Yes, might be the heir of Sherlock as well.

I can only think he meant to say one of two things: “Well I’m not the John Watson anyone knows,” including himself, or, “Well I’m not the John Watson I know.” 

His distress and depression at being shot then invalided out of his Life’s Work and the feeling that he has no meaningful place in society (being back and staying in London, as Mike says John couldn’t bear to be anywhere else) is still so palpable and real for him.

So it’s all the more wonderful, isn’t it, that Sherlock whirls into his life soon after and very bluntly states “I know you’re an army doctor-” upon meeting him. And he says it again the following day. “You’re a doctor. In fact, you’re an army doctor.” Present tense, not past. “You are.” He’s not looking at John like John looks at himself: as a has-been, a nobody. He sees John as very capable, skilled, strong, worthy. 

But then there’s the way John immediately stands up, clears his throat, and faces Sherlock back-straight and head-on, and answers his “Any Good?” with “Yes. Very good.” Oh man. OH MAN. This is when John finally realizes he may still have a meaningful place in the world after all. That he’s not washed up just because he’s been invalided.

ENCRYPTION TECHNIQUE: MIXED ALPHABET CIPHER AND CAESAR CIPHER Mixed Alphabet Cipher is an encryption technique in which the letters of the plain alphabet are substituted by the letters of a cipher alphabet. The cipher alphabet is obtained by writing down the letters of a key in the order of their first appearance and then rest of the letters of the English alphabet following their usual order. For example, if the key was the word “key”, the cipher alphabet would be: KEYABCDFGHIJLMNOPQRSTUVWXZ The cipher alphabet can be compared with the English alphabet or one of its rotations: Cipher Alphabet:  KEYABCDFGHIJLMNOPQRSTUVWXZ ROT 0 Alphabet:  ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ  

In this example, if I wanted to encrypt the plaintext ABCDEF, the ciphertext would be KEYABC. Rotating the alphabet is called the Caesar Cipher encryption technique, which can be used on its own or in conjunction with other methods, like the Mixed Alphabet Cipher. Cipher Alphabet:  KEYABCDFGHIJLMNOPQRSTUVWXZ ROT 1 Alphabet:  ZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY    

In this example there has been a rotation of 1 place, so if I wanted to encrypt the plaintext ABCDEF, the ciphertext would be EYABCD.

ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION The ciphertext has been given to us both visually and vocally.

The key could be the name of the show.

We can create the cipher alphabet with the key SHERLOCK following the rules of the Mixed Alphabet Cipher.

We can compare the cipher alphabet with the plain alphabet or one of its rotations, in this case a rotation of one place gives us some results.

To each letter of the mixed alphabet corresponds a letter of the ROT 1 alphabet.

Which gives us a solution.

THE MEANINGS OF THE WORD From Oxford English Dictionary

As far as Sherlock is concerned the relevant meanings are:

The traditional torch (fire);

The electric torch;

The victorian torch;

A source of light;

To feel (especially unrequited) love.

AN EXPLANATION OF THE PLAINTEXT If this is the solution, UMQRA could be just a visual joke on the electric torch or have a double meaning regarding Sherlock and John’s feelings for each other.

Every scene in which UMQRA is discussed is connected with one or more of the above meanings. John is holding a torch before, while and after writing UMQRA.

Also the signal itself comes from a source of light. 

UMQRA is brought up again while Sherlock and John are in front of a fire (a source of light) upon which reigns a heart (feelings of love) and are surrounded by candles (other sources of light). Soon after they have a conversation about John not being Sherlock’s friend (unrequited feelings), which upsets John.

Just after Sherlock declares that he doesn’t have friends, he’s holding a torch again before finding the UMQRA cars.

Again, we have the signal as a source of light.

The morning after Sherlock brings UMQRA up again and thanks to it deduces HOUND is not a word but individual letters. For this reason he says John is his “conductor of light”.

SHERLOCK: You’ve never been the most luminous of people, but as a conductor of light you are unbeatable.

During this scene Sherlock also admits that the friendship is requited.

I appreciate it! Have nice day :)

(submitted by softlygasping)

———

Hi Lovely!

ITS BEEN TWO YEARS SINCE THIS. TWO YEARS WITH PAIN, QUESTIONS AND WAITING. THANK YOU TO EVERY ONE OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN MAKING THOSE YEARS EASIER WITH ALL OF YOUR ART, TEXTS AND GIFS.