Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘The Decameron’ presents a character study by putting ten people in quarantine as a pandemic rages outside. Set in the fourteenth century Florence, the story focuses on a group of nobles and their servants who take refuge in Villa Santa, trying to escape the pestilence that has killed more than half the population. One of the nobles to arrive at the villa is Pampinea, who is betrothed to the owner of the villa and can’t wait to meet her fiancé and get married. She is accompanied by her maid, Misia, whose loyalty to her knows no bounds. She is ready to do whatever it takes to keep her padrona happy, and while initially, this seems like a good quality, it soon becomes the noose around Misia’s neck. The only way to get out of it is to do something terrible. SPOILERS AHEAD
Misia was Trapped in a Toxic Relationship with Pampinea
It is one thing to be loyal to your boss and entirely different to be trapped in their machinations so hard that you can barely breathe. For Misia, working for Pampinea becomes hell with every day they spend in the villa. Like any other young woman of nobility, Pampinea had been insufferable with her demands and making Misia run for useless errands and whatnot. But while the demands usually stick to trivial things for others, Pampinea stretched them to murder.
By the end of the show, there is nothing Misia hasn’t done for Pampinea. She has supported her padrona in her lies and schemes. She helped Pampinea torture people while being emotionally manipulated herself. She killed a man and almost set a woman on fire because that’s what was asked of her. In all of this, all Pampinea gave her was a crippling self-doubt and a major existential crisis. Even though she called Misia her only friend and repeatedly confessed that she couldn’t do anything without her, she never really reciprocated the devotion for her.
Pampinea showed no care or consideration for Misia’s heartbreak and her deteriorating mental health. Despite Misia’s repeated pleas to leave the villa and go back to Firenze, Pampinea made no effort to find out why Misia didn’t want to stay in the place, which was their only chance to escape not-so-great life in Firenze. All Pampinea did was take and take and take from Misia, and in the end, the servant girl had to acknowledge that Pampinea would keep taking from her until she had sucked Misia dry.
Killing Pampinea was the Only Escape for Misia
Everyone hates their boss, especially if that boss is someone like Pampinea. They are also ready to leave the first chance they get, but things are complicated for Misia. Despite an abundance of reasons and the many chances she got, Misia just couldn’t let go of Pampinea. At first, it seemed she couldn’t do it because she thought Pampinea was the only one she had in the world. But then, she meets Filomena and falls for her. Luckily, Filomena didn’t take long to see that Pampinea had her claws deep in Misia, and she tried to get the poor girl out of that emotionally and psychologically abusive relationship.
But no matter how hard she tried, Filomena couldn’t get Pampinea out of Misia’s mind. She sees the true extent of the hold on her when everyone there forces Pampinea out of the villa, and Misia still supports her. Things get so bad that eventually, even Filomena has to accept that no one except herself can get Misia out of her situation. It is not that she doesn’t see what Pampinea is, but she is caught in a delusion where she thinks that things will get better and that while she might not show it, Pampinea does appreciate her.
This spell breaks in the final episode when Pampinea tells Misia she loves her and will never let her go. Hearing Pampinea say she will always keep Misia tied to her and they will live together forever, each other’s only companions till the end of days pulls Misia out of her delusions. Somehow, her padrona’s words paint such a jarring picture that Misia realizes the only way out for her will be when one of them dies. By now, she has already done so much for Pampinea that she can’t fathom what else she might have to do for her and still not be seen as a human being.
At this point, Misia knows that if she doesn’t leave Pampinea now, she will never do it, which means that she will have to kill herself eventually. The only other option is to kill Pampinea, so she tells her to hide in a barrel, bolts it shut, pours oil all over it, and sets it on fire, bidding farewell to Pampinea once and for all.
