The secret relationship phase. Connell and Marianne are magnetic together but the way Connell hesitates to acknowledge her in public is frustrating as hell. Marianne doesn’t care about social status but Connell does, even if he won’t admit it. The intimacy between them is raw and unfiltered, but there’s also this inevitable feeling that something will go wrong. The way the show captures these tiny, wordless moments eye contact across a classroom, lingering silence after a conversation makes everything feel so much bigger than it actually is. The directing is smart, keeping things quiet and restrained, like the characters are too afraid to say what they really feel.