Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Writing on the Wall (2x07)

Let's just jump straight in, shall we?

This was a Coulson-centric episode, which was actually nice, since we haven't had a lot of breathing room to focus on him and his decent into madness.

Coulson's compulsion to carve the strange symbols is getting worse and worse. Another T.A.H.I.T.I. patient shows up dead, with those symbols carved into her skin. Coulson decides that he needs to go into the memory machine to remember the things that have been taken from him. He does so, recalling disturbing memories of all the T.A.H.I.T.I. patients slowly losing their minds, until they finally had their minds erased and new identities given to them. Coulson is in danger of dying in the machine, but he does manage to tell Skye and the others the names of the other patients.

Once he's taken out of the machine, Coulson seems a bit unstable. Skye calls May (I'll talk about her plot in a second), and May tells the team to lock Coulson up until she can get back. Coulson seems to concede to this, but when Skye escorts him downstairs, he traps Skye in the holding cell. Coulson then goes to track down the last living T.A.H.I.T.I. patient, but when he arrives, he is captured by the man who killed the other woman. In the struggle, Coulson finally discovers the truth - the carvings have to be viewed in three dimensions. It's a blueprint to a city!

Coulson comes clean to the whole team about what's been happening to him. Turns out, now that he's seen the city-scape, his compulsion is gone and he is no longer in danger of losing his mind. Since HYDRA will also be searching for the city, Coulson decides to make it a priority for S.H.I.E.L.D. to find it first.

Meanwhile, May, Hunter, and Bobbi try to track down Ward. They manage to find him, but he is wired with explosives and threatens to set them off if they try to take him in. Ward actually helps S.H.I.E.L.D. by providing one of the patients for Coulson to find, but of course he's got his own twisted motives. Next, he plans on going to pay a visit to his big brother.

If I were to complain, it would be about the lack of Fitzsimmons. I always miss these two characters and their interactions. However, that's not a legitimate criticism, more a case of my preference.

I don't know exactly what it is, but I just don't feel as enthusiastic about this episode as I have for the rest of this season. I can't pin down why, though. I sound like a very sophisticated reviewer, don't I? Maybe it's my fault; I was in sort of a weird mood when I watched it, and I was still freaking out about Supernatural's 200th, so maybe I just didn't get as excited about this episode because of that. Who knows.

Point being, there were lots of things to like about the episode, regardless of my weird mood when watching it.

Firstly, we have Ward as a proper villain! He was seriously scary in this episode, as you got the sense that he would truly set off the bomb if provoked. What a maniac! I hope we keep going down this path with Ward, instead of rushing in to a redemption arc. For my money, Evil!Ward is the best way to go.

While we didn't have much in the way of Fitzsimmons, we did have a brief exploration of Jemma's feelings about Mack. She has a very pointed line about "earning" things rather than just "taking" them, and it was clear she was referring to Fitz. She's jealous of Mack's easy friendship with Fitz, since her own relationship with him has deteriorated so much.

I think my favorite sequence in this episode was when Coulson was being tortured, and the memories started coming to him. Good mix of Coulson talking inside the memories, but also saying the words out loud to Skye and the rest of the team. Also, all the different ways that people were losing their minds... yeesh, that was intense. Coulson's memories finally culminated in him being dragged away screaming with the need to know what the symbols meant. Very intense, very scary.

I'm also pretty happy with the answer to the puzzle, insofar as we now have one. A city? That's not what I would have expected! I loved the cleverness of the symbols being in three dimensions, so that the depth of the carvings also becomes important. This is both a really simple answer, and an immensely tricky one. I'm really curious about this city, and what it means.

I feel a bit bad for not going in to more details here, but as I mentioned above, I really just can't pin down this episode, for whatever reason. Blame my research paper. My brain is melting.

8/10