DOI: 10.20375/0000-0011-496c-3
title: Episode 6: Jasper en Spijker komen in de problemen

description: Abstract: 
Jasper and Spijker continue the journey on their own, and Roman and Lode follow them. Rachel is in charge of welcoming the businessmen at the factory, and she explains to them the importance of the packing area for the factory activity. A Vosselaar journalist threatens Tytgat Chocolat with the release of information to the public that enhances the company’s image. Spijker and Jasper are driving to Kosovo, but Spijker starts to get sick because he has no insulin injections left. 

Details:
After the new reencounter with Django and Cedrik, Roman finds out that Spijker is the one who is bringing the truffle with himself inside his metal case of insulin injections, a fact that explains the loss and reconnection to the GPS signal. Suddenly, Roman receives a call from Cedrik’s phone that Spijker confiscated the previous day. At the other end of the line, Jasper tells him that they should not worry about them and that he needs to see Tina. After that, Jasper and Spijker decide to throw the phone into a water fountain on the street. During a few seconds, Lode gets a signal from the truffle again, and he proposes Roman follow Jasper and Spijker, considering the received signals of the moments in which Spijker has his insulin injection. Roman agrees with him, and they decide to return Cedrik and Django home with the station accompaniment staff. Since Roman is not going back to the factory, he asks Rachel to be in charge of the reception of Mr. Müller and his companions. Early in the morning, Andy goes to the factory, and once there, there is a journalist from the media saying that they have a scoop that will be published about the escape of five of his workers and the fraud related to the Golden Truffle contest. 

Jasper is dreaming that he is with Tina in a bowling alley. They are happy, and they kiss each other, but Tina starts to walk away. After that, Jasper wakes up. He is with Spijker in a car with two other people: an old woman and his son, who is driving. Jasper and Spijker have been picked up by hitchhiking. They passed the Yugoslavia frontier, and now they are going to Vukovar. After a while, when they are travelling, Spijker has to inject insulin, so Lode gets their location: heading for Belgrade. The man who drives arrives at his house in the countryside. He and his mother indicate the path through which Spijker and Jasper should go by foot to arrive at Vukovar, although they do not fully understand their language. Jasper and Spijker start to walk, but at midday, Spijker gets frustrated because he is very tired. Spijker expresses that he is not sure if they are on the right path and that he needs more insulin. At this point, Lode again gets the workers' signal and detects them near Vukovar. Jasper and Spijker are seated, having some rest, and Jasper tells his partner that he is his best friend. After that, he is going to kiss him on the cheek, but Spijker pushes him away and reproaches him that he does not want any “gay stuff”. Jasper says that he is not gay; he is only expressing his friendship and asks him why he always criticizes gays. Spijker explains that in his childhood, his uncle sexually abused him. After sharing with Jasper this intimate moment, he recovers strength, and both start his way again. Jasper’s parents are called to go to the factory. There, Rachel explains to them that his son has escaped again. After that, Rachel informs Andy that Roman is not arriving on time for the meeting with Mr. Müller. Andy gets angry, and he establishes that, in this case, he has to cancel the meeting. However, Rachel tells him that it is not necessary: Roman has put her in charge. 

Jasper and Spijker arrive at Vukovar, and they are thinking about how to continue on their way to Kosovo. At this moment, Spijker sees some Bayern Munich fans in a bar and wants to say hello to them since it is his favourite football team. Jasper does not like the idea because he does not want to lose any time, but Spijker promises him that it will be only a few minutes and that he will fill the water bottle in the bar, too. While Spijker goes to the bar, Jasper takes a little walk. He finds at a bus stop that there is a large poster with their faces in which he can read that they are being sought by the police. Jasper gets nervous and goes to the bar to warn Spijker. Both set off again by foot hitchhiking. Mr. Müller and his business partners arrive at the factory. There, they are welcomed in English by Andy and his grandfather, who inform them about the final Roman’s absence from the meeting. Mr. Müller does not like the idea, and the meeting starts off a bit tense. When they enter the factory, Rachel is waiting for them with some truffles that she offers them and starts talking in German to the German businessmen, a fact that seems to ease their initial dissatisfaction. Andy, who wants to control the rhythm of the meeting and the impression of the factory, is upset about Rachel’s initiative. During the visit, there is one health officer checking the hygiene of the facilities of the factory, and, at the end of the tour, Rachel shows the packaging area to the businessmen, something that Andy would have liked to have avoided. Rachel explains the story of Indra, Roman’s sister, and how this area is created in her honour. The businessmen agree that this is a beautiful initiative, although it raises several questions related to the process of production, which is slowed down as it is not automated by machines that achieve faster packing speed. 

Jasper and Spijker are picked up by two Serbian men in a car who are going to Vlasko, a destination closer to Kosovo. While they are on the road, one of the men starts singing a typical Serbian song in his language. Spijker tells Jasper to sing the song that Tina taught him. He does so, but it is an Albanian song. Immediately after, the two men ask him to shut up violently, and they start to shout that Kosovo does not exist, a fact that reflects their positioning in the past Kosovo War. After this tense situation, they continue his journey. Suddenly, on the radio news, there is a journalist alerting that there are two Belgian men wanted by the Police and that one of them has Down Syndrome. The two Serbian men realise that they are travelling with the two wanted men. They start laughing, and then they stray from their way to park between several abandoned buildings near the main road. Jasper and Spijker get nervous, and when the car is stopped, they start running away, but the two other men trap the two friends and ask them to give them all the money they have. They also take Spijker's metal case and see the golden truffle, but before they can save it, Spijker takes and ingests it. The two men start trying to make him vomit. While they are doing that, Jasper takes a knife that one of the men dropped during the struggle and stabs one of them. After that, he helps Spijker to get up, and they run to the car and start driving away while the other men are calling the police. This fact makes Lode and Roman have a permanent signal of the golden truffle, now in the Spijker's stomach. In addition, the two brothers receive a call from the journalist of Vosselaar saying that they will make public the scoop of a suspected fraud of Tytgat Chocolat and their workers fleeing to Kosovo. Roman insists that he should wait, as he will give the press a better scoop if they are patient. After the call, the journalist goes to Jasper’s house and informs Raoul and Nikki about the suspicions related to the escape of his son. He explains that it can be related to an Albanian mafia, which is false, but this scares the parents. After hearing that, Raoul starts preparing the suitcase, and he decides to take a flight to Albania. 

Spijker is driving the stolen car and needs a new insulin injection, but his case and the injections were broken in the previous fight. He starts to feel dizzy, and he and Jasper have a little accident when their car crashes into some rubbish bins. There are some kids playing in the zone, and they bring an adult with them, who informs the two friends that they should go to the next Hospital, which is in Kosovo, and that they will need the passport, which they have lost too. Spijker collapses and falls to the ground.