Carver's Gin and Love

In the "Beginners", the two couples are sitting around talking about love while drinking gin. So Carver shows that when people are going to gather and converse about love, they need alcohol to get through it. Gin in this case, seems to be some sort of escape. It makes it easier to talk about love and the problems that come along with it. For Terri, it won't be that easy to speak about her past abusive relationship if she were completely sober. Alcohol just makes everything easier to deal with. It is very obvious to see that Herb hates his ex-wife, and he's upset that his first marriage didn't work out. As a succesful cardiologist, he can't be hindered by his emotional problems. So he definitely needed the alcohol to talk about his issues.
Besides the obvious, the gin represented the pain and troubles of love itself. When you wasted, you deny that you're drunk. This is exactly what happened in Terri's situation. She was so deep into the abusive relationship that she still defends Carl and his behavior.