‘The Decameron’s Zosia Mamet, Saoirse Monica-Jackson & More Break Down the Show’s Big Twists

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Decameron, Season 1.]

Netflix‘s new raunchy dramedy, The Decameron whisks viewers away to the 14th-century Italian countryside for a retreat like no other as nobles attempt to avoid the plague by killing their time at a lavish villa.

But as a collection of eclectic individuals inhabit the home, the villa’s head is nowhere to be found, having died of the disease himself, leaving bride-to-be Pampinea (Zosia Mamet), joined by her handmaiden Misia (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), they’re left to deal with the villa’s steward, Sirisco (Tony Hale) who is sucked into Pampinea’s orbit.

Other guests at the villa include Licisca (Tanya Reynolds), who poses as her employer Filomena (Jessica Plummer) after pushing her off a bridge into water. When the real Filomena arrives, she’s believed to be a servant and treated as such, suddenly realizing how poorly she’d treated Licisca. In other words, it’s a mad world these characters are living in making room for plenty of laugh-out-loud comedy and insane moments.

Below, the cast and series creator Kathleen Jordan delve into some of the biggest plot points, share hopes for Season 2, and much more. Beware of spoilers ahead.

Sirisco Under Pampinea’s Spell

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When it comes to the villa’s steward, Sirisco, he isn’t initially forthcoming to Pampinea about his master’s current status, but once he does inform her, their bond changes and he finds himself swept up in a twisted affair. When Pampinea claims she’s pregnant, she tells the villa’s inhabitants that the baby belongs to her betrothed, which sends Sirisco spiraling. Tony Hale is no stranger to such roles as he’ll admit, “Most of the characters you’ve seen, you’d look at Veep or Buster from Arrested [Development] in comedy. They’re either stuck in an emasculated beaten-down place. Sirisco, yes, he starts off as this loyal steward of the villa, but then he’s forced into a situation where he really becomes aware of his own courage [and] strength,” the actor tells TV Insider.

“He makes huge mistakes, retreats, comes back, and so to have this kind of full arc of a character is awesome,” he continues. “I’ve loved my other work, but just to play all those different flavors was a real gift.” Part of that gift was playing opposite Mamet, “Zosia just makes me laugh in general and [she’s] just coming in with this kind of valley girl dialect in contrast with someone like Tanya Reynolds from the UK and Saoirse from Derry. It made for this meta experience [after] we all just went through a worldwide pandemic and the uniqueness of it was really fun.”

Mamet will admit her character can be a bit much as Pampinea grapples with being an older woman in a noble society, diminishing her marital prospects. “I think her insecurity really blinds her to anything that’s going on in her immediate vicinity. But it was interesting. I’ve never really gotten to play a character who I feel is just so fully turned up to 11. She reminded me a bit of those charts that you have in a preschool to help kids learn about different emotions. But it was like she was all of them at all times.”

The biggest challenge to approaching such an over-the-top character Mamet reveals is to “keep her grounded” and ultimately, that “was the thing that really drew me to play that part. She very easily could have become just a caricature of herself.”

Why Did Misia Kill Pampinea?

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Towards the end of the season, Misia guides her employer to the basement and tells her to hide in a barrel after she’s essentially been ostracized by the villa’s fellow inhabitants for having lied about being pregnant and even persuading Misia to kill for this fictional child. While Misia had been loyal up until this moment, even helping Pampinea try to escape, she makes the shocking decision to lock the woman into the barrel and light it on fire. “Misia goes on a downward spiral after she finds out Pampinea’s not really pregnant,” Jackson shares. “I think that cuts Misia so deep. It’s a chance for her to have love and she will fully love that child. And Misia just believes her. To lie about something as pure [as that], it just sends Misia on a mental breakdown. And so much has happened previous to that. She’s convinced her to murder somebody in the name of keeping this child safe. And then it’s just this rapid violent decline of mental health.”

When Misia has what Jackson calls a “eureka moment,” it’s the idea that Misia and Pampinea can’t both survive, “I will never be able to walk away from it,” Jackson says of her character. “She gave [Pampinea] multiple opportunities to go. I think Misia feels like if she doesn’t murder Pampinea, somebody else will. And I think her loyalty even takes her to that place,” she concludes. By killing Pampinea, it also frees Misia from being swayed by her, giving the girl a chance to lead her own life.

Licisca and Filomena’s Twisted Sisterhood

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As the season plays out, Licisca learns that Filomena’s father was her own, making them sisters. When it came to incorporating that layer, Plummer shares that at the start of their journey in the show, “Filomena definitely didn’t treat Licisca as her sister. She loved and depended on her like a sister, but I don’t think she necessarily recognized it as that. I think in Filomena’s mind. it’s like, ‘Well, this is just my servant and I need her because that’s her job.’ But definitely deep down did love her as a sister from the beginning. That’s how I played it.”

That sisterly bond is also what kept Licisca from running away to freedom when the villa was being pillaged in the finale. “She sees the door, she sees the freedom, but then I think she realizes she has nothing. Filomena, for all of her faults and all of their issues, is literally the only person that Licisca has,” Reynolds shares. “She’s kind of all she knows. And I think that’s sisterly at the core of it. They are sisters. She realizes [life will be] empty because there [would be] no one to share it with.”

What’s on the Horizon for a Possible Season 2?

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“Anything is possible,” Jordan says of the show’s potential future. “I love the characters on the show. I also think that there is a version in the future that’s more of an anthology where we take the players in a repertory theater and bring them to 16th-century France for a little touch of syphilis. We can never run out of diseases.”

Season 1 did end on an open-ended note with the remaining inhabitants of the villa living life on the road after it was burned down and taken over. But will they last long in a world that is being overtaken by the plague? It’s a question that would certainly impact the burgeoning relationship between Misia and Filomena. “Misia was the starting point of Filomena discovering her sexual identity,” Plummer points out. “Whether Misia is the love of her life or not, I’m not sure. I do think there were moments where Filomena was definitely jealous of the love that Misia was still carrying for her ex. So maybe she needs to mourn that a bit first.”

If there is a future for their characters, Plummer concludes, “Between all of the surviving characters there’s an unbreakable bond that would keep them in each other’s lives forever, regardless of what that looks like.”

The Decameron, streaming, Netflix