Joan watches Julie as she goes all in and takes the reins. She's reminded of Liam, and the memory is bittersweet. He was her first personal engagement with addiction, the first time she saw it closeup in all of its ugliness and heartbreak. What they're working with here is not an addiction, of course, even though it shares some of the aspects and, Joan hopes, some of the methods for combating the compulsion. But that devotion is the same. That willingness to engage when plenty of other people would have written off, or worse.

Of course, in the end Liam had rejected her help, rejected recovery, and chosen the drugs.

Still. If it's possible for R to choose to stay "clean," Julie's engagement will help him through it. He's lucky to have her.