What's Happening to Agent Coulson?

While he may be the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and appears to be keeping it together, something is happening to Coulson on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The rest of the team may not know that he appears to be slowly losing his mind, but Melinda May is doing her best to keep Coulson under control. Although he isn't quite up to Garrett's levels of insanity, we saw in Tuesday's episode that Coulson is writing in the same alien language that Garrett was before he died.

So what exactly does it all mean? Well, there's a good chance that the blue alien that created GH-325 was Kree. So presumably, the writing that Garrett and Coulson compulsively scratch out is part of the Kree language... although in an earlier mission, Ward discovered similar writings in a Russian facility, but they incorporated what might have been Skrull writing. So although all signs certainly point to the Kree language, at this point we can only be sure that it's alien.

Although the answer to just what the writings mean has yet to be revealed, the more immediate question is not what they mean on a larger scale, but what they mean to Coulson's health. We've already seen what the effects of GH-325 have done to Agent Garrett; sure, he gained superhuman intelligence, but it seemed to be too much for him, and he lost his grip on reality. So far, Coulson seems to be exhibiting the same early symptoms that Garrett did. But will Coulson perhaps have a different reaction to the serum? Or if the serum does in fact lead to his demise, how much longer will he be able to maintain appearances for the rest of the team? Of course, even in a worst case scenario, we can hope that S.H.I.E.L.D. will be able to help Coulson pull through yet again. But there's not Marvel Universe precedent for Coulson's reaction to GH-325 , so we'll simply have to wait until that moment comes.

Images: Kelsey McNeal/ABC