Mary Morstan

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh, right -- the recurring Eastern-Europe theme.  So far, it seems to have been either a red herring (as in "The Great Game") or a side plot (as in "Empty Hearse") apparently unrelated to what was going on in London.  Maybe that's about to change.

 

Thanks for pointing out that it wouldn't have to be Russian.  Wonder what language it really is?

 

Regarding AGRA -- it seems to me that Mary hesitated before identifying that as "my initials" -- which makes me wonder exactly what she meant.  Maybe not literally her original initials, but rather the initials of her code name?

 

[T.o.b.y]

I have been trying for the last... um... too embarrassing to say minutes, to find a screencap of the entire "Mary" file as seen from Magnussen's point of view. But all I could find (and all I can remember from watching the episode) is this:

 

[Zain]

I don't think we get to see the entire file. There's the screen shot of one of the pages, but otherwise, that's it. The link Caya provided shows that particular page. I couldn't get a better view on it when I looked at the scene again. It's in HLV, when they are at Appledore and Magnussen demonstrates how he uses his mind palace. Mostly, there are his finger movements and comments, but there's this one particular page they show us. You can make out the initials beneath the text, rather faint, but readable because they are in a bigger font than the text itself. That's like a black blur, nothing readable to me. I do not think it is possible to get a clearer picture, well, one clear enough to read it. If you do, though, please share.

 

Unless someone is able to provide a better screen shot with the text readable, it is not possible to say which language it is. Sadly, the initials do not give much away. If I had some words, I could probably eliminate a few languages. For all we know, it could also be Greek...

Most likely, it'll be Russian, though. They love to play with stereotypes. Like when they put some CIA agents into the show. Or the tourist just had to be German, after all, we travel a lot... then the Chinese smugglers. It fits best with their MO.

[Carol the Dabbler]

They've already used Serbia in "Empty Hearse," though, so I wouldn't rule that out.
 
All you can really see in a non-Roman alphabet is just the initials? In that case, as you say, it could just as well be Greek as Cyrillic.  Unfortunately, I didn't see that particular screencap in the article (though admittedly only about half of them loaded for me), and Martina said
 

What I found particularly interesting was that Magnussen's file showed the initials АГРА, but for once there's no screenshot (can anyone provide one?)

... so either that one is an exception to all the screencaps in the article, or else it's being particularly stubborn.

[Zain]

Yes, they could go that way. Make her a link between Sherlock and his last mission in Serbia, which was cut short by Mycroft. Who declared it over.

 

 

Here, the best screen shot of that particular moment that I could find. I enlarged it a bit.

 

http://postimg.org/image/v1p5g0wct/

 

 

 

You can see the Cyrillic AGRA on the right to Magnussen's finger, just where the shadow begins. Then Mary's signature to the right, but a bit higher. The R has got a curve, so she signed using the Roman alphabet.

Personally, I'd say that beneath there, it's Cyrillic. It's not that readable. In the text, you can see again the initials (or abbreviation?) AGRA. After that, there's a word, and from all the other ones, it's the most readable. I can spot a b, a soft sign. Typical for verbs. Before that, I am certain it's "it." The it gets a bit wobbly. Could be "z" or "m." Going backwards, it's something I cannot identify, then "yek" or "yech." But looks more like a k. The beginning is rather unreadable, especially with the red line crossing the first and second letter. Looks like a "D", could be an "O", next letter could be anything or nothing, maybe an "f." At first I thought it could be "defected." But I am pretty sure there's no "e" after the first letter.

Well, conclusion. Basically unreadable.... but with a small margin for error: Cyrillic.

Now my eyes hurt...

[Caya]

Wow, great work, Zain .

 

I tried taking the text part and enlarging it but I can't read a thing (you must have eyes like a hawk).

 

 

We need someone with CSI software, I guess .

[Zain]

Well, I cheated. I searched for a screen shot with better resolution, and then I went in deeper until I spotted rough edges to make out basic shapes. But thanks.

I've tried fiddling with grey scale, negativity, and so on, but it doesn't really get better. I might go back to this once I finished my work....

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yeah, I can't make out a blessed thing, either.

 

Wonder if Moftiss ever figured we'd be looking this closely at the brief shots?  Though if they don't know us by now....

 

[Zain]

I used a programme to go in a bit deeper, I sharpened it, fiddled a tad bit with the brightness, and that is why I was able to pick up some of it. I wish I knew how to improve it even more, but I never was any good with photoshop.

