Aleksander Andrieko is a young Romanian boy who was abducted and fated to be murdered. Philip Pearson fabricated a messenger and mission to save the boy and the rest of the Core Traveler Team went along with it, none the wiser.
Biography[]
Grant MacLaren and his team found Aleksander. The Director tried to inform them this was an unsanctioned mission at the premises of Aleksander's phony foster parents, using the boy as a messenger, but they ended up saving the boy and killing the couple, preventing them from abducting and killing a subsequent three more children. MacLaren asked the boy to keep his team a secret, and Aleksander complied. (S1E03: Aleksander)
Later it's revealed that his mother has died of cancer, and since, he has been bounced from care home to care home, the system failing him. He had to survive on his own, but the trauma turned out to be too much and the Director foresaw him making some bad choices. Philip was then employed to 'take care' of the mess he created, but was so devastated at how he made things worse by doing what he thought was right, that he relapses, overdoses, and almost dies.
Trevor found Philip passed out on the floor of Ops, having to perform CPR while he waits for Marcy. Carly and Marcy look after him and keep him company, while Trevor and MacLaren deal with the mission. They find Aleksander, the horrible conditions he's in and how he survived. They took him from the foster home and try to get him some food at a diner because he's hungry. They learn, however, that the boy has been banned from the diner because he had been caught trying to steal food before. McLaren gets angry, saying the manager doesn't know what true hunger feels like and how it affects the brain. They leave and Aleksander says he can show them where to get food.
MacLaren tells Trevor to stay behind with the car, deciding he will take the burden of killing the boy. Aleksander says they need to check the traps and it's revealed that he sets traps to survive, like his mother had taught him. They find a coyote has been caught in a trap, and Aleksander is openly upset. MacLaren puts it out of its misery. They carry on looking at the other traps, finding a rabbit. He skins and cooks the rabbit, before sitting beside MacLaren on a log by the fire and eating it while MacLaren talks to him. Aleksander then wants to bury the animal, wrapping it up in his coat, so they do so and hold a small funeral. Aleksander says a prayer and marks the grave. MacLaren is getting ready to shoot him, when the boy becomes a Messenger and stops him. The time they spent together was enough to put him back on the right path. "He spent a few hours with a decent man; and that was enough," as Philip says. He's then placed with a foster family and Philip can rest easy again. (S3E03: Protocol 3)
Trivia[]
- Aleksander's surname is alternatively spelled Andreiko in his initial search image and Philip's wall scribbles at Ops. Subtitles and further props consistently use Andrieko.
- The file photos of Aleksander's adoption on Philip's monitor show specific details on his birth and new parents. However, he has a listed birth year of 1997, which should put him at around 20-21 years old (and no longer a child) by the time the episode is set. As Aleksander is evidently still a child in his appearances, this is either a continuity error production-wise, or the result of lousy record-keeping in-universe.