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Villainous Organizations
The Hellfire Club
In General
A secret society of mutants that also fights for the protection and preservation of their race, the Hellfire Club is less discriminating in their tactics than the Underground. They dispatched the Frost Sisters with a proposal of an alliance with the Underground to take down the Hound program. Lorna's father was one of their Kings.
- Big Bad Ensemble: They serve as the main mutant antagonistic force.
The Inner Circle
In General
- Board to Death: All of the old members are killed by Reeva and the Cukoos in the Season 2 premiere for standing in the way of their plans.
- The Chessmaster: The Inner Circle is playing a careful long game in the war to save mutantkind. The Cuckoos are...less patient.
- Chess Motif: As in the comics, chess is a prominent aspect of their imagery. The Cuckoos even derisively remark on their usage of the chess metaphor.
- Deuteragonist: They have just as much focus, if not more than the Underground in Season 2, mixed with a little Villain Protagonist.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The old members don't agree to the Cuckoos' plan to tip off Sentinel Services to the location of an Underground safehouse, as it puts mutants at risk. That it placed the Strucker children, whom the Inner Circle wants for their own ends, in the crossfire exacerbated it further.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: While the Underground is pretty much powerless in Season 2, they accomplish all of their goals with only minor setbacks, even kickstarting the Mutant Revolution in the mid-season finale.
William
William
Portrayed by: Ray Campbell
A member of the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle.
- Defiant to the End: Shows no fear before being killed by Reeva and the Frosts.
- The Magic Touch: The exact nature of his powers is not explained, but he can turn objects into diamonds.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Only appears briefly in Season 1 and is killed off at the start of Season 2.
Reeva Payge
Reeva Payge
"This revolution's not gonna start itself."
Portrayed by: Grace Byers
"I am not a monster unless I need to be."
A high-ranking member of the Hellfire Club.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: In the comics, Reeva Payge is blonde instead of brunette.
- Race Lift: Also she was Caucasian in the comics while in the live adaption her actress is African American
- Ascended Extra: In the comics, Reeva Payge appeared only for a single issue of X-Men II Annual in 1994, as the White Queen during Shinobi Shaw's stint as Black King. In the series, she has a more prominent role.
- Bad Boss: If she deems somebody a threat to her plans, she is more than ready to execute said person, even if he or she happens to be a kid.
- Big Bad: For the second season, being the leader of the Hellfire Club with plans to annihilate both humans and opposing mutants.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Revealed to be in one with Benedict Ryan, feeding him with information in order to provoke a race war.
- Brown Note: Her mutant ability is a sonic scream that can manipulate the brain's neurochemistry. This disrupts coordination and, in Marcos's case, disables the victim's control of and immunity to their own powers.
- Composite Character: Averted. But initiaally seemed to be the case due to the Race Lift the character has undergone, she looks more like Indian Benazir Kaur, the Black Queen to Payge's White Queen in the comics. Though the flashback reveals Benazir Kaur is her best friend who died.
- Decapitation Strike: Orchestrates the collective assassination of the Mutant Underground leaders, and plans on doing the same with the Purifiers.
- The Dreaded: Everyone is wary of her, both foes and friends alike.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She dated a man who worked at a bank who she planned to rob. However she eventually develops feelings for him and is horrified when he's killed by Rebecca.
- Even Evil Has Standards: She's the most ruthless character in a show that's got a few of 'em, never hesitating to kill (or order the death of) anyone she sees as a threat to the plan, racking up an impressive body count. However, she doesn't order people to be killed if it isn't necessary, such as the hospital crew and bank employees. She looked pretty horrified when Rebecca horribly slaughtered all of the bank employees after the Inner Circle had what they wanted.
- Femme Fatalons: Has pretty long and dark fingernails.
- Hero Killer: Responsible for killing the Mutant Underground leadership, and directs the Purifiers to the Morlock hideout, resulting in a massacre.
- Karmic Death: Her own powers cause her demise in the end, by making Reed lose what little control he has over his own powers so that they blow up in her face.
- Leave No Witnesses: Orders a bunch of humans who came into contact with the Hellfire Club executed without a second thought.
- Manipulative Bastard: Is willing to use the Purifiers to have other mutants killed.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Causing Lorna to turn on her slowly causes the Hellfire Club's one-sided advantage over the Mutant Underground to erode: Lorna manages to feed intel back to the Underground in order to impede the Club's plans, and convinces Andy to return with her to the Underground, costing the Club two of its most powerful members.
