How They Died & Why It Was So Brutal

Warning: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for The Decameron.

In one of The Decameron‘s first main character deaths, Dioneo dies alongside all of Ruggiero’s crew and the sex workers they brought into the villa, raising the question of what exactly happened to them. The nobles and their servants flee to the Villa Santa to escape the death all around them. Their desires to drink, have sex, and party medieval-style are quickly squashed when they soon find their walls aren’t impenetrable. By the end of eight episodes, half of The Decameron‘s main characters are dead. All the deaths vary in how graphic they are, their causes, and their emotional impacts.

One of the most shocking deaths in The Decameron is revealed in episode 5, “Switcheroo,” when the nobles decide to take the villa back from Ruggiero and his crew, only to find everyone except Ruggiero and Neifile dead. The reason this slew of deaths is so memorable is because of how fast it happened and the fact that Dioneo died alongside them. Because these deaths happened offscreen, it’s easy to wonder exactly how they died. Even the main characters must guess the cause rather than knowing for sure.

Dioneo And Ruggiero’s Crew Died From The Plague

There Are Multiple Possible Causes Of The Plague Outbreak

When they find the dead bodies, the characters decide they must have died from the pestilence, aka the Black Plague. However, Stratilia confirms that the deaths are strange because the plague worked faster than she’d ever seen. Even if they didn’t verify this, it still is the likeliest answer based on the knowledge that the series is set during the Black Death. However, the exact source of the plague that killed them in The Decameron is up for debate. The most likely explanation seems to be that Ruggiero and his crew brought it into the villa when they took over.

However, there are several other possible answers. Pampinea and Misia could have brought in the pestilence since they decided not to mention the plague outbreak at their house in the first episode. The sex workers that Ruggiero’s crew hired could have been the cause since they hadn’t quarantined before coming. It’s also possible that the plague struck the group because Sirisco brought Leonardo’s head to Ruggiero to prove that he was dead. After all, Leonardo’s death doesn’t guarantee that the fleas that bit him will leave his body. Ultimately, deciding what’s true is at the viewer’s discretion.

Why Ruggiero’s Crew Didn’t Show Signs Of The Plague

Even After Their Deaths, Ruggiero’s Crew Didn’t Have Buboes

The most perplexing aspect of these deaths in the Netflix TV show is that the Black Plague moved faster than usual, and none of Ruggiero’s crew showed any signs of the plague. Everybody else in the series who dies of the plague has buboes on their body, looks ill, and shows other symptoms before their deaths. Ruggiero’s crew, Dioneo, and the sex workers don’t show any signs of having the plague before or after their deaths.

There are a couple of possible explanations for the lack of symptoms in these characters in The Decameron. Firstly, their buboes could be on clothed areas of their bodies. This guess is relatively weak because it seems unlikely every person would get the main symptom in a non-visible area. Secondly, they could have been killed by something else. Technically, there’s no proof the Plague killed everyone. They could have died from something like poison, though that opens up a whole slew of questions. The last possibility is that they died from pneumonic plague, not bubonic plague.

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While bubonic plague and its characteristic buboes were the most common form of the Black Death, there are two other forms of plague – septicemic plague and pneumonic plague. Septicemic plague often still includes buboes, but not always. However, this rare form of plague cannot pass from person to person, passing in the same way as the bubonic plague. Pneumonic plague, on the other hand, doesn’t include buboes, is highly contagious, and kills people the fastest out of all the forms of plague. Because nearly every person in the villa dies quickly without showing symptoms, pneumonic plague seems the most likely answer.

Was The Black Plague Really That Contagious?

The Black Plague Killed Around Half Of The European Population

Technically speaking, the only communicable form of the plague is pneumonic plague, which can be transmitted from person to person through the air by coughing or sneezing within six feet. If untreated, this form of plague can be fatal within 18 to 24 hours. However, the bubonic plague being non-communicable didn’t stop it from spreading fast and far during the Black Death. According to The Decameron Web, the plague was so bad in Florence that it killed an estimated three out of every five people. In Pisa, seven-tenths of the population died; in Venice, three-quarters died.

On a larger scale, the plague could have killed as much as half the population in Europe, though the exact number is unknown. The difference in severity from place to place is due to each location’s population density, living conditions, and proximity to trade routes. According to American Scientist, the plague killed 72 to 100 percent of people who contracted it because modern antibiotic treatments didn’t exist. Additionally, the plague killed people within days of developing the first symptoms.

Based on this information, the plague would only have killed the characters in The Decameron that fast if it was pneumonic, but the bubonic form indeed could have infected all the people in the Villa Santa within that time period if they were in close contact.

Sources:The Decameron Web and American Scientist

The Decameron (2024)

Cast

Amar Chadha-Patel , Lelia Farzad , Lou Gala , Karan Gill , Tony Hale , Saoirse-Monica Jackson , Zosia Mamet , Douggie McMeekin

Release Date

July 25, 2024

Seasons

1

Creator(s)

Kathleen Jordan