Mr. Sinister isn’t the primary antagonist of Marvel’s X-Men 97. (Image credit: Marvel Animation)

Full spoilers follow for X-Men 97 episodes one through seven.

The season one finale of X-Men 97 is fast approaching, so it’s high time that we learned which supervillain is really leading the charge to bring down Cyclops and company.

Until now, all signs have pointed towards an alliance between Mr. Sinister and Bolivar Trask, with the pair teaming up to create an upgraded Master Mold and Sentinel army to take on the X-Men. it turns out, though, that the duo are merely pawns in another villain’s game to thwart the group’s attempts to persuade humanity that they can co-exist alongside mutants.

So, who is the mystery mastermind? What are their ties to the show’s OZT riddle? And why should you be scared for the lives of your favorite X-Men? I’m about to dive into full spoiler territory for the Marvel Phase 5 TV show’s seventh episode, so this is your final spoiler warning: do not proceed past this point unless you’ve seen every single episode of X-Men 97, including its most recent entry ‘Bright Eyes’.

Who is Bastion, the new villain introduced in X-Men 97 episode 7?

Bastion has finally emerged from the shadows. (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney Plus)
As I mentioned above, fans of the hit Disney Plus series thought that Mr. Sinister and Bolivar Trask were the brains behind the X-Men’s possible downfall. The pair have failed in their individual efforts to destroy the super team in X-Men 97‘s first three episodes – something they also struggled to do multiple times in X-Men: The Animated Series, aka the 1990s Marvel TV show that X-Men 97 is a direct sequel to.

Not knowing when they’re beaten, the duo teamed up to lay waste to Genosha – the mutant-only nation – in episode five using an upgraded Master Mold and army of sentinels. Their devastating attack killed thousands of mutants, including Gambit and presumably Magneto. True, Sinister and Trask were unsuccessful in completely destroying mutant kind, but they dealt a huge blow to humanity’s superpowered cousins – some of whom, such as Rogue, are now seriously questioning whether humans and mutants can live peacefully side by side.

Things don’t look good for Magento, do they… (Image credit: Marvel Animation/Disney Plus)
However, Sinister and Trask aren’t the ones pulling the strings of this mutant hating plan. In the second half of episode seven, a shadowy figure emerges to finally take center stage as season one’s true big bad: Bastion.