- No Body Left Behind: Reed completely vaporizes her.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: At first she seems like the standard ruthless revolutionary. However, after it's revealed that she is working together with Benedict Ryan and has no problems whatsoever with throwing her own kind under the bus to achieve her goals, it is clear that her actions are more self-serving than anything.
- Playing Both Sides: It turns out she is trading information with Benedict Ryan in secret.
- Race Lift: The comic book version of Reeva Payge is Caucasian.
- Start of Darkness: She used to be a lot more easy-going and tolerant of humans, until her friend got murdered by a Purifier.
- Treacherous Advisor: Turns out to be lying about making a better world for mutants. She's willing to throw any other mutant under the bus to perpetuate a Human/Mutant war.
The Frost Sisters
In General
The Frost Sisters
"We can be ... very persuasive."
Portrayed by: Skyler Samuels
"Time to go, boys and girls. The fun's just starting."
Identical triplet sisters, the Cuckoos are each powerful telepaths in their own right. However they are able to combine their telepathy into a Hive Mind which grants them considerable power. Their three known members are Esme, Sophie and Phoebe.
- Acting for Two: Skyler Samuels is actually Acting for Three by playing all three of the Cuckoos. Amber Erwin and Rebecca Ray work as body doubles for the scenes where three Cuckoos are needed, with Samuel's face being digitally placed on them.
- Adaptational Name Change: Their traditional surname of Cuckoo is changed to Frost, presumably to simplify their backstory for non-comics readers. Sophie and Phoebe reportedly gave it as a fake surname while being arrested, however.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: They are clones as in the comics, but there is no mention of the person they were cloned from, which in the comics was Emma Frost, White Queen of the Hellfire Club. Given that they use the surname Frost, that may still be the case here, but the show was cancelled before any reference to or appearance by Emma.
- Adaptational Wimp: They appear unable to transform into their diamond forms. In addition to this, their combined telepathy is much weaker than that of their comics counterparts.
- Age Lift: The Cuckoos are teenagers in the comics, however they're young adult women when introduced in the series.
- Anti-Hero: Esme has no trouble manipulating everyone in her path to save her sisters, while the Three-in-One together seem quite happy to force an entire Sentinel Services squad to commit a Psychic-Assisted Suicide.
- Badass Family: Together these three sisters can decimate an entire squadron with disarming ease.
- Composite Character: Of the Stepford Cuckoos with the three Frost sisters (Emma, Adrienne and Cordelia Frost)
- Creepy Blue Eyes: Their eyes glow blue when they use their powers.
- Creepy Twins: Well, creepy triplets.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The Frost sisters are the product of cloning experiments. The man who made them was turning them into a living weapon before they escaped. In addition, there used to be five of them, but two died from a lethal failsafe measure meant to keep the group in line.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Her friendship with Lorna eventually leads Esme to break with her sisters and perform a Heel–Face Turn, joining the Mutant Underground for real in the series finale.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: One of them openly displays confusion over Thunderbird, Eclipse, and Blink passing up a chance to either capture or kill Campbell just because a group of innocent human children would've been seriously injured (or possibly killed) in the crossfire.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: When not using Voice of the Legion, the Cuckoos have a habit of passing their sentences around among each other, with one starting, one speaking in the middle, and the third completing it.
- Freudian Trio: According to Samuels, this is how the Three-in-One interact as individuals, with Esme as the Ego.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Their eyes glow blue when they use their powers. When all three Cuckoos are connected in their Hive Mind, they shine like high beams.
- Hive Mind: When working together they form a telepathic hive mind, combining their powers and making the whole exponentially more powerful than each of the sisters alone. For example, Esme by herself needed to be fairly close to anyone she controlled, and had to manipulate Sentinel Services' agents one at a time. The Three-in-One together could take on an entire group at once.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Esme is manipulative and self-centered when introduced but has reasons the mutants and audience find easy to sympathize with and her power abuse isn't so different from other desperate moves for loved ones we've seen. Then she breaks off the Mutant Underground team - who might have reservations about what she's about to do - and she and her liberated sisters kill everyone in the Sentinel Services convoy task force with Psychic-Assisted Suicide and homicide. And show no emotion about it beyond a smile.
