Explanation of Endings in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

The new Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 features many gameplay changes. There is a dialogue window, and almost all missions can be completed in several different ways. This naturally raised questions about the ending, which many found unsatisfactory and left a fair amount of questions. In this guide, we will discuss how many endings the game has and what actually happens in the main storyline.

Warning: this material contains many spoilers!

So, after a failed operation, the CIA team, which includes Troy Marshall, Frank Woods, Jane Harrow, and the main character — operative William Calderon — Case, is suspended. The brave spies decide to start their own investigation and stumble upon a trail of a new military group called «Pantheon». The villains remain faceless for a long time and only interfere with the heroes' plans, but the further they go, the clearer it becomes that «Pantheon» has a contact in the CIA.

The traitor turns out to be Jane Harrow, who not only provided the group with information but also acted as one of its leaders. It turns out that in her childhood, Jane's parents, who were also CIA agents, were killed by one of their own, leading her to seek information about the incident for a long time for revenge. An unknown person placed a floppy disk in her office, from which Jane learned that the perpetrator of the murder was Russell Adler — her mentor and another member of the heroes' team.

Jane devises a cunning plan in which «Pantheon» was supposed to seize old CIA biological weapons — «Cradle». The gas caused severe hallucinations but was also a kind of super-soldier serum. The first test subject many years ago was our main character, who was called «Case-1» in the laboratory. It should be noted here that it seems Case was a volunteer and not a prisoner (although there is no exact confirmation), but the experiment went out of control and the program was shut down.

Harrow decided to modify the «Cradle» to make it more deadly, and then spread the gas from the CIA base, blame the leadership for everything, take the place of the new head, and thus lead «Pantheon» to victory and full control over the USA.

In the finale, Case manages to catch up with the fleeing Jane and infect her with the «Cradle» in a sinking helicopter. After this, he also inhales the gas, loses control over himself, and brutally kills the former curator with his bare hands, after which he drowns along with her. It is not entirely clear if the ending is exactly like this, as we are not directly told about Harrow and Case's deaths and the bodies are not shown, but this is where the story campaign ends. In the final scene, an unknown man is shown hacking into the CIA head's computer.

Frank Woods and Russell Adler have already appeared in other games, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 serves as an almost direct sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. This is an important nuance to know before moving forward.

It is not entirely clear who was shown to us in the finale, but among the available operatives in the multiplayer game, gamers found a similar portrait — Jackson Kane. The man vaguely resembles the one who flashed in the cutscene, and the internet quickly picked up the theory. However, in reality, everything is not so obvious.

As I already mentioned, the plot of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War plays a significant role. There, we played as Bell — an operative whose appearance, like Case's, was hidden throughout the game. Moreover, he also did not speak, and the only stats the player could choose were gender and habits, which were perks. At the same time, in some cutscenes, it was clear that Bell was intended to be a man. His mind was brainwashed, and in the end, Adler even killed the main character.

Now let's carefully analyze the plot of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Ten years have passed, and before the mission in the laboratory, we are directly told that Adler once worked on the experiment in that very laboratory. That is, Adler was not only aware of the «Cradle» but also actively participated in its development.

Every time Case heard keywords about the «Cradle» or «Pantheon», he experienced mental disturbances. His appearance was constantly hidden, just like Bell's, but in the very first cutscene, when the CIA head reprimands Woods and Harrow, all the culprits of the failure are sitting in the room. In the end, the heroes are suspended, and the last person to leave is someone who looks very much like the man from the final frames. If Case was one of the main figures in Harrow's team, it would be strange for him to be absent from the briefing. It turns out that at the end of the game, we see not some «Pantheon» operative, but Case himself.

According to this theory, Case is either the main traitor who has been a key agent of the «Pantheon« all this time, or he defected to them after the finale. Additionally, it can be assumed that Case and Bell are the same person who, after the events of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, underwent even more experiments under Adler's leadership. The influence of the latter on the main character is indicated by the scene with the Russian doctor. When Case interrogates the man next to the plane turbine, Adler gives the order to get rid of the witness, which the protagonist unquestioningly follows. The scientist is saved by Adler's former comrade, who — surprise! — is an ordinary soldier and greatly dislikes Russell's methods.

Now let's return to Harrow and her visions from the past. Initially, we see that her parents were killed by Adler, but under Woods' influence, she begins to doubt her memories. It should be understood here that the woman is under the influence of a dangerous serum (which was also found by Adler), so she could easily succumb to Woods' opinion, who until the end considered the former comrade a friend, although Marshall, on the contrary, never fully trusted Adler.

An interesting picture emerges in which the main villain may not ultimately be Harrow or Case, but Adler himself. Russell, as a gray cardinal, directed events in a way that suited only him, had almost complete control over the only successful subject after the «Cradle», and manipulated Jane. This seems unrealistic, but considering Adler's ambiguous role in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, as well as the overall spy tone of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, where no one can be trusted, why not. The fact that Case does not remember Adler is explained in the laboratory, where it is clearly stated that the main character's psyche and memories were seriously tampered with.

There remain only two questions that the authors do not answer: what is the female voice in Case's head, and who actually planted the floppy disk for Harrow. The first is ambiguous, but on the mission in Iraq, we can find audio recordings talking about an experiment on twins or relatives who did not want to be separated. In the laboratory, the voice always says that the experiments were conducted on them and Case in the plural form. What if there was a conditional «Case-2» — the main character's sister. There could be several explanations here.

The floppy disk is more complicated. It could have been planted by Case himself, if we adhere to the theory that he was always a double agent, or Adler himself, to force Harrow to act and initiate the whole conflict. Or it could have been someone else — an unknown person.

In the end, it can be unequivocally said that the plot in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is much deeper than it seems at first glance. Although there is only one ending in the game, it leaves a lot of hooks that can be picked up in future expansions, add-ons, and a full-fledged sequel. We wouldn't be surprised if in the next part, Adler does become the antagonist, thus completing his path as a secret enemy spanning three games.