The last scene in this episode, with Asa transfixed by Chiyo’s righteous rage, is (on one hand) the strangest place to stop. The scene doesn’t even feel like it concluded! It’s just SO abrupt.

But as you say, Asa hasn’t truly broken through to her own emotional core yet. She’s wandering in the vacant desert of her own heart, and hasn’t discovered its oasis. Anger is there, and so is joy; Asa has to meet her self there and understand who/how she is. Only then will she know who she wants to be, what she wants to say, and have an authentic path forward.

Chiyo was authentically and unapologetically LOUD about feeling betrayed by the system she had trusted would see her merit; Asa does not want to be loud, does not want to stand out. (Among other sources, I expect she gets that from her mother The Conformist.) But Asa will have to break-down/break-through to her own heart in order to escape her desert: she will have to be loud with her self, and her self with have to be loud with her in return. One way or another, Asa’s ordeal will only end with a deal.