diff --git a/sqlit/shared/ui/widgets_tables.py b/sqlit/shared/ui/widgets_tables.py
index 07ede1d..26bc361 100644
--- a/sqlit/shared/ui/widgets_tables.py
+++ b/sqlit/shared/ui/widgets_tables.py
@@ -100,8 +100,11 @@ def _format_cell(self, obj: object, col: Any | None) -> Any:
         if isinstance(obj, timedelta):
             return str(obj)
 
+        if isinstance(obj, (bytes, bytearray, memoryview)):
+            return f"<BLOB {len(bytes(obj))} bytes>"
+
         if not is_renderable(obj):
-            return str(obj)
+            return escape(str(obj))
 
         return obj
 
diff --git a/tests/ui/test_blob_markup.py b/tests/ui/test_blob_markup.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a8461af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/ui/test_blob_markup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+"""Regression test for crash when rendering blobs containing markup-like text.
+
+See https://github.com/.../issues/202: a PDF blob containing the substring
+``[/ICCBased 14 0 R]`` crashed the results table because Rich interpreted the
+brackets as a closing markup tag.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import io
+
+import pytest
+from rich.console import Console
+
+from sqlit.domains.shell.app.main import SSMSTUI
+from sqlit.shared.ui.widgets_tables import SqlitDataTable
+
+from .mocks import MockConnectionStore, MockSettingsStore, build_test_services, create_test_connection
+
+
+# A snippet of real PDF stream contents that triggered the original crash.
+BLOB_WITH_MARKUP = b"%PDF-1.4\n[/ICCBased 14 0 R]\nstream..."
+
+
+def test_format_cell_bytes_does_not_crash_rich_console():
+    """Rendering the output of _format_cell on a bytes value must not raise MarkupError."""
+    # _format_cell doesn't use self; call as unbound for a lightweight test.
+    formatted = SqlitDataTable._format_cell(None, BLOB_WITH_MARKUP, None)  # type: ignore[arg-type]
+
+    # Render through a Rich console the same way textual_fastdatatable does.
+    console = Console(file=io.StringIO(), force_terminal=True, width=120)
+    console.print(formatted)  # Must not raise rich.errors.MarkupError.
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_results_table_renders_blob_with_markup_chars():
+    """Displaying a row whose blob contains '[/...]' must not crash the table render."""
+    connections = [create_test_connection("test-db", "sqlite")]
+    services = build_test_services(
+        connection_store=MockConnectionStore(connections),
+        settings_store=MockSettingsStore({"theme": "tokyo-night"}),
+    )
+    app = SSMSTUI(services=services)
+
+    columns = ["id", "data"]
+    rows = [(1, BLOB_WITH_MARKUP)]
+
+    async with app.run_test(size=(120, 40)) as pilot:
+        await pilot.pause()
+
+        await app._display_query_results(
+            columns=columns,
+            rows=rows,
+            row_count=len(rows),
+            truncated=False,
+            elapsed_ms=0,
+        )
+
+        # Force the render loop to actually paint the cell — that's where the
+        # original crash happened, not at insert time.
+        for _ in range(3):
+            await pilot.pause(0.05)
+
+        assert app.results_table.row_count == 1