For those who have finished the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 campaign, the fate of its main character William "Case" Calderon may be unclear.
The latest in Activision's Black Ops Call of Duty sub-franchise, thrusts players back into the world of international espionage, this time teaming up with iconic characters like Black Ops 6's Sergeant Frank Woods to stop a clandestine terrorist sect known as Pantheon from releasing a dangerous chemical weapon.
The primary avatar gamers see this story play out through is William "Case" Calderon, a mysterious new-ish member of Woods' Black Ops team whose past is shrouded in secrecy.
Breaking Down Case's Black Ops 6 Story
The Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 campaign leaves some questions unanswered regarding its protagonist, "Case."
Also known as William "Case" Calderon, this Black Ops agent is the primary vessel through which players see the story of Black Ops 6.
He is introduced as a member of Frank Woods' iconic Black Ops team of American military agents, working for the CIA in the 1990s.
They are put on a warpath towards a mysterious terrorist organization known as Pantheon early on in the game after essentially being disavowed by the CIA following a hostage rescue gone wrong.
This road toward Pantheon sees the team discovering a dangerous psycho-chemical weapon called Cradle that is supposedly being set up for a large-scale attack on the American public.
While, at first, it seems as though Case is just another man along for the mission. However, that changes quickly as it is revealed the mysterious Black Ops agent has a history with both Pantheon and Cradle.
During an infiltration into an American Black Site to recover information about Cradle, Case begins to hallucinate, pulling the curtain back on where he came from and what he was doing before he joined Woods' and co. at the CIA.
It turns out, that Case is a nickname the character received because he was "Case One" of Cradle testing, being experimented on to hopefully create an American super soldier by his CIA hander-turned-big bad of the game, Jane Harrow.
Long before the game's events, Case was imprisoned and used as a test subject at this Kentucky government facility. However, after a leak of the dangerous Cradle chemical agent, the entire project was shut down and its test subjects were thought to be disposed of.
This all culminates as Harrow turns on the Black Ops team, showing that she is a double agent working for Pantheon and providing CIA secrets to the organization from within.
During one final assault, where Pantheon sends everything it has got at the Black Ops squad in an attempt to break Harrow free of their clutches, Case is forced into a climactic showdown with the former CIA handler.
With the Black Ops team neutralized and Harrow seemingly free to escape she hops aboard a helicopter to go off and give the order to release Cradle upon Washington D.C.
Her plans however are foiled when Case climbs aboard her aircraft, bringing careening down into a nearby lake.
In the last glimpses of Case that gamers get, he is beating Harrow senseless after being exposed to a sample of the Cradle gas, seemingly activating the latent psycho-chemical flowing through his veins.
Case continues to beat on Harrow with the helicopter cabin filling with water as it sinks to its final resting place. However, before either Harrow or Case dies the camera cuts, with Case looking to have blacked out during the whole ordeal.
That is the last look the player gets of Case, leaving fans to wonder whether he is alive or dead.
Did Case Die in Black Ops 6?
Case's fate is left open-ended as Black Ops 6's story comes to an end.
As the helicopter he was trapped in with Jane Harrow descends to the bottom of the lake it landed in and the screen fades to black, fans can still hear the voice of fellow Black Ops agent Frank Marshall coming through Case's comms device.
This could mean that he is gripping to life when the campaign cuts away from him, potentially meaning that he somehow made it out of what was almost sure to be his very watery grave.
While that is technically the last time Case is seen properly in the campaign, some have speculated the game's final tease is actually a confirmation that the character is still alive and is now working for Pantheon (read more about Black Ops 6's ending twist here).
This final nugget for fans sees the story picking up several weeks after what looked to be Case's last stand, as the Black Ops team meets with CIA Director Daniel Livingstone.
He tells Frank Woods and his fellow agents their work is not done as Pantheon lives on and still has agents hidden within the CIA. This is paired with footage of a mysterious man sitting down at Livingstone's computer and going through his files.
Some have speculated that this could actually be Case, who is alive and well and, following his exposure to Cradle in the game's final mission, is now working for Pantheon as a mole in the CIA.
This is unconfirmed and could simply instead be a tease of the upcoming post-launch seasonal story set in the game's multiplayer modes. But if it is Case, then this may not have been the last fans have seen of the characters, and he could come back as the big bad in a potential follow-up somewhere down the line.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.
