Has Ford's Mercury brand gone from the "sign of the cat" to Schrodinger's Cat?

With all the buzz about Ford and Lincoln lately, the silence around Mercury is deafening.
Has the brand that once used the tag line "Sign of the Cat" become the paradoxical Schrodinger's cat ? Are they dead but nobody has looked into the box? How many Mercury models are on offer today and how many will there be next year? I believe there are technically 5 today, Mariner, Mountaineer, Sable, Grand Marquis and Milan and next year there will be 3? No Sable, no Grand Marquis.

While Ford execs like Alan Mulally do promotional tours with the very handsome new Taurus, there's no Sable? From day one there were always the Taurus/Sable twins. But that's always been a major problem with the brand, most Mercury models were twins of Ford models. I believe you have to go back to the early 60's to find a unique Mercury powertrain and the last unique Mercury model not shared with Ford or Lincoln was actually a Mazda based Australian Ford.

At several websites and forums I've heard speculation about a new Euro Focus based Mercury model coming in a few years, and they point to the Lincoln C concept. But Mercury hasn't had a compact model since the Capri and before that the Tracer, both Mazda based. Mercury never got a Focus variant like the Lynx twin of the Escort.

Mercury is dead, but nobody noticed. I don't car that the dealerships are still open and they trickle a few cars out the door, the brand is dead.