- Manipulative Bastard: The Cuckoos tip off Sentinel services to the location of an Underground safehouse in "3x1", in order to show their main leadership just what the Hound program is capable of. Although the Inner Circle objects to the risk, their plan works.
- Meaningful Name: Much like their comics counterpart's initials spelled SPICEnote as an homage to that one music group, Esme, Sophie and Phoebe's initials spell ESP.
- Mythology Gag: Sophie and Phoebe gave their last name as "Cuckoo" to troll the cops when they were arrested. In the books the Three-In-One are known collectively as the Stepford Cuckoos.
- Shadow Archetype: To Andy and Lauren, as another example of siblings who together become exponentially powerful. Season One's Big Bad uses both sibling groups to explain his plan for combining non-related mutants' powers together.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the show, the surviving trio is Esme, Sophie and Phoebe, the deaths of Mindee and Celeste being part of their aforementioned Dark and Troubled Past. In the comics, it was Sophie and Esme who died (in unrelated incidents, both well into a period where all five had been major characters), with Celeste, Mindee and Phoebe being the trio who sticks around.
- Telepath: They can sense the thoughts of those nearby and manipulate them however they choose. When they're able to combine their powers, their abilities increase exponentially.
- Twin Telepathy: The Cuckoos are all psychically linked to one another, to the point that when her sisters were captured by Sentinel Services, Esme was physically in pain from the psychic feedback of their distress. Once the Three-in-One are reunited, their psychic powers are magnified exponentially.
- Voice of the Legion: The general effect when all three of them speak in sync.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Although their methods put them at odds with the Underground, the foremost concern of the Cuckoos is to protect mutantkind. Even the Inner Circle are put off by their methods, though they begrudgingly admit the three do get results despite the messes they make.
- Wonder Twin Powers: Individually, each is a powerful psychic. In tandem, they can force their will upon dozens of people simultaneously.
Sophie Frost
Sophie Frost
One of the three Frost Sisters, Sophie was held by Campbell as part of the Hound Program, along with her sister Phoebe, until their rescue by Esme.
- Adaptational Villainy: Sophie was the most unambiguously good of the original Five-in-One in the comics prior to them joining the X-Men. Here, like the others, she's a part of the Hellfire Club.
- Freudian Trio: As with Esme, Sophie is stated by Skyler Samuels to be part of this with Esme and Phoebe.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Sophie was the first of the original Five-In-One to be killed in the comics. In the show she's one of the three surviving Cuckoos.
Phoebe Frost
Phoebe Frost
One of the three Frost Sisters, Phoebe was held by Campbell as part of the Hound Program, along with her sister Sophie, until their rescue by Esme.
- Freudian Trio: As with Esme, Phoebe is stated by Skyler Samuels to be part of this with Esme and Sophie.
Esme Frost
Esme Frost
Esme introduces herself to the Resistance as a refugee telepath. However she is soon revealed to have an agenda of her own.
- Adaptational Heroism: The comics version of Esme was the most ruthless and cunning of the Five-In-One. This manifested through actions such as using Kick to amp up her powers and gain control over the Cuckoos' hive mind, working with Xorn, and shooting Emma with a diamond bullet. Here, she takes on what's traditionally Sophie's position as the most heroic Cuckoo and protests when Reeva intends to kill Andy. At the end of Season 2, she even pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
- Big Sister Instinct: It's yet to be established whether Esme actually is the eldest of the triplets, but regardless she'll move heaven and hell to rescue her sisters from Trask no matter the cost, and manipulates the entire Underground into giving her the opportunity to rescue them.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She appears harmless and even helped out the Mutant Underground initially, but she doesn't give a damn about any faction beyond what they can do for her sisters, and will lie and manipulate all forces to get what she wants.
- The Determinator: Esme is driven to rescue her sisters from Sentinel Services, and nearly falls into a Heroic BSoD when the first attempt fails after Turner successfully pieces together the Underground's plan to carry out a raid of Trask Industries.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Surprisingly, in Season 2 she shows concerns over Reeva's ruthless decisions several times, something her sisters mock her for.
- Freudian Trio: Esme is stated to be the Ego by Skyler Samuels.
- Heel–Face Turn: After a whole season of being the most reluctantly villainous of the Frost sisters, Lorna finally manages to convince her in the season finale that she is acting no different than the people who mistreated her.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: She pretends to be capable of just reading thoughts when she can actually control the minds of others.
