Episode 1: Jasper begint als inpakker bij Tytgat Chocolat
Creators: name: Lenaerts, Filip
name: Bryssinck, Marc
Publisher: name: DARIAH-DE
Year: 2023
Subjects: Migration
Love
Family
Work

description: Abstract: 
Jasper has his first working day at Tytgat Chocolat and knows his coworkers. Andy, the accountant of the factory, informs Roman about a possible future bankruptcy of the company that could be solved with the automatization of the packing area. Tina, one of Jasper’s female colleagues, expresses her love to Jasper while they rehearse a song for the factory karaoke party. However, Tina and her mother start having problems with the immigration police.

Details:
The series starts with an interview with the press made to Roman, the executive boss of Tytgat Chocolat firm, in the hall of his factory. The scene suggests that there is a major event that has affected the company. In front of the watchful eyes of their workers with cognitive disabilities, who are in the same room as Roman, he tells the journalist that it is necessary to go back to the moment when Jasper Vloemans first arrived at the factory in order to explain what has happened. 
It is Jasper’s first day of work at Tytgat Chocolat, and he is about to leave his home with his bike. Behind him, Raoul, his father, holds the bike and insists on accompanying him to the work. Nikki, Jasper’s mother, encourages Raoul to leave him on his own. After a few minutes of discussion, Raoul frees the bike, and Jasper can go. During his journey, the bike breaks down. Jasper looks for a few seconds at his obsolete mobile, which he has in order to call his parents if he needs help. After that, he puts the device in his pocket and continues his way to the factory on foot, carrying his bicycle. Before Jasper arrives at the factory, he sees that there is an old wheelchair user woman who stares at him from a window of a house across the street. He waves at her, and she waves back. She is the mother of Roman and observes silently all that happens around her. When Jasper enters the factory, he looks at a TV that is in the hall. There, he sees photos of the packers. Suddenly, Roman shows up behind him and explains that the employees can upload photos on this TV as it is a shared space for them. After the conversation, Jasper goes to the bathroom in order to wash his hands before the guided tour of the factory that Roman is going to make for him. In the bathroom, Jasper knows Andy, the accountant of the factory and the nephew of Roman. Jasper asks Andy if he works in the packaging area, to which Andy responds with a laugh and says that he does not. Roman shows the factory to Jasper, and he introduces him to the chocolate flavour maker Katarina Dibrani, a woman from Kosovo. Then, Roman guides Jasper to the packaging area, where he meets his new coworkers. Tina, one of the employees and the daughter of Katarina, makes a joke about Jasper’s sweater, which has a naive bear printed on it. Jasper stays there and starts to work. In the beginning, he has some trouble with the steps of completing the process of packaging, and Tina approaches and helps him. She also starts singing a typical song from Kosovo that teaches to Jasper. Roman goes back to his office, where he has a meeting with his nephew Andy. He tells Roman that the factory’s economic situation is slowly but steadily worsening and that he foresees bankruptcy. Andy suggests that a way to avoid the crisis of the factory is to produce more and quicker, something that could be reached through an automatization of the packing area. This would involve the dismissal of the workers of this department, which Roman is unwilling to accept. 
It is lunch hour in the factory, and, on one side, the workers in the packaging area go to a dining room. Jasper sits next to some of his female coworkers. During lunch, they ask him if he has a girlfriend, and he strongly denies it: he does not want a girlfriend because he was heartbroken many times in the past. He prefers to have only female friends. On the other side, Roman goes to his home, which is in front of the factory. There, he has lunch with his mother and his wife Rachel, who tells Roman that Lode, his brother, is coming home. Roman gets a little nervous. Through the voiceover that states the thoughts of his mother, it can be assumed that there are unresolved personal issues between the two brothers and that Roman has a feeling of inferiority since Lode is a lawyer and went to the University. Lastly, Katarina goes out during lunchtime, and she encounters her brother. He tells her that the immigration police have been looking for her for months.
After the lunch hour, Katarina goes back to work. She tries to talk with Roman about her problem with the police, but he has to cut the conversation since his brother has already arrived at the factory. Lode, Roman and Archie, Roman’s uncle and Andy’s grandfather, meet. They sign some documents, and during the meeting, Archie shows interest in the automatization of the packaging process. In the packaging area, Cedrik, the department manager, counts the boxes of each worker and congratulates Jasper on his good results. However, Django, another employee, has a low number of boxes, and Cedrik tells him that this will reduce points in his record. Spijker, another of the workers, gets angry about the trait with Django and asks Cedrik not to put a low mark on him. They two start a discussion, but Jasper approaches Django’s workplace with several of his chocolate boxes and asks Cedrik to count them in the name of Django. This generates a collective respect for Jasper among the workers. Jasper feels self-realised on his first day of work. When he arrives at home, he asks his father for a new mobile phone with a camera: he wants to take pictures with his new friends. In addition, he asks his mother not to sew more animals on his sweaters.
Jasper seems to have adapted to his new routine, and he is now more integrated among his coworkers. Lode talks with his mother and tells her that he is going to stay in Vosselaar for a while since he has separated from his wife. Now he will need a new job there. One morning, Roman goes to the packaging area in order to take note of the songs that his employees want to sing at a karaoke party that the factory celebrates on the first Saturday of every month. Tina says that she wants to sing a love song with Jasper. Immediately, the coworkers start cheering. During the next few days, Tina and Jasper start to see each other to rehearse the song. One afternoon, Tina says to Jasper that she is in love with him, but he rejects her. He explains that he does not want to lose their friendship. After that, Tina gets sad and asks Jasper to go. When Jasper goes out of her home, a police officer enters and takes the fingerprints of Tina and Katarina. The next day at work, Tina does not speak to Jasper.
On Saturday night, Jasper arrives with his father at the karaoke party. Jasper is dressed up as the rest of his colleagues. Tina continues to avoid him, and all the workers sing their songs one after another until they are left. Roman calls them to the stage, and they both go, but Tina is upset, and she does not sign. Suddenly, she kisses Jasper in front of everyone. Nevertheless, the voiceover of Roman’s mother announces a tragic destiny for the love between Jasper and Tina.