Call of Duty players have been waiting some time for Alex Mason to become an Operator. Fan favorite Black Ops characters like Frank Woods were available at launch, while newer figures from the campaign like Park and Adler were also added to the lineup. Weaver and Hudson even came in the game’s other post-launch Seasons, ensuring that all but one of the series’ iconic CIA members was available to play as. Fortunately, Alex Mason is coming to Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War just in time, as he will debut inside Season 6.
While Call of Duty fans will soon see the Season counter resetting with the launch of Vanguard, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s ongoing story will be going out with a bang. As shown in the intro cinematic for the new Season, Mason has broken the brainwashing used on Adler, “fixing” the character just liked Hudson helped him in the original Black Ops. While fans will soon see him fighting Stitch alongside Adler, Mason’s troubled history makes him one of the most interesting characters in Call of Duty. For those unfamiliar with Alex Mason, his story before and after the events of Season 6 can be seen below.
Alex Mason’s Role In Black Ops
Alex Mason’s biggest role came in the form of his first appearance. The protagonist of 2010’s Call of Duty: Black Ops, the series’ first foray into the Cold War was full of twists. It is remembered fondly because of this, as it told a story that was much more complex than what was offered in the Call of Duty games that had released in the years prior. At the heart of that story was Alex Mason, a character who went through more hardships than many of the other protagonists in the series.
Mason grew up in Alaska and was taught to be a hunter from a young age. This allowed him to become a skilled marksman, with Mason following in the footsteps of his father and becoming a military man. After some time in the Marines, he joined the CIA-backed SOG division and became close with Frank Woods. Eventually, Mason and Woods are sent on a mission to kill Fidel Castro. They ended up killing a decoy instead, and the failed mission sees Mason captured. Castro then handed him over to Dragovich, the main villain of the first Black Ops game.
While Dragovich uses a series of Numbers to turn Alex Mason into a sleeper agent, the process is tampered with by a prisoner at the Gulag named Viktor Reznov. A heroic World War 2 soldier betrayed by his country, Reznov instead brainwashes Mason with a list of targets who had wronged him. After Mason escapes the prison, he hunts down these targets alongside Reznov. However, the twist is that Reznov was never by his side, as he died escaping the prison. Mason then realizes that he was brainwashed into doing someone’s bidding before going on to take down Dragovich.
Here, the second twist is revealed. As Mason strangles Dragovich, he mentions that the villain’s plan was to have Mason try to assassinate the president. Dragovich then replies “tried?,” indicating that Mason had already done the deed. The game ends with a photo of JFK on the day of his death, with haunting music playing as the camera zooms in on Mason in the crowd. Unfortunately, Treyarch has never properly answered whether Mason killed JFK. While the story would make for a unique game, it would also be controversial. As such, this will likely remain an unsolved mystery in the Black Ops series.
Alex Mason’s Role In Black Ops Cold War
Alex Mason is used as a supporting character in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. A direct sequel to the first Black Ops, and a prequel to Black Ops 2, the game’s story focuses mainly on Bell and Russel Adler. While it is a memorable twist on the brainwashing story that the first Black Ops told a decade prior, those hoping for more scenes with Alex Mason will surely be let down by his small role. Still, he is controlled in a few main missions, one of which sees him returning to a location from the original Black Ops. A neat touch also shows the Numbers appearing to the player, showing that Mason is still struggling with what was done to his mind in the first game.
Alex Mason’s Role In Black Ops 2
After Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s campaign, and the incoming fight with Stitch in Call of Duty: Warzone, Mason briefly retired from active duty. He also got married and had a son named David. However, when he learned that his old friend Frank Woods was captured, he went out of his way to rescue him. While he succeeded in doing so, he saw a starved and tortured Woods surrounded by the decomposing bodies of his comrades. Trapped in a container for weeks, Mason arrives just in time, and the two go on a mission to hunt down the man behind the deed.
Woods then lost control on a mission to take down Raul Menendez, the person who ordered his capture. This led to the death of Menendez’s sister Josefina, which enraged the drug lord and made him determined to get revenge on Woods. While Woods believed Menendez died with his sister, three years later, he got his revenge. He tricked Woods into killing Mason, with the villain then killing Hudson and crippling Woods. He then left Woods alive, taking everyone he loved away from him like Woods took Menendez’ sister.
However, due to the branching paths and player choices of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Mason can survive this encounter. If he does, players will see an extremely old Mason reunited with his son David in 2025, with the 92-year-old telling his son that he is proud of him. It is unclear where Mason was during this forty-year period, leaving Treyarch free to explore another part of the character’s life. Still, much like the assassination of JFK, this gap may never be touched on, as Treyarch has yet to say exactly which ending is canon.
Alex Mason’s Role In Black Ops 4
Finally, there is the weirdest part of the Black Ops timeline. While it is true that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 lacked a campaign, it featured several cutscenes and told an odd story focused on clones. These clones (called archetypes in-universe) were made by Savannah Mason, one of Alex Mason’s two granddaughters. Not only did she have an odd romantic relationship with a clone of Frank Woods, but she made copies of her father and grandfather. The clone of Alex Mason is then brainwashed by Woods into believing he was the one in the box where Woods was rescued in Black Ops 2.
Fans never learn why the Woods archetype was doing this to Alex Mason, though the story was seemingly meant to progress in Blackout. This never happened, and the final cutscene where a fight between the Mason sisters was teased never got explored. Given how strange this story is, and how divisive the fully futuristic Call of Duty games were, fans will likely never get answers on the Mason archetype. Still, the real Alex Mason likely died shortly after Black Ops 2, and the Call of Duty character’s life was as interesting as it gets.