Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, and is joined by principal cast members Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, and Nick Blood.

"The Writing on the Wall" originally aired on ABC on November 11, 2014, and according to Nielsen Media Research, was watched by 4.27 million viewers.

A man is invited to a young art teacher's apartment one night, where he reveals alien designs tattooed all over his body.

Meanwhile, the fugitive Grant Ward is spotted by Agent Antoine Triplett accessing one of his hot boxes, where he has money and supplies.

Coulson wanted to shut down the program and destroy the alien host immediately but was presented with a different option – erasing the patients' memories so that they would have no knowledge of what was done to them and could carry out normal lives.

Realizing that one of them, Sebastian Derik, has been targeting the other patients of the project, Coulson rushes to the only other survivor, Hank Thompson, hoping to get there first, locking Skye in a holding cell so that she cannot interfere with his desperate attempts to discover the truth.

However, Coulson is not trying to kill Derik, rather he is trying to get him to look down at a large toy train track Thompson had constructed: it is a 3D model of the alien writing, which is actually the blueprints of a city.

In October 2014, Marvel announced that the seventh episode of the season would be titled "The Writing on the Wall", to be written by Craig Titley, with Vincent Misiano directing.

On whether he will have the same drive to find the newly revealed city, Gregg said "One of the really cool sci-fi elements of this show is that whatever this is, it seems to have been around for a while, and once it gets into your system, it starts to influence your behavior.

I don't know that having solved the carving element of it or figuring out the city part of it is going to completely mean that that alien tissue is done with him.

To Coulson, there's a very clear line that you cross over when you indulge your more primitive retribution-based desires, that suddenly really starts to rupture the membrane between you and what you're fighting against.

"[2] In October 2014, Marvel revealed that main cast members Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, and Nick Blood would star as Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Grant Ward, Skye, Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons, and Lance Hunter, respectively.

[1] It was also revealed that the guest cast for the episode would include B. J. Britt as Antoine Triplett, Adrianne Palicki as Bobbi Morse, Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, Imelda Corcoran as Dr. Goodman, Simon Kassianides as Sunil Bakshi, Joel Gretsch as Hank Thompson, Monica Lacy as Katie Thompson, Monique Gabriela Curnen as Janice Robbins / Agent Stevens, Bruno Amato as Bartender, Carlos Campos as Patient #2 and, Michael Hanson Seaver as Patient #4, Natalie Smyka as Patient #5, Richie Cottrell as Eliza's son, Madison Lee as Lab Assistant, and Brian Van Holt as Sebastian Derik.

[1] However, Corcoran, Lacy, Amato, Campos, Seaver, Smyka, Cottrell, and Lee did not receive guest star credit in the episode.

[3][4][5] In the episode, Ward mentions Hydra leader Baron von Strucker, who first appeared in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

[9] The episode began streaming on Netflix on June 11, 2015,[10] and was released along with the rest of the second season on September 18, 2015, on Blu-ray and DVD.

[12] James Hunt gave an extremely negative review of the episode for Den of Geek, saying "just as you were getting comfortable with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

's immense credit that it's learned how to make even the scenes of agents following Ward compelling", and felt that "one of the most satisfying elements of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[14] Kevin Fitzpatrick of ScreenCrush praised the conclusion of the Coulson resurrection storyline, the way it tied several smaller storylines together, its potential connections to the MCU, and its pace, while also saying "turning Ward evil continually proves itself among the best possible salvages of a bland character, as Brett Dalton clearly relishes in the ex-agent's newfound freedom, not only from the cell, but from his S.H.I.E.L.D.

[15] Alan Sepinwall, writing for HitFix, praised Gregg's performance and the Coulson resurrection storyline coming "to a welcome end".