Let me just say upfront that today’s meme is “Saddest Character Death,” so with a topic like that, all who read these lines should assume SPOILERS from here on out. (I’ll still be subtle about some things, but you’ve been warned and my conscience is clear.) I’ll put some minds at ease by saying that, though tempted, I have decided to not write this about HP5, but the idea makes me think of why some deaths hit me harder than others. For instance, if one has lived a short, happy life but dies suddenly and without pain, or if at the end of a long and full life one is prepared to die, I will view those passings with sadness, but not see them as tragic (as in Capital “T” Greek Tragedy-level tragic). But when one has had a hard life and a bitterly unfair death, my heart breaks, and in literature and film, those are the ones that stick with me. (For the HP fans out there, you’ll probably get where I was going with those examples… I like to ask people which death in the series is most upsetting to them personally; it can be an interesting character study.)

All of the above brings me to The Departed and Leonardo DeCaprio’s wonderful performance in it as Billy Costigan. He’s an amazing protagonist; very human, but put into impossible situations that he maneuvers with integrity and bravery. Deep, deep undercover and essentially set adrift from the very law enforcement for which he labors, there is no safe harbor for him. He’s between the cops and the gangsters for what feels like forever, and throughout he just seems… so tired. He’s suffering from great anxiety and stress, and he needs more than just those sleeping pills from therapist Madolyn. Watching him, I longed for him to have a good long rest, to feel safe, to feel cared for and loved. But all that he needs and deserves goes to our antagonist, Colin, and that’s the point; what Colin needs is Frank Costello’s approval and adoration, and that goes to Billy; the neglect each suffers makes them more and more desperate. When Billy gets the better of Colin we rejoice. He’s earned this victory, the bad guy deserves his punishment, and our hero will now have the comfort he’s sought for so long.

It’s so unexpected and random, Billy’s death so near his moment of triumph, and it’s just heartrendingly unfair. The rest of the film can only be partially absorbed in a state of shock, until the brilliant conclusion when the hellfire of vengeance in the form of Marky Mark balances the books the only way possible with these people; there will be no judge or jury, but justice and honor nonetheless between cops and robbers. Billy’s death hangs over the end of the film the way the lives and deaths of both his and Colin’s father cast shadows over their sons’ lives and choices. They were both put on paths that lead them to Costello and this face-off before they were born. Throughout the picture, each’s motivation comes from either trying to live up to or live down their dad’s memory, and the reputations that precede each of them both open doors and limit choices.

Naming the movie The Departed as well as having an early mention and a number of allusions throughout to James Joyce is, I think, deliberate. The characters are mostly Irish, so there’s a natural inclination in that direction I suppose, but to me it calls to mind “The Dead” from Joyce’s Dubliners. In it, the death of the young, sensitive Michael Furey years ago hangs over the joyful atmosphere and on the mind of the narrator’s wife, thwarting his desires. But when Gretta says, “I think that he died for me,” we understand her melancholy and the plain fact that her heart is and always will be completely unreachable to her husband. It isn’t the death, but the suffering that precedes it that is tragic, and a tender heart will ache for the tortured soul that can never now be soothed. The pain is taken by those left behind, connecting us forever with the departed.

The lives and deaths of those who came before inform and drive The Departed, and we’re given no balm or trite conclusion after the events of the film. Our heart stays with Billy, because there’s nothing to give it rest. We presume Madolyn will move on and go forth, but there is no true and final closure beyond whatever revenge she sought or enacted. The child she carries, regardless of whether Billy or Colin fathered it, will be born also into a world where the weight of history falls upon all the living and the dead.