SPOILER WARNING: This story contains spoilers from “HDP,” Episode 6, Season 1 of “Pluribus,” now streaming on Apple TV.
Set amid the backdrop of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the world of Carol Sturka (Rhea Seahorn) has forever changed in Apple TV’s “Pluribus.” After the sudden loss of her partner, Helen (Miriam Shor) and the realization that everyone around her has been infected with a seemingly incurable extraterrestrial virus, Carol finds herself in a crossfire of grappling with her grief while simultaneously trying to figure out how to save the world from happiness. As one of only 13 individuals who are immune from the virus, Carol is introduced to others like her who have been spared from The Joining, only to find that those who have not been infected want nothing to do with her plan to find a cure.
In Episode 2, audiences are introduced to Koumba Diabaté (Samba Schutte), who whisks the other immune people into Air Force One — which he has commandeered — where his desire for opulence and his extravagant personality take center stage. In Episode 6, titled “HDP,” we learn that Koumba has been staying in Las Vegas, living out his wildest fantasies with those in The Joining. When Carol arrives to reveal that the infected have been harvesting and eating human carcasses as protein to survive, the two find themselves at odds in how they are approaching humanity’s demise, all while being monitored from afar.
Schutte spoke with Variety about Koumba and Carol’s dynamic, Koumba’s inner loneliness — and what he thinks The Joining really think about his character.
What were some of your early conversations with “Pluribus” creator Vince Gilligan leading up to Episode 6?
Episode 6 was the first episode I filmed. What I loved about was that it informed me immediately who this guy is, and what he wants. When I talked to Vince, he was very clear that this guy is not a sleaze bag. He’s a kid in a candy store who’s just got access to a genie in a bottle who will give him everything he wants. He did not come from a life of opulence, and then suddenly the world has changed. So of course, he’s going to live it up and be James Bond and have Lamborghinis and self-portraits of himself everywhere.
There’s a scene in the beginning of the episode where Koumba and some of those who’ve been infected are playing a game of poker, and because they’re infected only to spread happiness, he asks them to “play along” to replicate experiencing anger. How do those infected view him, do you think, since he’s one of only 13 people who hasn’t become a member of The Joining?
Up to this point, we’ve seen him embrace this new world and enjoy seeing that these others are so happy and live in harmony. There’s a side of him who’s fascinated by them. He’s fascinated by Zosia [Karolina Wydra], and that she’s all about love and unity and harmony. He sees them as angels on earth who will give him everything he wants. But really, it’s asking who is using who.
At the end of the day, the others are very clear that they want to turn the original humans without their consent because they will understand once they join. To them, he’s one of the most fascinating people in the universe, because he’s immune to their virus, and at the same time, they see him with love — like, they love Carol unconditionally. They want him to have everything he wants until they can find a way to turn him. There’s a side of him who is very much like, “Yeah, I know what your end game is, so I’m just going to live it up as much as I can while finding a way to keep my individuality too.”
Koumba is essentially the only person who cares about Carol, and continuously tries to make her feel comfortable after she’s been excluded by the others. Does he care for her because he sees pieces of himself inside of her internal loneliness and grief?
What he finds in common with Carol is that loneliness. Both of them don’t have family members. He’s surrounded by supermodels, but he doesn’t have anyone in his life. He sees that she’s lonely, and he’s asking the others [that are not infected] to help her. He cares about her that way, because when she comes to town, everyone just abandons him. He realizes that she’s a lonely person, and he really wants her to not be, and to help give her answers that she needs so she can move on and accept this world. They both just handle it differently.
There’s almost like a sibling dynamic between the two, especially during the moment where they’re sitting at the table eating breakfast and he copies making her avocado egg sandwich.
It was so fun to agitate Rhea, because all her notes when we were acting that scene just said, “I want to strangle you.” So yes, it’s very much sibling energy!
Koumba reveals to Carol that unless they consent to having their stem cells extracted from their body, The Joining will not be allowed to change them. Carol makes it clear that she will never consent to it, and it’s revealed that Kouma also didn’t consent to the procedure.
He has been doing his own research about what are the rules of the game, and how long does he have left. He’s learned the rules, and he’s so excited to hear that they can’t turn him — because that means he can keep living his wildest dreams. That’s why he’s so excited to find out that they get to enjoy this world, because they will never become one of them without consent.
We don’t get to see who Koumba was before The Joining began. What would you imagine his upbringing was like?
When I first got the audition, his name was Mr. Koumba. In my culture, Koumba is a woman’s name, but the only way you get a woman’s name is if you take your mother’s name after she’s passed away during childbirth. I thought that was a really interesting detail, and I told that to Vince and he had no idea. We kept that detail, and it really informed who he is. He does not have family members. He came from a place of poverty, did not have opulence. Vince said he did not have a good life before the world changed, and experienced discrimination and racism. Because of this new change in the world, he can just live out his greatest fantasies. He’s seen how rich people act, and there’s that side of him that has this childlike eagerness and curiosity to experience things in life.
In the final moments of Episode 6, Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) begins his journey to find Carol in Albuquerque. Since Koumba and Manousos are both on opposite ends on how they are coping with The Joining, how do you think they will get along when they inevitably meet?
I love Vesga so much, and we keep talking about these two very contrasting guys meeting! Manousos wants to change the world, and save it by killing everybody. Carol wants to save the world by scientifically reversing it, and Koumba wants to save it by stopping people from starving to death and living in harmony. I think that aspect of it is gonna be so fun. Koumba will be like “Relax, here’s a martini! Let’s go to Hawaii!” to Manousos when they meet.
This interview has been edited and condensed.