‘Pluribus’ star Samba Schutte on What Koumba Wants, Carol’s Discovery

SPOILER WARNING: This story contains spoilers from “HDP,” Episode 6, Season 1 of “Pluribus,” streaming now on Apple TV.

Set against the backdrop of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Carol Sturka’s (Rhea Seahorn) world is 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 alien virus, Carol finds herself in the crossfire as she struggles with her grief while simultaneously trying to figure out how to save the world of happiness. As one of only 13 individuals immune to the virus, Carol is introduced to others like her who were spared from The Joining, but discovers that those who are not infected want nothing to do with her plan to find a cure.

In episode 2, the audience is introduced to Koumba Diabaté (Samba Schutte), who takes the other immune people to 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 and living out his wildest fantasies with those in The Joining. When Carol arrives to reveal that the infected have been harvesting human carcasses and eating them as protein to survive, the two disagree about how they are approaching humanity’s demise while being followed from a distance.

Schutte has spoken Variety about Koumba and Carol’s dynamic, Koumba’s inner loneliness – and what he thinks The Joining really thinks about his character.

What were some of your first conversations with “Pluribus” creator Vince Gilligan leading up to Episode 6?

Episode 6 was the first episode I filmed. What I liked was that it immediately told me who this man 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 just has access to a genie in a bottle that will give him everything he wants. He didn’t come from a life of luxury, and then suddenly the world changed. So of course he’s going to make it happen and be James Bond and have Lamborghinis and self-portraits of himself everywhere.

There’s a scene early in the episode where Koumba and some of those whhave been infected play a game of poker, and since they are only infected to spread happiness, he asks them to “play along” to simulate experiencing anger. How do you think the infected view him, since he is one of them only 13 people who have not become members of The Joining?

So far we have seen him embrace this new world and enjoy the fact that these others are so happy and living in harmony. There’s a side of him that’s fascinated by it. He is fascinated by Zosia [Karolina Wydra]and that she is all about love, unity and harmony. He sees them as angels on earth who will give him everything he wants. But really it makes you wonder who’s using who.

Ultimately, the others are very clear that they want to change the original people without their consent, because they will understand once they join. To them, he is one of the most fascinating people in the universe, because he is immune to their virus, and at the same time they see him with love, as if they love Carol unconditionally. They want him to have everything he wants until they can find a way to change him. There’s a side of him that’s very much like, “Yes, I know what your endgame is, so I’m just going to live up to it as much as I can while finding a way to maintain my individuality as well.”

Koumba is essentially the only person who cares about Carol, constantly trying to make her feel comfortable after she is left out by the others. Does he care about her because he sees pieces of himself in her inner loneliness and sadness?

What he has in common with Carol is that loneliness. Both have no relatives. He is surrounded by supermodels, but he has no one in his life. He sees that she is lonely, and he asks 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 is a lonely person, and he really wants her not to be, and to help give her the answers she needs so she can move on and accept this world. They both just deal with it differently.

There’s almost a brother-sister dynamic between the two, especially at the moment when they’re sitting at the table having breakfast and he copies the making of her avocado egg sandwich.

It was so fun to turn Rhea on because all her notes when we did that scene just said, ‘I want strangle You.” So yeah, it’s very much brother-sister energy!

Koumba reveals to Carol that unless they agree to have their stem cells removed from their bodies, The Joining are not allowed to alter them. Carol makes it clear that she will never agree to it, and it is revealed that Kouma did not agree to the procedure either.

He has done his own research into what the rules of the game are and how long he has left. He’s learned the rules and is so excited to hear that they can’t change him because that means he can continue living his wildest dreams. That’s why he’s so excited to find out that they can enjoy this world, because they’ll never become one of them without permission.

We don’t get to see who Koumba was before The Joining started. What would you imagine his upbringing was like?

When I first got an 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 dies during childbirth. I thought that was a very interesting detail, and I mentioned it to Vince, but he had no idea. We kept that detail and it really defines who he is. He has no relatives. He came from a place of poverty and had no wealth. Vince said he didn’t have a good life before the world changed, and he faced discrimination and racism. This new change in the world simply allows him to live out his greatest fantasies. He has seen how rich people behave, and there is a side of him that has a 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 at odds over how to handle The Joining, how do you think they’ll get along when they inevitably meet?

I love Vesga so much, and we can’t stop talking about these two very contrasting guys meeting! Manousos wants to change and save the world by killing everyone. Carol wants to save the world by scientifically reversing it, and Koumba wants to save it by preventing people from starving and living in harmony. I think that aspect of it is going to be so much fun. Koumba will say, “Relax, here’s a martini! Let’s go to Hawaii!” to Manousos when they meet.

This interview has been edited and condensed.