- Manipulative Bastard: When she's first "rescued" by the Underground, she ingratiates herself by exposing a Hound infiltrating the group of refugees. She then dips into the memories of the members of the Mutant Underground to know how to push them in the direction she wants, gets the Struckers to try negotiating with Jace then plays them up as the bad guys when they pursue her suggestion, and then tazes Marcos as soon as she's close enough to induce the massacre of the Sentinel Services agents.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Esme plays along with the Underground, but her loyalty is ultimately only to her sisters, and she will manipulate anyone she has to in order to achieve her goals.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Esme in the comics was part of the original Five-in-One, but was also the second to die and was never part of the final Three-in-One. Here, she's one of the surviving Three.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Esme receives much more screentime and character development than either of her siblings, who are pretty much interchangeable.
- Underestimating Badassery: Because of her youth and the non-physical nature of her power, Esme was grossly underestimated, with one of the main undergrounders even dismissing her as "she's just a kid". This comes back to bite EVERYONE in the ass.
New members
Sage
Sage
Portrayed by: Hayley Lovitt
An ex-member of the underground mutant network and the resident technician. Joins the Hellfire Club in the Season 1 finale.
- Awesome by Analysis: She is called Math girl by Andy, as she calculates odds and can mentally interact with computers.
- Blessed with Suck: Her thoughts are in binary, which makes her immune to telepathy. This would be considered a major asset in any situation except for the one where it actually comes into play: when Esme tries to probe her mind to determine whether she's telling the truth when she's attempting to defend herself from accusations of betrayal following the security breach that led to Max's death. At this point Reeva loses her patience and murders Sage.
- Face–Heel Turn: Ends up joining the Hellfire Club in the Season 1 finale.
- Frame-Up: Victim of an accidental one via Polaris's hacking, which couldn't be traced back to the latter.
- Immune to Mind Control: Due to her mind working like a computer, telepaths are only able to read ones and zeros out of her mind.
- Immunity Disability: This proves to be her doom, as she can't convince Reeva and the Frost sisters of her innocence.
- Killed Off for Real: Killed by Reeva when she is suspected of running through the security footage and exposing Max's location, resulting in the latter's demise.
- Mythology Gag: There are stickers of the United Kingdom flag on her computer, referencing one of her aliases in the comics, Britannia.
- Never Tell Me the Odds!: She says that there is chance of over 80% for the mission to rescue Reed and Lorna to fail. She is naturally proven wrong.
- Photographic Memory: One subset of her powers is eidetic memory.
- Technopath: She has the ability to mentally interact with computers.
Tex/Fade
Tex/Fade
Portrayed by: Jeff Daniel Phillips
An ex-contact of the Mutant Underground. He's a bartender. Joins the Hellfire Club in the Season 1 finale
- Adaptation Name Change: In the comics, the only mutant employing the Fade alias is called DiLorenzo.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the comics, Fade is a crime lord.
- Face–Heel Turn: Ends up joining the Hellfire Club in the Season 1 finale.
- Invisibility: His power, which cloaks himself and whatever's he's touching, hiding it not only from sight but masking sound, as well.
- Killed Off for Real: Caitlin shoots him in the Season 2 finale, after he takes Reed in a headlock.
- Properly Paranoid: Was initially suspicious of Reed just turning up at his bar while being hunted and he was right to be, as he was ordered to lead Turner to the Mutant Underground.
- The Resenter: He gets very pissed when he meets Reed again at the hideout, even getting into a fight with him. Thankfully, he is later convinced that he is on their side. Though that seems to change again later on.
Mark/Bulk
Mark/Bulk
Portrayed by: Renes Rivera
An ex-member of the Mutant Underground with superhuman strength. Joins the Hellfire Club in the Season 1 finale.
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: He's the series' version of Mark Hallett, a.k.a. Sunder (of the Morlocks), but his codename is yet to be mentioned. As of Season 2, he is named Bulk.
- Face–Heel Turn: Ends up joining the Hellfire Club in the Season 1 finale.
- Karma Houdini: Apparently makes it out unscathed in the Season 2 finale.
- Out of Focus: Only appears in a few scenes in a minor role.
- Super-Strength: His power.
Rebecca/Twist
Twist
Portrayed by: Anjelica Bette Fellini
A powerful mutant rescued by the Hellfire Club from a mental hospital where she was tortured.
