the Wild Turkey with the bow: sober after all, no — "As in he hadn’t been sober…"
As in he hadn’t been sober after all.
Context
The claimed sobriety and its refutation set one against the other: Joelle's insistence that JOI had quit in January, "hadn't had a drop in weeks," made a condition of her work with him — and the half-full Wild Turkey with the giftwrap bow found on the counter beside the oven. The relapse revealed at the exact bottom, the bottle staged like a present; the failed quit is the theme's shadow over the whole suicide scene.