u/ExileforEvermore

My honest reaction to watching Witch Hat Atelier Episode 5 was that while Qifrey's ominous stare was certainly a bit chilly...to say the least, I loved how they emphasised Agott's guilt through her body languages alone. For example - when Coco was crying in Kalhn, after being rescued, Agott had her head bowed, and shoulders hunched ( if I'm remembering correctly ). She feels a bit of guilt for what she said in Ep 4 about Coco's mother, especially after Coco helped her enormously. Agott strikes me as the kind of kid who had learnt to view the world in transactional terms. So while Coco wanted to help in Ep4 and ended up ruining Agott's spell, Agott being frustrated and riled up over perceived injustices to her own ego and identity and feelings about Coco the Outsider ( more on that later ) lashed out at how Coco kept ruining everything. This while being mean, was Agott protecting a threat to her identity and perception of the world that Coco kept challenging. Remember how Agott passed the Dadah range test at age 10 and while that is impressive, she already had a foundational view and perspective of magic that Coco was entirely new to. And yet she passed. Coco's creativity was one of the reasons Agott felt a bit inferior to her, which along with other reasons boiled up and caused her to lash out.

I believe Agott's thought process during the whole episode was something like this -

"Why is she helping me? Why isn't she angry? Her idea is legible and good, yes, but what does she want from me in exchange for her help? Does this mean that I'm in her debt? She helped me after me being cruel to her? Do I apologize? Do I not, because I don't want to admit I was wrong? Why does she care?"

You can see this thought process in how stiff and formally polite she gets around Coco after Coco helps them and gives them the idea. This is her way of apologising without apologising because she doesn't know what to feel yet. The debt makes her uncomfortable even though we as an audience know Coco didn't see it as such. Agott was prepared for cruelty in return, but what she didn't expect was kindness from a person so new to the Atelier, and given every reason to hate her, in Agott's perception.