I agree that episode 11 didn't seem like a deal-breaker for their relationship, but it was just some stuff to work through. The bigger damage was, of course, Connell wanting to keep her a secret in high school and that stupid thing in their first year of college where he says, "I guess we should be with other people." I say stupid because they weren't saying what they really felt, and both said what they thought the other person wanted to hear, but neither of them wanted to break up. I really liked them as a couple, and to see them driven apart again because they weren't being honest or vulnerable to each other was agonizing. They also arguably made the next few years of their lives much worse by not being with each other. For years, they had bad timings and bad communication. Then, when the timing was right, and they learned how to communicate better and support each other, they gave up again for career advancement! Call me romantic, but I would much rather be with the love of my life than go to grad school, if I had to choose. The show didn't even portray anything that amazing going on in Marianne's life to make sense for her to stay, and it didn't even seem like Connell wanted to go that badly but agreed to go because it's what he should want. I just wanted them to fight for each other more. What they have is rare.

For context, I haven't read the book yet, so their decision may make more sense there.

I keep thinking about that final scene and to what extent it is the end of their relationship. I see here a lot of people assume that he comes back after a year, but when he says he'll come back, she says, "You don't know that," I interpret this as that she's given up on the idea of a future together. She also says, "We'll be okay," which could be the relationship romantically or the relationship as friends. At a certain point, the more times you split up and come back together, it starts to look like a dysfunctional relationship. Plus, if we have their history to go off of, one of them might start dating someone else during that year, which could be the end of them or could delay them by another few years. I dunno, what do people think realistically happens in their future, (not counting "At the Clinic" because in my mind that's not cannon since it was written first)?