This is a great topic.
Well, I'm a little late to the party, but ... 2 cents worth?
'There are places we can't return' is, for me, core to the whole story.
Maybe it could have been 'There are places we
won't return' ? E & J could have returned to the love they knew, but maybe it was too hard, or too dangerous? It seemed to be like that for Ennis, at least.
Whichever way, the emotion stirred by that one thought is central to the reason why BBM is so special, and maybe why some folks watch it again and again? Perhaps they think it could have been different, and want to find some explanation of why E & J were denied each other, and settled for a more socially acceptable life ?
Whilst E & J couldn't (or wouldn't) be together, they continued to love each other. And that is something that Brokies do. They love each other, even though they are not together.
A lady I knew was divorced for 4 years and had no kind words for her ex, who ran off with another woman. She once cried on my shoulder that she missed him. Puzzled, I asked why, if he was so bad. Her answer, between sobs, was .. 'I miss him as he used to be'. She didn't miss what he did, but she missed his love. I think sometimes that's how a lot of people feel.
Don't know how the thoughts on alcohol became so entwined, here, but guess it's part and parcel of the whole story.
Some (relatively) recent research indicates that alcohol lowers tetosterone levels in men, reducing their inhibitions but also their libido, whilst it increases testosterone level in women, reducing their inhibitions but having the opposite effect on their libido. But, of course, we all knew that before the official results came out.
In the making of BBM, I guess there wasn't enough run-time for reduced libido.