 

Well, if they did not intend for us to spot that, why bother using Cyrillic there?

 

One heck of a red herring, though, if they intended us to be led onto a false trail. They could have made sure the shadows weren't this much of hindrance...

 

 

 

Here, the one with the better resolution (if only slightly). The word I was referring to is the one after AGRA in the paragraph titled AGRA. Probably a report of some sort.

 

Maybe someone else has got more luck than me with it...

[Caya]

Wow, that's a great screencap . I tried magnifying it again,

 

 

and here it is after some filters,

 

 

and I still can't read anything . But maybe someone with younger eyes can .

[Carol the Dabbler]

Note added later:  This is a reply to Zain, since Martina and I posted simultaneously:

 

I believe you.  But you sure couldn't prove any of it by me.

 

Of course, this is all apparently from Magnussen's mind palace.  So even if he may have seen a physical document of this sort, what we're seeing is presumably his recollection and/or interpretation of it.  Maybe Magnussen even thinks in Cyrillic sometimes?

 

It's all very slippery.

 

[Zain]

Well, Magnussen is Danish, right? He shouldn't be this proficient in Cyrillic, in that case.

Danish is a very strange language, with lots of strange vowels. And I am saying this as a German Sounds to me like someone stuck in the Middle Ages.  Or someone speaking with their mouth still full with food. I only remember one word from when I went there, and it sounded like "smoe-roe-browde."

Anyway, it's based on the Latin alphabet. He could have picked it up some other way, though, sure. Gotta say, I'd be impressed if he became afluent enough to think in that language.

 

Thanks you for the effort, Caya. I am sorry, but I can't for the sake of it get to the rest of the word. The "b" says Cyrillic, the "it" is very common in Russian, at least. The rest, though... I've tried different theories (well, educated guesses based on the letters' shapes and placement) but so far, doesn't really add up to anything that makes sense to me. Maybe I'll ask a friend of mine to have a look at it. She was raised bilingually, and she might be able to say with certainty if this is not Russian. Maybe I hit the right combination, but it simply did not make sense to me, because my skills are too poor or it is just some word I do not know. Right now, I am considered Serbian, because the first "letter" looks slightly like a Serbian lj/j. But I only got that when I looked up special Cyrillic letters. I am not familiar with Serbian at all.

 

Edit: Just checked again, and if the beginning letters were 'nje', it would be the Serbian pronoun "her."

But, that is just a possibility. I really am not familiar with Serbian, or with reading Serbian extra letters. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Martina, we double-posted.  Thank you for that final blow-up -- I can finally see the "AGRA" in Cyrillic (twice) and Roman (once).  And there's a word immediately after the second Cyrillic AGRA that looks like it should be legible to someone more familiar with whatever language that is.

 

[T.o.b.y]

Wow, thanks everybody!

 

Hm, I think if you want your audience to pick up clues, you shouldn't hide them in such an obscure way. So I seriously doubt anybody is trying to tell us anything. But it's fun that they bothered to create an entire "Mary" file that has some kind of "real" content instead of just writing any old gibberish on their prop.

[Zain]

Of course, you are right, Toby. It's not really about getting information on Mary or finding some definite truth about her past.

 

But this might be a general, and well-hidden hint at what we can expect of s4. For example, if this is Serbian, then there probably is a connection to the beginning of TEH, and to Moriarty.

If it is Russian, or any other language, it also follows the Eatern Europe theme, and allows for some interpretation. And it may be possible to look at the books and spot some "rough" plot they are pursuing. References in the books, and so on.

 

Sure, maybe this means nothing, but it is more productive than debating Mary's immoral/selfish/moral/selfless character, and you choose which of those adjectives you prefer, if any at all. I am rather happy with having something to do at the moment Not one for sitting around, and this is not a good trait when you like a mini series which airs every two years on average...

[Carol the Dabbler]

Sure, maybe this means nothing, but it is more productive than debating Mary's immoral/selfish/moral/selfless character, and you choose which of those adjectives you prefer, if any at all. I am rather happy with having something to do at the moment Not one for sitting around, and this is not a good trait when you like a mini series which airs every two years on average...

 

 

Definitely, Zain!  The words themselves may turn out to be, as T.o.b.y says, just "any old gibberish" -- but there was presumably a reason for writing them in Cyrillic.

