I got a couple of comments on my post on Monday night's Prison Break premiere that mentioned some sort of Morse code during the show. "Morse code?" I thought. "What Morse code?" See, this is what I get for watching an early draft of the show and not following up with the actual aired episode. Luckily my TiVo season pass recorded the episode and, to my surprise, there it was -- a hidden code not shown in the screener! Read on to see for yourselves.This is a screenshot of the scene in question as it appeared on the screener copy I watched:
Nothing peculiar at all. No strange code of any kind, as far as our eyes can see. Now, here's the same scene from the actual aired episode:
There is a strange code! And no, it's clearly not Morse code, as it's simply would read: SIIEIHSSIH and so on. And if the first row's a phone number, well, it doesn't seem to ring anywhere (yeah, I tried). So, either it's totally meaningless to us and will clearly play a part in a later episode, or I'm baffled as to what it could mean.
The fact that the editors purposely altered this scene clearly show it has some significance, though the fact that it was added in so late makes me wonder how it could suddenly have meaning within the show. Speculate away!
The TV Squad Podcast: Linda Purl talks about The Office, we talk spoilers, and more
Ask TV Squad: Ghost Whisperer and more!
The TV Squad Podcast: Bill Scheft of The Late Show, Cake Boss, Mad Men and more
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-15-2008 @ 12:34PM
SincePeone said...
Actually it`s something else, its a dashes between the dots:
[IMG]http://i31.tinypic.com/vw37t.jpg[/IMG]
Reply
8-22-2006 @ 10:56PM
Chris W said...
Braille maybe?
Reply
8-22-2006 @ 11:02PM
Aaron Slater said...
hmm not exactly braille either, in literal numbers, it's:
3221243324
4221312231
23133121
Speculate away...
Reply
8-22-2006 @ 11:28PM
Kevin said...
Binary?
Reply
8-23-2006 @ 1:39AM
Brent said...
Do you know what binary is? It's not dots... it's 1's and 0's.
Reply
8-23-2006 @ 2:30AM
Vito said...
I wouldn't be surprised if we're just told what it is supposed to mean later, whether it actually does or not. From what I read in EW, the producers decided just to throw believability out the window a long time ago. Remember the stuff in the toothpaste that Michael made to corrode the drains? Ingredients for nougat, apparently. It almost makes me more comfortable with the plot holes on the show to know that they know what they're doing. Imagine, a show deliberately putting plot holes and impossibilities into its episodes in the era of Lost and 24. Craziness.
Reply
8-23-2006 @ 6:36AM
GMMR said...
Yeah, I was a bit taken back by the "morse code" as well. Much like you, I saw the FOX screener version first, and there was nothing but Michael's little note.
It's not morse code, or braille. The fact that they filmed the scene without the little dots originally makes me think its some kind of add-on.....an afterthough perhaps.
-GMMR
http://www.givememyremote.com
Reply
8-23-2006 @ 9:08AM
Barry said...
I think I've translated it - hold on..
4
8
15
16
23--
Oh, man...
Reply
8-23-2006 @ 11:23AM
Gordy said...
They had this over at tthe TV GUide Watercooler:
--Quote
Thanks to the detective work of White Cleats, it looks like we've broken the code to Michael Scofield's (Wentworth Miller) secret message hidden in Sara's (Sarah Wayne Callies) origami swam. It's similar to a type of encryption called substitution cipher -- each dot series represents a number. Once they're written out as such, if you add them in a column you get 9755867655, aka (975) 586-7655. RING, RING! "Hello, Wentworth?"
--End Quote
My question is...when did he give this to her?
Reply
8-23-2006 @ 11:27AM
Keith McDuffee said...
Gordy -- The number doesn't ring anywhere for me. Says it's not in service or whatever. I still don't get how that cypher works.
Sara was given that swan last season -- Michael left it for her toward the end of the season.
Reply
8-23-2006 @ 1:50PM
Woven said...
hrmm I think that cypher is wrong..
to my opinion it's in the msg.. "There's a plan to mak all of this right".. I think it means the dots not the situation.. if you'll look closely you can visualise the dots into letters or similar enough to.. I tried flipping it horizontal and vertical seems like I get new letters like the end of the dots can either be a L or a T and so on.. I think it's just a connect the dots thing..
Reply
8-23-2006 @ 3:26PM
Keith McDuffee said...
Judging by how the text phrase was written in the screener from the one with the code, I'd say the dots somehow correspond with the text as a cypher. Somehow matching the dots with the above text will likely result in some sort of phrase.
I was just toying around and saw that there are 28 sets of dots, but 31 letters. Take out all of the 'L's out of the text, you're left with 28 letters. Of course, just like I do with Lost, I'm clearly overthinking this.
Reply
8-24-2006 @ 1:15AM
Bouilloire said...
What about hangman game ?
Reply
8-24-2006 @ 7:18AM
Jen said...
Michael didnt give her that swan..last season he gave her a rose..not a swan, it seems since he was second to last person in the infirmary(and sara didnt seem to have her bag with her when she left), He must have put it in there before escaping.
Reply
8-24-2006 @ 5:25PM
James said...
The cypher may be a prison "tap" code.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tap_Code
Although since only the symbols 1 - 4 are used, a 4 x 4 grid is likely--not enough for a complete alphabet. Perhaps the grid is one of the tatoos?
Reply
8-24-2006 @ 9:17PM
Keith McDuffee said...
James -- It *has* to be a prison tap code. Nice catch!
Now I'm wondering if the phrase above that is the key, though it only has 3 lines of text and is of an uneven number of letters (31) even when adding the spaces (37).
Reply
8-24-2006 @ 9:52PM
James said...
One way that these grids are filled in is to write the phrase without repeating a letter. For example:
T H E R
S A P L
N O M K
L F I T
Then (3 2) (2 1) (2 4)... is
P A F M F ... or
O S L M L ...
which doesn't make sense to me.
Of course, the grid could have numbers too.
I just have a feeling that the dots are going to be a mystery to everyone until one day, someone hears two cons communicating in this code. Then a light will come on!
Reply
8-24-2006 @ 10:45PM
Keith McDuffee said...
And arranging them in alphabetical order:
A E F G
H I K L
M N O P
L R S T
Gets you nonsense as well: NHLOLRHMIMKFMH or KERORLEFIFNMFE
Reply
8-25-2006 @ 12:03PM
James said...
IF this is a prison tap code, one way to attack it may be as follows:
1. Make an arbitrary grid, say...
A B C D
E F G H
I J K L
M N O P
2. Apply the symbols of the tap code and get:
JEHKH NEIFI GCIE
3. Analyze as a simple substitution cypher using letter frequency analysis. (Word spacing is unknown.)
Note:
a) There are 9 cypher characters used
b) Most frequent characters are E(3), I(3) and H(2)
So a good start might be to guess E = e since it is the most frequently used english letter and is highly likely to be the last letter of a word.
If you try H = a, it is possible to produce "tea bag" in the first 6 characters. (Tea Bag is a character in the show, I think.) The problem is making the other letters fit.
Another path:
If you try E = h and I = t, it is possible to make the word "truth" at the end.
It would help to have a "crib." That is, to have some words that one would likely find in such a message. What would you need to communicate to Sara--a location, a name, a phone number, a url, a request?
Reply
8-25-2006 @ 2:08PM
James said...
While it is possible to find may english words which fit the cypher above, I have not found any to make sense. For example, here are some candidates using the word break as in the original message:
CODED POSTS ALSO
DRAMA IRENE OVER
WHERE GHANA UTAH
Reply