The mystery of the alien writing was finally revealed in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2, episode 7! Read our recap and share your thoughts on “The Writing on the Wall.”
Bad date
A woman brings home a guy who seems familiar to her. He says they share memory and pain… and takes off his shirt, revealing Coulson’s alien designs tattooed across his torso.
“How do you know about that?” the woman asks, horrified.
“I’ll help you remember,” he says, pulling out a knife.
Signs
Skye interrupts Coulson’s latest intense carving session, frustrated that she can’t find a source for the map. Coulson’s episodes are getting more frequent and intense; he can’t turn it off, and can’t sleep.
They need answers, yesterday.
Skye and Coulson learn about Mr. Tattoo’s victim and case her apartment. Coulson thinks she was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, but there is no record of this, until they find dozens of paintings of the alien symbols.
Ten-gallon spy
May, Trip, Bobbi, and Hunter search for Ward. Trip finds him in a bus station, and Coulson orders them to take him in – the senator wants Ward alive.
But Ward has packed himself with explosives and has no compunction about letting them off if they try to take him in. Ward finds himself on the same bus as Bobbi, but quickly sees through her cover and switches to a Boston bus… where Hunter is waiting, in deep cowboy cover.
Digging deeper
At the playground, Coulson lays out paintings, musing that the picture is almost complete. Skye learns that the woman was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Rebecca Stevens – but she supposedly died five years ago.
Fitz and Mack get a hold of Stevens’ body, and a prickly Simmons begins an autopsy. Coulson is bewildered that he doesn’t remember Stevens. Simmons observes that the woman and her assailant had GH325 in their blood, and quickly connects Garrett’s carving with the serum.
Realizing that other GH325 patients are at risk, Coulson decides to find answers at any cost. He orders Simmons and Skye to put him through Raina’s memory machine; the answers, he says, will have to be tortured out of him.
Everyone is like, “This seems like a terrible idea!” but Coulson insists that they keep him in the machine until they uncover everything he knows.
Simmons activates the machine.
Baptism by memory
Coulson flashes back to interviewing Agent Stevens at the Guest House. She was one of six patients, who all initially felt great after being treated with GH325.
You know who else was one of the six? Mr. Tattoo.
Coulson watches as the patients begin carving the symbols, deteriorating mentally and physically. Coulson is only dissuaded from shutting down project T.A.H.I.T.I. (and destroying the ancient host of GH325) when the doctor suggests erasing their memories and setting them up with new lives.
But this process comes with its own terrible price.
Den of villainy
In Boston, Hunter tracks Ward to a pub, where he meets with Bakshi. Ward called him to set up a meeting, and says that he is finally free. He also wants to meet with Whitehall, since a certain von Strucker is overseas.
Ward offers to arrange a “meeting” between Bakshi and Coulson. Bakshi smiles.
Needs
Skye forces Coulson to remember the GH patients names, and finds that Mr. Tattoo – named Sebastian – has killed four of the patients.
Coulson remembers Sebastian begging not to erase his memory. “I need to know!” the man howled, Coulson’s battered mind sharing the same desperate hunger for answers. “I need to know!” he cries from the depths of the machine.
Skye finally reports to May, who is like, “I literally cannot leave you idiots alone for an HOUR,” but has no choice but to continue pursuing Ward.
Coulson gets volatile, and agrees to be locked up until Mom May comes home… until he’s like, nah, “I’m gonna go find this guy myself,” and seals Skye into the cell instead! She is eventually rescued by Simmons, Fitz, and a very perturbed Mack.
The blueprint
Coulson’s confrontation of the last patient, Hank, is interrupted by the arrival of Sebastian. Sebastian ties up Coulson and Hank, and is pretty mad about the whole memory-erasure thing.
Sebastian starts slicing Coulson to jog his memory, desperate to know what the symbols mean. He and Coulson come to similar conclusions – carving is “not deep enough,” and “the answer is what lies beneath.”
Hank breaks out, and Coulson is freed in the scrum. Hank directs Skye and Mack to the madness, where they find Coulson strangling the life out of Sebastian. “All you have to do is look!” he demands, pointing at something below them.
Just before Mack goes, “I’m taking Boss Crazy down POSTHASTE,” Coulson releases Sebastian, who looks down… and his face fills with awe.
“I found what we’ve all been looking for,” Coulson says, gesturing at an elaborate train set built by Hank – which is in fact a three-dimensional rendering of the alien symbols.
It’s a city.
Cornucopia
May, Bobbi, Trip, and Hunter storm into the bar, ready to take out Ward. Fortunately – or unfortunately, depending on your perspective – Ward is gone, and everyone in the bar is dead.
Except for Mr. Bakshi, trussed up like a turkey and wearing a note that says “For Coulson.”
MapQuest
After turning Sebastian in to the authorities, Coulson promises Skye and May that he feels perfectly fine. The puzzle is solved, and he and Sebastian have found their peace.
Bakshi has now taken Ward’s place in Vault D, and Skye is assigned to hack his cell phone.
Finally, Coulson apologizes to the team for his behavior, but promises that the puzzle is coming into shape. Unfortunately, Hydra is trying to solve the same puzzle, so basically?
They need to find this city.
Hair today, gone tomorrow
Ward puts on sexy music and shaves his beard and hair. The cheekbones are back!
He then calls Skye on Bakshi’s phone and is scary and intimidating, though he promises to send more “gifts” from Hydra. Ward promises Skye that “I’ll be seeing you soon.”
He then leaves to do something scary to his scary brother, which should be fun.