[Zain]

Okay. I've deliberately let it go for a day or two to get a less prejudiced POV on the subject. I've looked at it again, and I might have a solution to offer. Not that I claim this is true in any way. It's still hard to make out shapes, and some resemble more than one letter.

 

While many words are longer, I've noticed that I was lacking one vowel to make it sound "better", or rather: More like a word that would truly exist. I still have my issues with the first letter, or letters. There is basically no distance between what I deem the first and the second letter. However, I could not see any letter that I am aware of in it when I combined the two "letters." The shape makes no sense. A "D" would be possible, but it would be a rather ugly one with a big curve.

 

Instead, I now offer this solution:

Об'єкт which, as you probably could guess means object or target. If the first five letters are indeed this word, the language cannot be Russian, as the Russian synonym would be объект, which is indeed one letter too much. And I definitely cannot spot a hard sign in there. Об'єкт is Ukrainian, in fact, Serbian is different as well, and includes too many letters, too. The red line may overlap with the apostrophe, and that is why it is not legible. Though there is something under the red line, indeed.

 

The next part was easier to spot, and I am more confident in this part: мить. Which could be Serbian, too, that is why I was at first rather despairing, as I have no idea whatsoever about Serbian, which has got a few special letters. I feared the first letter could be one of those. But then I realized that Ukrainian, too, knows the word мить, which can mean moment or very quickly. I am not familiar with the Ukrainian grammar (barely with the Russian one, thank you, that is enough for a lifetime ^^): But we do not know the context anyway. It is possible that this is complete nonesense or that I got it right. But for now: It is very likely that it is Ukrainian, and, from my perspective, unlikely that it is Russian. There simply seem to be a hard sign missing (or a я, or one of the sh-sounds which is rather characteristic). It does not feel like Russian to me. I might be wrong, and season 4 will make me want to delete this post in shame, who knows

But for now, I dare say it is not Russian, and while I cannot make any statement about Serbian (which I do not know enough about to make definite statements), it seems likely to be Ukrainian. Which... is another reference to Eastern Europe, but not really helpful. The words I identified make somewhat sense.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Wow, Zain, you'd better go lie down and rest now with a cold compress over your eyes!

 

I have messaged our resident Ukrainian, Jane, in hopes that she can offer some insights.

 

[Arcadia]

Just to muddy the waters a bit ... I had a go at enhancing the image too, but there's not much to work with. Here's what I got. When I zoomed in on it, the area I've circled in red looked to me like (in English) "to be paid." Or possibly, something "past". But it could be anything, really. (Well, pretty sure the letters aren't Hangul or kana.)  Some of it looks like Latin to me. At any rate, I doubt this is intended as a clue, or it would be more definitive what language we're dealing with, no?

[Zain]

Yes, I spotted, too, that the above text is most likely in English, and possibly hand-written,  while the text at the bottom looks like a report to me. Maybe Magnussen's "mental notes", or the notes from the person he got Mary's file from. CIA? They would be interested in keeping up with their former employee's "career" after leaving their service.

I could try to use the same filtering I did on the word below, but I am not very hopeful. I once tried it, because the last word in the last line is more legible  than the others, but I think I gave up after a minute or two.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Jane got back to me as follows:
 

Hi, Carol.
Sure, I can help. The circled word is not a proper word. That's just 'AGRA'
And the text below. The words are ununderstandable, but that's easy to notice the 'қ' letter. According to Wikipedia, Kazakh, Tajik, Uzbek and Abkhazian use it.    

So we may need to move our attention a bit southeastward, into Asia?

 

[Zain]

Sorry, not that I am doubting her or anything: But where does she read that letter? Just went back to it, and I did look for it, but to me, it looks like a normal "k."

So that I can have a look at it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Jane?  Could you give us some examples?

[Jane Z Tiana]

At first, there's nothing like "a normal 'k". In Ukrainian and Russian languages it's "к"

And well. What the letter is that if I'm not right?

 

[Zain]

Well, I meant that I was too lazy to copy and paste the Cyrillic version, to be honest. I think it's brilliant to have programmes to switch between the two modes... If I used it more often, I'd download something of the sort...

And yes, down there, looks like it could be that. I'll try to "reapply" the filters I did the last time, and if I manage, maybe I can zoom in a bit and upload. But bit hard to make definite statements with the quality we have. I wish there was a better version. Haven't encountered one yet, though...