#panfilo

Lou Gala as Neifile and Karan Gill as Panfilo

10 years ago, hell maybe 5 years ago, the joke would have been that the Panfilo character was clearly gay and his dull witted pious wife didn’t know. His scheming would have been at her expense, he would have married her for her money and been hiding his own families financial fall. He would have been using her piousness against her to keep the marriage chaste while he went after other men. He probably would have died to save her learning the wickedness of his ways, or Ruggiero would have outed him maliciously.

But Panfilo just loves Neifile. He completely accepts her oddities, while still trying to protect her from they way they don’t totally mesh with the world around her. He pulls her out of her confession at the beginning when he sees someone sickly, but tells her she can pray for absolution the whole way. When she rejects his offer to save her from the well, he respects it, and then keeps watch over her all day, until stepping in to keep her from harming herself. He discourages her from telling the story of her salvation because he doesn’t want the other guests to make fun of her. He burns the cardinals toe with her because it’s clearly not healthy for her to have it.

His love is patient, his love is kind, it is not boastful and does not insist on its own way.

He never mocks her, he’s always happy to see her, he sneaks back into a castle full of nihilistic ruffians when he thinks she’s in danger and when he sees her having consensual, pleasant sex, he just leaves.

And then it turns out that Neifile knows his secrets and accepts him just as easily, and they have this pure, understanding love between them. A love so profound that the loss of her drives him first to madness and then to save all of his companions.

„Darling… I need your help. I can’t seem to die without you.“

The Decameron (2024) | Season 1, Episodes 6 and 8 Parallels | Lou Gala as Neifile and Karan Gill as Panfilo