479,7 @@
       literate: helpers.isLiterate(filename),
       bare: opts.bare,
       header: opts.compile,
-      sourceMap: opts.map,
-      returnObject: true
+      sourceMap: opts.map
     };
   };
 
diff --git a/src/coffee-script.coffee b/src/coffee-script.coffee
index 60cfd82a..6d749437 100644
--- a/src/coffee-script.coffee
+++ b/src/coffee-script.coffee
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ baseFileName = (fileName) ->
 #
 # If `options.sourceMap` is specified, then `options.filename` must also be specified.
 #
-# This returns a javascript string, unless `options.sourceMap` or `options.returnObject` are true,
+# This returns a javascript string, unless `options.sourceMap` is passed,
 # in which case this returns a `{js, v3SourceMap, sourceMap}
 # object, where sourceMap is a sourcemap.coffee#SourceMap object, handy for doing programatic
 # lookups.
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ exports.compile = compile = (code, options = {}) ->
     header = "Generated by CoffeeScript #{@VERSION}"
     js = "// #{header}\n#{js}"
 
-  if options.sourceMap or options.returnObject
+  if options.sourceMap
     answer = {js}
     if sourceMap
       answer.sourceMap = sourceMap
diff --git a/src/command.coffee b/src/command.coffee
index 399baf33..00fd4cc6 100644
--- a/src/command.coffee
+++ b/src/command.coffee
@@ -126,14 +126,18 @@ compileScript = (file, input, base) ->
       compileJoin()
     else
       compiled = CoffeeScript.compile t.input, t.options
-      t.output = compiled.js
-      t.sourceMap = compiled.v3SourceMap
+      t.output = compiled
+      if o.sourceMap
+        t.output = compiled.js
+        t.sourceMap = compiled.v3SourceMap
 
       CoffeeScript.emit 'success', task
-      if o.print          then printLine t.output.trim()
+      if o.print
+        printLine t.output.trim()
       else if o.compile || o.map
         writeJs base, t.file, t.output, t.sourceMap
-      else if o.lint      then lint t.file, t.output
+      else if o.lint
+        lint t.file, t.output
   catch err
     CoffeeScript.emit 'failure', err, task
     return if CoffeeScript.listeners('failure').length
@@ -325,7 +329,6 @@ compileOptions = (filename) ->
     bare: opts.bare
     header: opts.compile
     sourceMap: opts.map
-    returnObject: yes
   }
 
 # Start up a new Node.js instance with the arguments in `--nodejs` passed to