Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV Series)

The Writing on the Wall (2014)

Clark Gregg: Phil Coulson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Jemma Simmons : [Regarding Tahiti project]  The patients' files were all destroyed, how will anyone be able to locate them?

  Phil Coulson : I don't know.

  Skye : How many Tahiti patients were there?

  Phil Coulson : I don't know.

  Jemma Simmons : Do you think the killer will come after the two of you?

  Phil Coulson : I don't know.

• Skye : You know we're breaking about 14 laws right now?

  Phil Coulson : One of the perks of being outlaws.

• Skye : In the history of bad ideas, this is light-years ahead of everything.

  Phil Coulson : No, trying to bring dead agents back to life using alien blood blows everything else away.

  Skye : They buried those memories for a reason, Coulson. They were driving people insane. And now you want to uncover it when you've been getting worse. May would never...

  Phil Coulson : May's not the director. This is my call. I was put in charge of the Tahiti project, so those people are my responsibility. If going back in this machine saves even one life, then it's worth the risk.

• Hank Thompson : So, I was some kind of super-spy?

  Phil Coulson : One of the best. We could use you. The whole story's right here what you were, who you were.

  Hank Thompson : I know who I am. I'm Hank Thompson. I've got a wife I love, a kid I adore, and every day, I wake up happy. I can't imagine I was happy being a spy. Um, no offense.

  Phil Coulson : None taken.

• Phil Coulson : I didn't want to wake you.

  Skye : Do I look like I've been sleeping?

  Phil Coulson : What's keeping you up

  Skye : [Looks at the alien writing]  It's all connected everything. Ward has information about my father, who just happens to have the alien buzzkill device, which is somehow connected to the writing, that is related to the G. H. serum that is in our blood like we're pieces to a puzzle. Except we don't know what the puzzle is or how the pieces even fit.

  [sighs] 

  Skye : It's a hacker's worst nightmare, everlasting gobstopper of firewalls.

  Phil Coulson : It wants us to know. I can feel it.

  Skye : Then *it* should tell us, because I have been trying to match the writing to constellation maps, navigational charts, genome diagrams. And if it's a map, it's a map to nowhere.

• Antoine Triplett : [Tracking Ward]  Triplett here. I've got eyes on the prize. I've got a clear shot and a trigger finger that needs some love.

  Melinda May : No. Stand by and wait for your orders.

  Antoine Triplett : Director, say the word. I can end this.

  Phil Coulson : The senator wants him alive.

  Antoine Triplett : What do you want?

  Phil Coulson : Bring him in... by any means necessary.

• Jemma Simmons : She had GH.325 in her blood.

  Phil Coulson : A Tahiti patient.

  Jemma Simmons : Whoever killed her also had GH-325 in their blood.

  Skye : Don't look at me. I didn't do it.

• Phil Coulson : To answer the question on everyone's mind, no, I'm not crazy. I know in the past few months, it may have seemed like I was leading you on some fool's errand, chasing after strange carvings and artifacts. At times, I questioned it myself wondering if I was chasing windmills, trying to solve some unsolvable puzzle. But the pieces are coming together. The puzzle's taking shape. The bad news HYDRA's trying to solve the same puzzle, and they have more resources. The good news we now have a piece they don't have. Everything we've been doing, it all leads here.

  [Shows the alien city on the screen] 

  Phil Coulson : Our job: find it before anyone else.

• Phil Coulson : How long were you standing there?

  Skye : Long enough. May gave out specific instructions: you go on a date with a crazy wall. I get to chaperone

• Dr. Goodman : This isn't a failure, Agent Coulson. It's a first step. We rejuvenated life.

  Phil Coulson : This isn't life. We need to shut it down and destroy the host.

  Dr. Goodman : You can't do that! It's thousands of years old, pre-dating the pyramids! We haven't even scratched the surface of the benefits.

  Phil Coulson : These are human beings, not lab rats!

• Sebastian Derik : Agent Coulson, I've got bad news. The lunatics are running the Asylum. Do you remember me, Coulson? Do you remember what you did to me?

  Phil Coulson : I tried to help you.

  Sebastian Derik : What, by erasing my memories, trying to change who I was?

  Phil Coulson : It was the only way to save you.

  Sebastian Derik : It didn't work.