- Ax-Crazy: Beneath her cheerful facade, she is seriously disturbed and dangerous.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: To Andy, who was the only person to show her kindness.
- Body Horror: She is able to turn things inside out. Yes, it works on people; no, she is not shy about using it this way!
- Big Damn Kiss: Rebecca and Andy share one after he manages to connect with her.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Her parents call Sentinel Services on her. She kills them before the collar takes its full effect on her.
- Gone Horribly Right: Andy gets her to focus her powers by concentrating on her traumas. This has massive consequences, as she flips out on a captive who calls mutants monsters and twists everything, and everyone, in the room from the outside, leaving nothing but their bloody remains. And later, after being freed from Reeva's confinement, she proceeds against Andy's protests to get revenge by attempting to kill not just Reeva but everyone else in the meeting room, forcing Andy to intercept her, accidentally killing her when his blast causes her neck to snap against one of the wall corners.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Andy takes great offense to the Frost sisters constantly referring to Rebecca as a weapon instead of treating her like a person. This attitude ultimately allows him to bring her out of her shell, getting their plans back on track.
- Killed Off for Real: Her attempts at getting revenge on the Inner Circle for locking her up in yet another isolation cell ends with Andy rushing to their defense. Unfortunately, Andy accidentally breaks her neck to save the Inner Circle.
- Mind over Matter: Rebecca has the power to twist objects relative to their axes. This can involve turning an object around horizontally or vertically, or turning it inside-out.
- Self-Made Orphan: She killed her parents after they sold her out.
- Space Master: Her power works, per her description, through pushing objects on a separate axis than other telekinetics, which allows her to twist objects inside out or invert their position relative to their surroundings.
- The Sociopath: Turns an entire room of people inside out and her only reaction is to smile. Her ruthlessness scares even Big Bad Reeva.
- Troubled Teen: Her disturbed mentality was kicked off by her parents effectively disowning her when they sold her out to Sentinel Services, and then later being tortured in a mental facility.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She may have been completely unhinged and too powerful to not keep in check, but she had been sold out by her parents, tortured in a mental institution, and seen as little more than a chess piece by her leader, with only one person who cared for her. Too bad she had such a short fuse and a dangerous power.
Max, Heather and Tico
Max, Heather and Tico
Three convicted mutant hitmen and mass murderers, freed by the Inner Circle.
- Karma Houdini: Heather and Tico apparently make it out alive and well in the Season 2 finale.
- Killed Off for Real: Max, during a confrontation with Marcos.
- Terrible Trio: A trio of mass murderers who use their powers in conjunction.
Sentinel Services
In General
An organization charged with apprehending mutant fugitives. They operate independently from conventional law enforcement.
- Big Bad Ensemble: They serve as the main human antagonistic force in Season 1.
- The Dreaded: The Underground worries over regular law enforcement as it is, but learning that Sentinel Services has become involved raises the bar even further.
- Meaningful Name: Their name abbreviates to "SS." And their actions very much fit the metaphor.
- Mythology Gag: Their name comes from the infamous giant murder-bots that have long been mainstays of the X-Men mythos.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: It's really hard to feel bad for them when the Frost Sisters unleash their combined telepathy on them, forcing many of their agents to commit Psychic-Assisted Suicide.
- State Sec: Ostensibly subject to the Department of Justice to manage mutant attacks, but they are extremely well-armed and equipped, often sporting military-grade equipment. They also have the authority to co-opt local police.
- Unperson: Hinted to be the fate of mutants who wind up in their hands; rather than a very likely short life in prison, those in the custody of Sentinel Services simply disappear, never to be seen again.
Ed Weeks
Agent Ed Weeks
Portrayed by: Jesse O Neill
Turner's partner at Sentinel Services.
- Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: He interrogates Reed's mother in a very investigative and agressive way, which is shown to Reed to make him comply.
- Number Two: Turner has authority over Weeks, giving orders for him to carry out during missions.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: He's made to shoot himself from below the jaw by Esme.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: As Turner becomes more extreme, Weeks expresses his reservations that he's going too far.
Gus/Pulse
Gus/Pulse
Portrayed by: Zach Roerig
A former member of the Mutant Underground, apparently killed on a rescue mission years back, but turned out to be brainwashed into a loyal agent of Sentinel Services.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: He doesn't even speak, let alone recognize his old friend John.
