The finale to Modern Warfare Zombies could easily have been lost amongst the hype of Black Ops 6. Many had given up on the mode due to its different take on the Zombies formula and sparse updates, but ultimately, it was worth the wait.
I’m not just referring to the story, though. Most Story Missions have been relatively straightforward – engaging enough, but nothing to write home about. “Ascension” (cute) was the best by a mile. The boss fight also enters the conversation of the Top 10 Zombies bosses. As a solo player, it was tough. It required my full and undivided concentration, but it wasn’t unforgiving. I can easily envision a version of this boss fight where you fall and die instantly instead of teleporting back to safety. I’m very thankful that wasn’t the case.
After defeating the final boss, Ava Jansen successfully severs the tie between her and the entity, ending the outbreak in Urzikstan. Three months later, Ravenov phones Jansen in her hotel room. She’s staying in none other than Liberty Falls. Looking into her mother and Project Janus, documents are stretched across her bed as a shadowy figure watches her through a mirror. She then hears a voice call out to her, which Jansen believes is her mother. Before she can think, Jansen is pulled into the Dark Aether via a hand coming out of her mirror.
Modern Warfare Zombies’ story started reasonably distinct from the other parts of Dark Aether. Ravenov was a massive link to Cold War, but besides that and the mention of Strauss’ research, it felt like a modern chapter of Zombies. Much of the Cold War lay dusted in the past, rotting alongside the Requiem Heads. As we’ve inched closer to getting our hands on BO6, though, the events of the 1990s have become more relevant.
It links back to what I said last month: Treyarch didn’t write Black Ops 6 around Vanguard and MWZ; Treyarch wrote Vanguard and MWZ around Black Ops 6. This story has been prepared for a while and calculated for each marketing beat of Black Ops 6. Less than 48 hours after the reveal that Ava Jansen enters the Dark Aether in Liberty Falls, we’re getting a Liberty Falls intro cinematic. It is timed to perfection.
So, getting to the heart of the matter. Ava Jansen was pulled into the Dark Aether. What happens next? We don’t know. There’s no way to find out. There are hundreds of possibilities. And that’s a good thing; not knowing is part of the fun! The Zombies Chronicles timeline giving everyone answers on a plate was both a blessing and a curse. Zombies storytelling thrives on mystery, on coming up with half-thought-out theories that end up missing by miles. If we were years away from more Zombies, I may have been disappointed at the lack of answers, but thankfully, we’re only two months away from Black Ops 6. Let the chaos happen.
Considering the importance of Liberty Falls, it’s hard not to consider time travel. Could Jansen directly cause the outbreak in the town in 1991 after being spat out of the Dark Aether? It’s not impossible. Or maybe Jansen’s dimensional breach at Liberty Falls in the 2020s reverberated through time, causing an outbreak in the 1990s? We don’t have enough information to do anything but speculate at the moment.
However, we do know time works differently in the Dark Aether. The Requiem Strike Team rescued Maxis from Firebase Z as quickly as possible, but she still lost herself to the void. The Forsaken kindly noted that forty earth years equates to roughly four Dark Aether centuries.
The monkeys that appear in Die Maschine (November 13th, 1983) also suggest some time inconsistencies since they shouldn’t enter the Dark Aether until the Ural Mountains outbreak, which commenced on June 20th 1984.
So, while there’s no smoking gun that we’re about to see the introduction of time travel to the Dark Aether saga, I don’t think we can rule it out yet. I have no issues with it, as long as we aren’t treading the same ground we did in Aether. But for all we know, Ava could spend aeons in the Dark Aether without any time travel, like her mother before her.
The other big question is: Who reached out to Jansen?
The figure in the mirror watching her was almost certainly a “Shadowsmith” (more on them later), but I’m under the impression that a friendly arm reached out to grab her. If forces from the Dark Aether can spy on Jansen, it would make sense that Samantha Maxis could, too.
We can’t even be sure which “Mother” Jansen refers to. Her (Project Janus assisted) biological mother, Maxis, or surrogate Elizabeth Grey? The last we see of Grey is the infamous shot of the dead Requiem Heads in the opening cinematic for MWZ, but I remain adamant that there is more to that shot than meets the eye. Ava saw a purple-eyed Grey in one of her visions; maybe she had more friendly eyes on her than expected.
Before the entity’s defeat, it had some final words for Jansen: “Little sister… He is searching for you… The Shadowsmiths… Will… take you…”
My Aether-Pilled brain kicked into overdrive, so you can imagine how I felt moments later when I saw a hatted shadowy figure watching Jansen from her mirror.
It’s hard not to think of The Shadowman, one of my favourite characters from all of Zombies. He is a prime candidate for the leader of a group called the Shadowsmiths, but I think this is intentional misdirection – a good old red herring. Perhaps the knowledge of the Shadowman was discovered in the ruins of the Dark Aether and passed down to a new generation of tentacled ghouls? A cult inspired by the Apothicon’s teachings would be fun.
After calming myself down to a reasonable state, I thought Richtofen might have been hunting down Jansen, but after the latest Liberty Falls teasers, I’m not sure anymore. Dr Pericles Panos of Project Janus is concerned about the Director:
“Director Richtofen is slipping. If we fail, it will all be down to Richtofen and his hubris.”
Is he in the right mental state to track down Jansen across dimensions? He may have other fish to fry. We still don’t know what success means for Project Janus, so we can conclude if Richtofen is on the prowl once that is clearer.
I’d be remiss not to mention the addition of Element 115 rocks to the MWZ map (complete with original sound effects). It’s hard to tell if these are just winks to long-term fans or if their appearance has lore implications. The number of 115 references recently is certainly piling up.
I’m a big fan of the finale. It’s very open-ended and sets up even more mysteries for Black Ops 6. All the pieces are finally in place to deliver on the Dark Aether Saga’s massive potential.
With the Liberty Falls cinematic releasing tomorrow, there’s no escaping the undead. This kind of marketing and content flurry hasn’t been seen since the Black Ops 4 launch; it’s an exhilarating time to be a Zombies fan. The downside is I don’t have time to write and edit the full extent of my thoughts! I have more reflections on the MWZ ending and the mode itself, but those must wait. Who knows what Liberty Falls will hold? All it takes is one visit, and you’ll want to stay forever.