A needed episode of mostly downtime.
So, let’s start with what we learn this episode.
We meet Olruggio, the “Watchful Eye” of the Atelier who has been away on business. Evidently, unlike the rest of the witch world, he hasn’t been informed of Qifrey taking on a former unknowing as an apprentice. His job is to make sure a secluded witch like Qifrey doesn’t start making trouble or breaking the rules and, well… Coco is kind of a walking rules violation. True, many witches, including at their center of power, seem to accept Qifrey’s solution, but there’s clearly friction between Olruggio’s duty and what’s going on here. That said, while more stern than Qifrey, he doesn’t seem like a bad guy.
We also learn about the Knights Moralis, who seem to be somewhere between the Witch Police and the Witch Inquisition. They’re the ones who technically have the job of enforcing the laws of magic, erasing memories, and hunting Brimhats. By all indications, having a stick up the rear is a prerequisite for joining, so we’re informed that Coco could expect no mercy from them even though she’s been recognized as an apprentice and has completed one of the trials properly. They would erase not only her knowledge about magic, but even her pre-existing love for it to neutralize her as a threat to the order of things. Harsh.
And those are the important notes, but not the meat of the episode. The meat of the episode is downtime and training at the Atelier, as Qifrey teaches Coco to refine her magic by giving her cooking tasks to achieve through it and the girls (minus Agott, who is busy this whole episode studying furiously with a need for absolute silence in order to focus, and who will thus not participate in any whimsy or friendship-related activities) go in a picnic. That’s the plurality of the running time, if not the majority.
And that’s needed. We just finished two episodes that were quite the opposite of chill, so getting a chance for more wonder and enchantment before lives are once again on the line (don’t kid yourself, you knew that was inevitable) is nice. This even extends to one of the Olruggio scenes, as Coco finds that he was the witch behind one of the first magic contraptions that contributed to her enchantment with the art, and that he also isn’t as mean as he might have come off at first.
Speaking of lives being on the line, the episode ends with the hook for the next major incident: the rain that failed to ruin the picnic (because witches have solutions to things like that) and that disrupted Agott’s practice by rattling a window has washed out a nearby bridge, leaving a carriage floundering. Desperate for help, a man comes to the Atelier to beg for emergency assistance. Qifrey is ready to pick up and go, but overeager for real-world experience, Agott insists on being allowed to come along.
What will come of the crisis? That’s for next week.
In a sense, I feel like the environment was the star this week. The labyrinth was very stark, and while it had its wondrous elements, it wasn’t something we’d normally consider a visual wonder. Any effort that was spared there, however, was really delivered this week in the scenery surrounding the atelier. The hillsides and sky were made absolutely gorgeous – this show has been a visual treat fairly constantly, but there was clearly a great deal of focus on getting some real glamour shots of the world our characters inhabit this time.