- Dying as Yourself: He regains his sense of self in his final moments, apologizing to John for what he's done.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Gains these quite noticeably when his abilities are active.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: He helps hunting his own kind down and keeps their powers in check.
- Power Nullifier: His power is to shut down systems, and he can also shut down mutant powers.
- Token Super: Seemingly the only mutant in the ranks of Sentinel Services. He's evidently the beta-run for the Hound Program, as Sentinel Services starts deploying more of them when Campbell manages to work out a deal with Jace.
Trask Industries
Roderick Campbell
Dr. Roderick Campbell
Click here to see him scarred
Portrayed by: Garret Dillahunt
A researcher into mutation and collaborator of Sentinel Services with his own agenda.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: By a very minor degree. He's still a sociopath in the series, but he treats his actions as a necessary evil as opposed to the sadistic tendencies he had in the comics.
- Adaptational Wimp: While Ahab never quite rose to mainstream X Men villainy, being the Arch-Enemy of Rachel Gray meant that he was always considerably more powerful than the great majority of X Men villains in terms of raw power and he was always treated as a dangerous player anytime he appeared as a hunter. This version of Roderick lacks any of the Psychic Powers he had in the comics that made him so dangerous.
- Asshole Victim: Is killed by Polaris in a plane crash.
- Beard of Evil: He later shaves it after his face is scarred.
- Big Bad: Takes over as this for the first Season as soon as Jace goes to him for help, providing him with the means to continue the hunt for the Mutant Underground after being taken off the case and even going so far as to giving a Department of Justice officer a stroke to proceed with the operation.
- Dehumanization: Repeatedly labels mutants in degrading ways like assets or animals.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: As many fans pointed out, Dr. Campbell's obsession with experimenting on siblings and pairs heavily resembles Dr. Menegele, the infamous Angel of Death.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's revealed that he had a brother with cystic fibrosis who he cared for.
- Faux Affably Evil: Acts friendly and social, but it's clear that this is nothing but a veneer for the ice-cold sociopath underneath.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Gets a rather nasty burn on his face after getting caught in Otto Strucker's blast.
- Hate Sink: Hated in and out of universe.
- Hero Killer: Kills Dreamer to get the Strucker children to cooperate.
- Jerkass: In SPADES.
- Kick the Dog: Killing Sonya in cold blood just to get the Strucker children to cooperate.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: He wants to research the Strucker children and is willing to offer Jace whatever resources he needs as long as he can gets his hands on them. Jace refuses on legal grounds at first. Later on, he shoots Dreamer in cold blood after the Strucker siblings refuse to cooperate with his tests.
- Necessarily Evil: He's aware that the Hound program is inhumane, but compares it to using the Atom Bomb on Japan to end World War II.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: What he does to the Hounds is horrible, and even hardened agents like Turner are creeped out by this.
- Two-Faced: After being attacked by Otto Strucker, he gets a nasty burn scar on the right side of his face, which visually emphazies how evil he is.
Hounds
Hounds
Mutants brainwashed by Roderick Campbell to hunt down other mutants
- Addled Addict: Part of Campbell's brainwashing them involves keeping them addicted to Kick. They're so dependent on the drug that withdrawal is fatal.
- And I Must Scream: Their mental conditioning leaves them unable to reveal intel, regardless of how much they want to.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Hounds' conditioning resembles how real-life pimps keep their victims under control, specifically the use of forced drug additions to break their will.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: They are mutants brainwashed to hunt and kill other mutants.
- Manchurian Agent: Conditioned into infiltrating the enemy undetected, without them even knowing what they really are until they get the signal to attack.
The Guerra Cartel
Carmen Guerra
Carmen Guerra
Portrayed by: Michelle Veintimilla
The current leader of the resident drug cartel and former lover of Marcos.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: She used to be afraid of her father hurting people and tried to make him stop. But now, as the leader of the Cartel, she isn't doing it any differently.
- Deal with the Devil: Marcos makes a deal with her in order to get information on Lorna's prison transport. In exchange, he's at her beck-and-call for blowing up the drug shipment of a rival gang.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Has no problems in employing mutants to work for her.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Guerra" is Spanish for "War".
- Working with the Ex: Or rather, she forces Marcos to work with her.
Lodo
Lodo
Portrayed by: Bob Jennings
Carmen's mutant lackey.
- Bald of Evil: Not a single hair on his head.
- The Dragon: To Carmen.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He gets some nasty facial scarring.
- The Paralyzer: Has the ability to freeze people in place, seemingly unaware of what's going on until they're released.
The Purifiers
In General
An anti-mutant hate group.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the comics, the Purifiers have paramiltiary training and hunt down mutants to kill them. In the series, they are no less hateful, but resort to harassment. In Season 2, they are presented as closer to their comic book counterparts, but are still not nearly as organized and trained.
- Big Bad Ensemble: They eventually replace Sentinel Services as the main human antagonistic force in Season 2.
- Composite Character: The Adaptational Wimp trope makes them more similar to the Friends of Humanity in the X-Men: The Animated Series from the '90s.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: People of all races are present at their hate group meetings.
- Kick the Dog: They tag Blink's car with "Mutant" then light it on fire.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: At a meeting they use the Nazi slogan "they will not replace us", appropriately enough.
- With Us or Against Us: Some members are willing to kill humans that allied themselves with mutants. But the more rational-minded members tell them that will only turn the public against the Purifiers.
Officer Ted Wilson
Ted Wilson
Portrayed by: Tom O'Keefe
A Police Officer at the Metropolitan Police Department and secretly the leader of a Purifiers cell in Washington, D.C.
- The Bad Guys Are Cops: Well an individual cop, but he is the leader of the local branch of Purifiers.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He gets to be the first example of what Reed's Make Them Rot power does to living flesh. It is not a pretty sight.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Is an anti-mutant bigot and antagonist.
- Rabble Rouser: He makes a speech against mutants at the Purifier assembly and wants to organize a counter-protest against the mutant groups emboldened by the attack on the hospital.
Jace Turner
(Former) Agent Jace Turner
Portrayed by: Coby Bell
"We have you surrounded. Anyone in the Mutant Underground who wishes to surrender will not be harmed. You'll be handed over to the proper authorities."
A high-ranking agent of Sentinel Services who gets dispatched to capture the Struckers. He's also trying to bring down the Mutant Underground. After being fed up with all the red tape, he quits and tries to retire. But in Season 2, he realizes that he can't let go of his obsession and joins the Purifiers.
- Ambiguously Evil: It's clear that especially from a mutant POV, Sentinel Services is bad news and disappears people on a regular basis. It's also clear that society at large treats mutants as akin to terrorists (Andy's incident at the school is straight up reported as though it had been an intentional attack on children, when it was just a kid lashing out against bullies with powers he hadn't known he had), and most would consider Turner a hero. He loses all ambiguity by Season 2.
- Bald of Evil: Or Bald of Ambiguously Evil maybe.
- Distressed Dude: Gets kidnapped by Marcos and Lorna in order to get him to reveal what Sentinel Services did to Pulse. Dreamer accidentally makes him forget about the death of his daughter while probing his mind.
- Expy: His backstory is similar to the latest X-Cutioner
, who also lost a child in a similar manner. - Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He tells Kate that he has children too. His daughter was killed by a mutant.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Possible example of this, or possibly just him being an Inspector Javert: he isn't at all comfortable with the idea of his prisoners being taken by "contractors". After his Mind Rape, he changes his mind about it. However, he is still appalled by Dr. Campbell's methods of getting what he wants, and argues against it.
- In Season 2, he joins the Purifiers, but never fully embraces their brand of Fantastic Racism and actively attempts to steer the group away from the more extreme methods that they are typically known for. After leading a Purifier raid into the Morlock tunnels, he is visibly shaken upon discovering that the Morlocks are not the cell of mutant terrorists that the Purifiers leadership had intentionally misled him to believe, but a group consisting largely of innocent mutant civilians (including children as young as his own daughter was).
- Freudian Excuse: His daughter was killed in the crossfire of a battle between the X-Men and the Brotherhood.
- Get It Over With: Tells John to kill him after being on the receiving end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, wishing to be with his daughter. He gets spared however.
- The Heavy: Overall, he is the most recurring enemy of the Underground.
- In Season 1 he is not really the Big Bad, since he is just one of many goverment officials after all, but he is left in charge of bringing down the Mutant Underground, and he's definitely the most fleshed out Sentinel Services agent.
- In Season 2, he joins the Purifiers after previously quitting Sentinel Services, staying a thorn in the side of the Underground.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Every time he's given reason to reconsider how callous to mutant rights he's being and actually treat them like people, circumstances arise that justify stronger conviction.
- Inspector Javert: His job is to arrest mutants who break the law, even if they did so through no fault of their own. He's willing to take children from their parents and harass Reed's family if he thinks it will lead him to a bigger arrest. After losing Polaris, he's determined to target every associate of the Mutant Underground network, regardless of how loose their connection might be.
- It's Personal: He makes it clear to Dreamer in no uncertain terms that he's not hunting the Underground because of law and order, but because of this.
- Jerkass: He has a bit of a chip on his shoulder, especially with mutants. Escalates after accidentally being forced to forget and then relive the grief of his daughter's death.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: While his daughter's death has always been a factor in his actions, he always acted lawfully and acted within the proper procedures. After getting Mind Raped by Dreamer, he only cares about winning no matter whose rights he has to step on, even selling out criminal information to what he once denounced as a private contractor and tapping into phones without a warrant. When the latter is pointed out to him, he yells at the man who did it.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: He's shown to be a competent and determined tactical commander in "eXit strategy." He's also not particularly afraid of mutant powers, pursuing the Struckers after both kids use them. However, once Polaris gets loose and takes the guns away from him and his men, he immediately orders a full-scale retreat.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: He ends up forgetting his daughter's death thanks to an interrupted mind probe by Dreamer.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Even in Season 2, after joining the Purifiers, he is shown to have more standards than his trigger-happy compatriots, arguing for the incarceration of the Underground instead of killing them all.
- Married to the Job: In Season 2, he is retired, but has some serious troubles letting his vendetta against the Mutant Underground go, something his wife calls him out on. It eventually leads to his wife divorcing him when he simply can't let the issue go.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After a conversation with the Struckers and additional motivation from his wife, he really seems to think about his actions and actually gets the mutant prisoners out of Trask Industries...only to see all of his men brutally slaughtered by Esme, which only strengthens his hatred towards mutants.
- Punch-Clock Villain: He's much calmer and less violent than most anti-mutant government employees, including his partner. While he is very firm that he will be taking the mutants in over the objections of their mother, he also attempts to negotiate with her and convince her that it's for their own protection. He even sympathizes with Reed choosing his family over his job. Veers far away from this later in the season, when he allies himself with Campbell; tells Sonya he doesn't care if she's sorry, he just wants her to suffer for what she did to him; and launches an assault on the Mutant Underground, intending to use lethal force on everyone inside the building. He also becomes more of a workaholic as time goes on, even after quitting Sentinel Services in frustration; his Catchphrase to his wife is "When the job's done", which she eventually lampshades as "The job will never be done" before divorcing him.
- Smug Snake: He tends to talk like a sarcastic jerkass whenever he thinks he has the upper hand on someone. His veneer of arrogance is shattered whenever his plans are foiled.
- Villainous Breakdown: First when Reed abandons his mission of leading him to the Mutant Underground, and then a major one after Reed and Lorna escape captivity. And he really loses it when Dreamer inadvertently forces him to experience learning about his daughter's death all over again, openly telling his team he doesn't care about following the law while bringing the group in.
- Villain with Good Publicity: His input to the Purifiers is leading them to gain good will by reducing collateral damage and more effectively targeting mutants without having to handle red tape.
- Would Hit a Girl: Has no problems with violently pushing Kate to the ground.
- Would Hurt a Child: And no problems with ordering fire on the Strucker kids either.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Turner (and Sentinel Services) are quite comfortable and effective with a law enforcement-type approach to the Mutant Underground, most of whose powers are only annoying or weak. There's a lethal blindspot that there may still be X-Man-grade mutants capable of true weaponized mass destruction, which is exactly where Season 1 goes. Esme and her sisters finally bring this home to him by murdering his entire team including his partner Ed at will.
Benedict Ryan
Benedict Ryan
Portrayed by: Peter Gallagher
A popular TV news host, an anti-mutant advocate and secretly a big supporter of the Purifiers.- Big Bad Duumvirate: He and Reeva are working together towards their mutual goal of escalating the conflict between mutants and humans.
- Engineered Public Confession: Esme forces him to confess his crimes at the end of the Season 2 finale.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: From a washed up radio host to America's top TV Anti-Mutant show host
- Pompous Political Pundit: Acts as this on his news show, supporting the Anti-Mutant cause.
- Rabble Rouser: A hate mongering host who constantly rallies his listeners against mutants.
